Without remorse - Tom Clancy [325]
'Yo, hold up there, sport.' The figure kept moving, slowly, unevenly. Maybe a public-drunkenness arrest in the making, more likely a street person whose brain was permanently impaired by long nights of guzzling the cheap stuff. Monroe slid his baton into the ring holder and walked quickly to catch up. It was only a fifty-foot walk, but it was like the poor old bastard was deaf or something, he didn't even hear the click of his leather heels on the sidewalk. His hand came down on the bum's shoulder. 'I said hold up, now.'
Physical contact changed everything. This shoulder was firm and strong - and tense. Monroe simply wasn't ready for it, too tired, too bored, too comfortable, too sure of what he'd seen, and though his brain immediately shouted the Invisible Man, his body was not ready for action. That wasn't true of the bum. Almost before his hand came down, he saw the world rotate wildly from low-right to high-left, showing him a sky and then the sidewalk and then the sky again, but this time his view of the stars was interrupted by a pistol.
'Why couldn't you have just stayed in your fuckin' car?' the man asked angrily.
'Who -'
'Quiet!' The pistol against his forehead ensured that, almost. It was the surgical gloves that gave him away and forced the officer to speak.
'Jesus.' It was a respectful whisper. 'You're him.'
'Yes, I am. Now, what the hell do I do about you?' Kelly asked.
'I ain't gonna beg.' The man's name was Monroe, Kelly saw from the name tag. He didn't seem like the sort for begging.
'You don't have to. Roll over - now!' The policeman did so, with a little help. Kelly pulled the cuffs off his belt and secured them to both wrists. 'Relax, Officer Monroe.'
'What do you mean?' The man kept his voice even, earning his captor's admiration.
'I mean I'm not going to kill any cops,' Kelly stood him up and started walking him back to the car.
'This doesn't change anything, sport,' Monroe told him, careful to keep his voice low.
'Tell me about it. Where do you keep your keys?'
'Right side pocket.'
'Thank you;' Kelly took them as he put the officer in the back seat of the car. There was a screen there to keep arrested passengers from annoying the driver. He quickly started the patrol car and parked it in an alley. 'Your hands okay, not too tight on the cuffs?'
'Yeah, I'm just fuckin' fine back here.' The cop was shaking now, mainly rage, Kelly figured. That was understandable.
'Settle down. I don't want you to get hurt. I'll lock the car. Keys'll be in a sewer somewhere.'
'Am I supposed to thank you or something?' Monroe said.
'I didn't ask for that, did I?' Kelly had an overwhelming urge to apologize for embarrassing the man. 'You made it easy for me. Next time be more careful, Officer Monroe.'
His own release of tension almost evoked a laugh as he walked away quickly to the rear. Thank God, he thought, heading west again, but not for everything. They're still rousting drunks. He'd hoped that they'd gotten bored with it in the past month. One more complication. Kelly kept to the shadows and alleys as much as possible.
It was a storefront, just as Billy had told him and Burt had confirmed, an out-of-business store with vacant houses to the left and right. Such talkative people, under the proper circumstances. Kelly looked at it from across the street. Despite the vacant ground level, there was a light on upstairs. The front door, he could see, was secured with a large brass lock. The back one, too, probably. Well, he could do this one the hard way ... or the other hard way. There was a clock ticking. Those cops had to have a regular reporting system. Even if not, sooner or later Monroe would be sent a call to get somebody's kitten out of a tree, and real quick his sergeant would start wondering where