Lethal Legacy Read Free

not department gear,” Mike said. “It’s a
gas mask. Military style.”
    It was a black rubber helmet, with two holes for
the eyes, and a broad snoutlike respirator that would fit over the mouth, with
a long hose attached.
    “Couldn’t see a damn thing,” Billy said. “It
covered his entire face.”
    “What did the cops do?” Mike asked.
    “I led them down to the basement. They knocked on
Tina’s door and one of them identified himself, said they were police. That’s
when she started yelling at them to leave her alone. I mean screaming at them.
Freaked out. Sounded like she collapsed—maybe fell onto the floor—crying the
whole time.”
    “What makes you think she’s alone in there?”
    “We’re guessing,” Mercer said. “She’s the only one
to make a sound—no scuffling, no struggling, no other voices. But that’s
another reason ESU won’t leave.”
    Mike prodded my side with his fingers as we
started up the front steps. I went back in the vestibule toward the basement
staircase.
    “One of the cops told Tina he just wanted to make
sure that the fire hadn’t affected her,” Billy said, drawing a handkerchief
from his pocket to wipe his smoke-fogged glasses. “Asked her if she could stand
up and look through the peephole at his badge, for identification. She went
wild.”
    “What do you mean?” Mike asked.
    “Tina screamed at the cop. Told him that’s how the
guy got in. The fireman. That he showed her his badge and she opened the door.”
    “It was the fireman who was inside her apartment?
You knew, Coop?”
    “That’s why Mercer called me. We don’t know who
the man was, why he was using such an elaborate disguise, why he went inside,
and what he did to this woman. Okay? Don’t come any closer, Mike. Let me talk
to her.”
    I walked the short corridor to the rear of the
hallway, glass crunching under the soles of my shoes.
    “Tina? It’s Alex Cooper. We’re all still here. The
police officers won’t leave until I convince them that you’re unharmed. I’ll
keep them outside the building if you’ll let me in for just a few minutes.”
    “I’d rank that a toss-up,” Mike said. “Ten minutes
with you or the quick punch of a battering ram? Tough call.”
    “You think this helps? You think she can’t hear
you?” I threw up my arms in frustration as I turned to Mike. “Mercer, please
take him upstairs.”
    The men marched back to the first floor as I made
another attempt to persuade Tina Barr to let me in.
    “I’m the only one in the basement now, Tina. The
men are all outside. I don’t want them to break down your door any more than
you do. But they’re worried that you’ve been injured. There was a lot of smoke
down here. Can you just tell me if you’re hurt?”
    There was no answer for more than a minute. Then a
soft voice spoke a word or two, which sounded as though the woman was still
sitting or lying on the floor inside. I couldn’t understand her, so I crouched
beside the door and put my ear against it.
    “Sorry. What did you say?”
    “Not hurt. I’ll be okay.”
    She spoke haltingly, her words caught in her
throat.
    “Tina, are you having trouble breathing?”
    No answer.
    “We can give you oxygen, Tina. Is it the smoke? Is
there still smoke in your apartment?”
    “No.”
    “The man who was dressed like a fireman, did you
let him come into your apartment?”
    She was crying again as she tried to speak. “No,
no, I didn’t let him in.”
    “But you told the police officer that—”
    “I only opened the door because he showed me a
gold badge and told me there was a fire. I could smell the smoke and then saw
it. I believed him.” Tina Barr’s words came out phrase by phrase, embedded in
sobs. “He forced his way inside. I didn’t let him in.”
    “You can trust us, Tina. Now you know that man
wasn’t actually a fireman. His badge wasn’t real.” Mercer had already checked
that with the department and had been telling that to Barr before I got