“So you decided to take it upon yourself to play the judge, jury, and executioner?” I grabbed at the door handles, but I knew it was pointless. The backseat of cruisers couldn’t be opened from the inside. “Why the fucking P.T. Barnum gags? The bricks, the mermaid, Jefferson… you killed your own partner!”
Brigg’s smile had disappeared. “Justice is absolute. And a corrupt cop I’ll proudly take out.”
Oh. The. Irony.
“And what did he do to deserve being shot and dressed like a joke from Barnum’s museum?”
“Took bribes.”
I tried the fucking doors again, more desperately.
“My great-great-grandfather was one of the firemen who went to Barnum’s museum. He had been rescuing the staff and actors inside—saved a few artifacts as well. Never knew what to do with all that junk until I met you,” Brigg said in a thoughtful, almost dreamy tone. “But it’s like all the stuff in your store. Right up your alley, isn’t it? Kept you coming back for more.”
I looked around the backseat for something,anything, to help me in this situation. But it was empty. A safe place to keep a handcuffed suspect. Or a sleuth you planned on sending out for a swim and not coming back with.
“Lowry helped you do all this, then?” I asked. What else could I do but keep her talking? “He met with Luther and Ben, right?”
“Sure. Once, like I’m certain they both claimed. But it was too difficult working with a man who’d rather have a few hundred bucks over helping me realize a greater good.”
“I thought it was Neil,” I whispered. “I was so convinced it was him….”
“I don’t have to know forensics to understand how to dismantle a security alarm and get around two poorly placed cameras,” Brigg pointed out.
“But knowing where I lived? Where Cal—Winter lives?”
“I followed you.”
“And the bricks?”
“What about them?”
“Why Buffalo Block bricks?” I shook my head. “I never understood.”
“I figured the best way to draw out your curiosity was an antique. You can really buy anything on the Internet these days. Two hundred antique bricks for fifty bucks.” She looked in the mirror again. “Anyway. It hooked you, didn’t it? Just like Barnum hooked ’em with bricks.”
“You nearly blew me up before your fucking game even started!” I screamed.
Brigg’s expression got dark. “Sit back and behave, Mr. Snow.”
She drove a few minutes longer in silence, eventually finding a place to park alongside the East River Greenway. Brigg shut off the car, took the keys from the ignition, and turned in her seat. “Let me make it clear. Lowry made the bomb. Useless fuck. It wasn’t supposed to take the building down—just be enough to start the fire and dispose of his body. At least you survived, hmm?”
I didn’t want to get out of the car. If I got out, I wasn’t going to make it home alive.
I knew that.
Brigg knew that.
I had to stall. I had to keep right where I was until someone came by who I could scream to for help.
But a quick glance out the window told me that wasn’t likely to happen. In this bitterly cold rain and wind, right by the river? The walk was empty, even during the late morning.
Brigg opened her door and got out. She adjusted her cap and belt with an unreasonable sense of calm before opening my door. “Come on out, Mr. Snow.”
I didn’t move.
She sighed, removed the pistol from her side, and pointed it directly at me. “Out,” she said again.
Every nerve in my body screamed at me to run as I climbed out.Turn and bolt down the boardwalk as fast as your fucking legs can!But I wasn’t Superman. I wasn’t going to outrun a bullet.
