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I startled but raised my hands, looking over my shoulder and back down the hall into the kitchen. Two men in civilian clothes with police badges on lanyards around their necks were aiming pistols at me.
Chapter
6
“On your knees,” barked the taller and younger of the two, a lean, ropy African American in his early thirties.
The other plainclothes cop was Caucasian, fifties, a pasty, pock-faced man with a hank of dyed brown hair and a mopey face.
“What’s going on?” I said, not moving. “Detectives?”
“You are breaking and entering a good friend of mine’s house,” the African American cop said.
“This house belongs to Connie Lou Parks, my aunt, who let me in and who rents it to her daughter, my cousin Karen, and, I would guess, to your friend Pete,” I said. “I used to live here when I was a kid, and by the way, I’m a cop too.”
“Sure you are,” said the older one.
“Can I show you my creds?”
“Careful,” he said.
I reached to push back my jacket, revealing the shoulder holster.
“Gun!” the African American officer shouted, and he and his partner dropped into a combat crouch.
I thought for sure they were going to shoot me if I tried to get my ID, so I eased my hand away, saying, “Of course I’ve got a gun. I am a homicide detective with the Washington, DC, police department. And in fact, I have two guns on me. In addition to the Glock forty, I have a small nine-millimeter Ruger LC9 strapped to my right ankle.”
“Name?” the older cop demanded.
“Alex Cross. You?”
“Detectives Frost and Carmichael. I’m Frost,” he said as he and his partner straightened up. “So here’s what you are going to do, Alex Cross. Strip the jacket, right sleeve first, and toss it here.”
There was no sense in arguing, so I did as he asked and threw my light sports jacket down the hallway.
“Cover me, Carmichael,” the older cop said, and he crouched so his partner could keep me squarely in his field of fire.
They were conducting themselves by the book. They didn’t know me from Adam, and they were handling the situation the way any veteran cop back in DC, including me, would have handled it.
When Frost got to my jacket, I said, “Left breast pocket.”
He squinted at me as he backed up a few feet, still in that crouch, and fished out the folder with my badge and ID.
“Drop your gun, Lou,” Frost said. “He’s who he says he is. Dr. Alex Cross, DC homicide.”
Carmichael hesitated, then lowered his weapon slightly and demanded, “You have a license to carry concealed in the state of North Carolina, Dr. Cross?”
“I have a federal carry license,” I said. “I used to be FBI. It’s in there, behind the ID.”
Frost found it and nodded to his partner.
Carmichael looked irritated, but he holstered his weapon. Frost did the same, then picked up my jacket, dusted it off, and handed it to me, along with my credentials.
“Mind telling us what you’re doing here?” Carmichael asked.
“I’m looking into Stefan Tate’s case. He’s my cousin.”
Carmichael went stony. Frost looked like some bitterness had crawled up the back of his throat.
