Animal Instinct by Rosenfelt, David (novels for students TXT) 📕

into the phone company computers and monitor who Kline calls, especially in the period right after we confront him.

It’s illegal, which troubles me greatly. Andy is always fine with it; Laurie somewhat less so. Their argument is that if it ever got into court, we could subpoena the same records legally; this just gives us a needed head start. I’ve reluctantly gone along with it in the past, and I’m sure I will cave again in this instance.

I nod. “Okay, thanks. I’m looking forward to meeting Mr. Kline again.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No. I can handle it.”

“You shouldn’t be alone; there’s no telling what might happen.”

“I won’t be alone; I’ll have Simon with me. If you’re there when I beat the shit out of him, it will make me self-conscious. It’s a guy thing.”

“I know you’re kidding. You are kidding, right?”

“I am. Mostly.”

Laurie calls Sam first, and before she can give him the new assignment, he says he wants to come over and give a report on where he is now. In the meantime, I go home to get Simon.

I’ve been feeling guilty leaving him alone so much; he’s not used to it. He’s a working dog who loved his job, and I don’t think this partial retirement is coming easy for him.

I’ve thought about getting him a friend, and I’ve notified the K-9 department that if any dogs reach retirement age, and their handlers don’t want them, then I would take them. I doubt it will happen; most handlers feel about their dogs like I feel about Simon. Giving him up was and is completely inconceivable.

I get Simon and go back to Laurie’s. When we pull up to the house, Simon perks up immediately. He knows this is where Tara lives. Simon needs a friend.

Sam is already here and talking with Laurie. “What did I miss?” I ask.

“Sam was just telling me that the Mets stink. It was fascinating.”

“Is that the highlight of your report, Sam?”

He nods. “Pretty much. I’ve looked in to Stanley and Katherine Branstetter, the other two people shot the night Lisa Yates was killed. By the way, they’re both out of the hospital.

“They live in New City, up in Rockland County, and they own and operate Kate’s Diner in Spring Valley. No criminal record, no obvious associations with people we would be interested in, and they have a net worth of seven hundred thousand, most of which is their house.

“They have two kids, both have graduated college and are currently living out of state. There is nothing I can find about the Branstetter family that would make them a likely target of a hit man.”

“On the surface, the same thing would be true for Lisa Yates,” Laurie says, and Sam nods his agreement.

“So we’re back where we were,” I say. “I confront Kline, we rattle his cage, and we see what happens. Sam, I’m going to meet with Kline. We’ll want to know who he calls, if anyone, in the twenty-four hours after that meeting. Can you do that?”

“Of course. Laurie already told me about it.”

“How will you get his phone numbers?”

“Duh,” Sam says, as Laurie smiles.

“Okay. I don’t want to know anyway. As soon as Marcus figures out the best time and place, we do it.”

I hate waiting, which is among the reasons why I like Marcus.

There is nothing casual about Marcus when he gets an assignment; he does it and moves on to the next thing.

He has quickly come up with a time and place for me to confront Kline. Like Laurie, he also offers to come with me. There is no doubt that five minutes in a room with Marcus would make Kline confess to killing Lisa Yates. He would also confess to the Kennedy assassination, the Lindbergh kidnapping, and the sinking of the Lusitania.

I probably would also.

But I decline Marcus’s participation, just as I declined Laurie’s. I’m sure they are waiting for me to call if there’s an emergency, and they’re probably stationed nearby. That’s what I would do if the roles were reversed; it’s what teammates do.

But I sized Kline up that night at Lisa Yates’s house; he does not represent a threat to me. If I can’t handle him, I shouldn’t just be retired. I should be in a retirement home.

Marcus suggested I wait at Kline’s house for him. For the last two nights he has left his office in Fort Lee, gone to a bar/restaurant near his office for dinner and a couple of drinks, and then driven to his Ridgewood home.

He has been considerate enough to live in an upscale neighborhood, with good distance separating him from his nearest neighbors. It’s also dark; apparently rich people don’t like streetlights.

I park down the block from Kline’s house, and Simon and I walk toward it and then up his fairly long driveway. We won’t be seen from the street, and Kline will have no idea we are here. He’ll find out soon enough.

Kline arrives ten minutes earlier than Marcus predicted. He parks in the detached garage, and Simon and I are waiting for him when he exits and heads for the house. A floodlight is on, obviously triggered by a motion detector.

“Hello, Gerald.”

He just about jumps out of his skin, letting out some guttural noise, and his knees actually seem to buckle. When he gets control, he says, “Who are you? What’s going on? I have nothing worth robbing.”

As he finishes saying this, he sees Simon, who has his game face on. Simon is obviously not here to play fetch. “Holy shit,” Kline says. “Come on, tell me what’s happening.”

“You don’t recognize me?”

“No. Should I?”

“My name is Corey Douglas. I was there the night you smacked Lisa Yates around.”

He struggles to make the connection. “Douglas … the cop.”

“Right. The cop.”

“Why are you here?”

“Because I’m going to nail you for killing her.”

“Hey, come on. I had nothing to do with that.”

“Right. Like you didn’t hit her that night.”

“Okay, maybe I pushed her and she fell. She was driving me crazy. She