get food. Policemen know where the food’s good and free. Why is that?”
“They teach us that in the academy. Sack dragging 101.”
They both laughed as they left the hospital. Shelby opened the door for Kendrick and quickly walked around to the driver’s side. She had the door unlocked for him and he got in, started the car, and drove to the street before asking, “Texan, Mexican, or Chinese?”
“In Georgia we’re plenty proud of our barbecued pork. I hear you all think barbecue beef is the better way to go. Think we can find a place that serves up spare ribs and cold beer?”
She’s beautiful, bold, and brilliant. A dangerous combination, Shelby thought. “Yes ma’am, I think I know just the place. The County Line’s got great ribs.” They turned west on Holcombe and then right onto Main. Soon they left the medical complexes and passed Rice University on their left, then Hermann Park with its woodland beauty loomed to their right.
As the Crown Vic weaved in and out of heavy traffic, Shelby became aware that someone was following them. He slowed and they slowed. He sped up and they sped up. He turned onto Montrose and the car lights followed about two blocks behind them. Keeping a careful eye on the car in the rearview mirror, he told Kendrick, “We’re being followed.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. He’s been on our tail since we left the hospital. I’m going to call for a marked unit to make a stop on him. Then maybe we’ll be one large step closer to solving this mystery.”
Another turn onto Richmond, then he called, “One-oh-three, any unit in the vicinity of Richmond and Montrose, respond for officer assistance.”
“Ten-Henry-seventy, I’m on Bissonnet. Go ahead.”
“Ten-Henry-seventy, I’ve got a tail, blue or black Lincoln. We’re just passing St. Thomas University, westbound. Request that you stop and detain vehicle and its occupants until I can get back and ID the subjects, copy?”
Ten-Henry-seventy was clear. “I’m about ten blocks from your location at this time. Should be in position in two or three minutes.”
Suddenly the dark car turned off and disappeared on a cross street. “He’s monitoring the channel,” Shelby mumbled to Kendrick. “Who can do that?”
“How do you know he’s monitoring your radio?”
“As soon as we started talking about him, he turned off. Yeah, he’s on the channel.”
The radio broke, “One-oh-three, I’ve lost him. Did you see which way he went?”
Shelby pulled over to the curb and waited for the blue-and-white unit to pull beside him. Then he hollered out the window, “Look, the guy’s got a scanner. Drop off a few blocks and see if he comes back. If not, just let it go. Keep a watch on the parallel street to our right, Colquitt. He might be smart and follow us from one street over. I don’t know who or what the deal is, so be very careful if you make a stop.”
Shelby pulled away from the curb and continued west. The blocks slipped by and no car. At Buffalo Speedway, Ten-Henry-seventy turned left, back to Bissonnet, and was gone. They were alone. Against who or what, Shelby had no idea, but he was sure they hadn’t seen the last of the dark car. He took the Glock 9mm from its warm hideaway under his left armpit and laid it on the seat next to him. Just in case.
They didn’t talk much for the next several minutes. Shelby watched the mirror and Kendrick turned to watch each intersection. When they parked at The County Line, Shelby said, “I think maybe we lost him. I’m not going to check out over the radio, but I’ve got a pager so they can get me if I’m needed. I’ll give the office a call from the restaurant.”
Once inside they both seemed to relax. She’s really very nice, he thought. After Shelby called his office and they ordered, he said, “This was one of my wife’s favorite places to eat. Mary loved barbecue.”
“Are you divorced?”
“No. She died a little over six years ago. Died of breast cancer. We went to Milby High School together and married two years after we graduated. She was my first love. Actually, my only love. We started going steady when we were freshmen and she’s really the only girl I ever dated. Well, almost. We had a fight our senior year. We broke up for a week or so. I asked another girl to a basketball game just to make Mary mad.”
“Did it work?”
“Yeah, I guess. We were going steady again the next day.”
“It’s obvious she meant a lot to you.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get over her dying. There’s been a real void in my life since she died. I haven’t dated much at all. I’ve kind of become a recluse.”
Heather Kendrick was the first woman Shelby had felt comfortable around and to talk with since Mary had died. As they ate and talked, he learned that she had been married but divorced three years earlier.
“I thought I’d found the perfect life,” she said. “A match made in heaven that turned into a living nightmare when Shawn, that’s my ex-husband, got hooked on drugs. I met him in medical school and everything was wonderful until he…I’m sure you’ve seen a million junkies.
“I tried everything to help him, but he only got worse. Violent. When he broke my nose and cracked my jaw, I left and haven’t looked back. He’s in a federal drug rehab treatment center in Kansas. Got caught forging prescriptions to keep his habit alive. I feel sorry for him, but any love I had for him died three years ago.”
“You were both doctors?” Shelby asked.
“Both doctors. I completed my medical residency in New Orleans and was immediately hired by the Disease Control Center in Atlanta. It’s a good job and a chance for me to do what I enjoy best about medicine, investigation and research.”
“What’s that?” Shelby asked.
“A chance to discover the root causes for so many illnesses that are spread by contaminated food, water, and careless people. I know that may not seem like much, but early in medical school, I found that I was not cut out to poke and probe around in people. Even though I tried to force myself, I was miserable until finally I accepted the fact that I would never practice medicine as I’d planned. My dreams of being a family doctor in the rural south were over. I just didn’t have what it took.
“For a while I even thought about dropping out of medical school and becoming a lawyer, but then I met Shawn. He was a first-year resident and the most handsome man I’d ever met. Gosh, he was funny, witty, and, as he so often said, he was going to be ‘the best surgeon in the whole world’.” Kendrick looked down at her plate, thinking. When she looked back up, she was smiling. “Suddenly, I was in love and determined to be the second-best surgeon in the whole world. All of that was before he decided he needed a little pick-me-up from time to time, and way before he became a mainline junkie.”
She went on to tell him that even though they had been married for two years, Shawn had encouraged her to take the job in Atlanta. “He said it would only be for a while and if necessary, he’d move his practice to Atlanta. ‘After all, they’ve got operating rooms in Atlanta,’ he’d said. He promised he’d fly down every other weekend. Said it would be like we were still on our honeymoon every two weeks.
