Riley, Rockford, and the rest made a speed run to St. Paul and the bar to get ahead of Knapp. The highway patrol was clued in, so there wouldn’t be a problem.
At their meeting with the chief in the morning they went over where everyone would be when Knapp moved. For three days prior, they had pored over maps of the area and spoke with the owners of the businesses surrounding Dick’s Bar.
Riley would be in the bar. There was a small storeroom in the back across from the bathroom. He’d hang there. When Linda left the bar for the night, he would be right on the back door, which she would only pretend to lock. He could pounce as soon as Knapp made a move.
Rockford’d be in the back of the paint store, less than a hundred feet away. Mac had lobbied for the spot. Rockford was not that fleet a foot, Mac was.
Mac and Lich would be across the street to the west in the back garage of Ray’s Auto Repair, at least one hundred fifty feet away. They had spent a few nights watching from there already. Ray had a son-in-law with the force. He couldn’t have been more helpful.
Mac would be able to run across the street-less likely Lich, given his body type, girth, and age. Lich said he’d keep the van pointed in the right direction in case they needed a set of wheels. Mac’s concern was if Knapp ran- would they be able to catch him? They had to keep the rest of the vehicles a number of blocks back. Who knows what would happen if Knapp ran? He could slip away, get into someone’s house, take a hostage. There were risks if he ran and got outside their perimeter. It’s why Mac had wanted the paint store.
There were already two cops on the second floor of the office building to the north, looking directly down on the back of the bar. They could see the gap, the back door and would have the infrared video camera on the back. Neither man would be of any help if there was a chase.
In addition to Riley, they had detective Doug Long on the second floor in the bar. He would be able to look down on Knapp as he hid in the gap between the bar and paint store.
Finally, they had Falcon, the St. Paul Police chopper circling at a distance overhead that could swoop in at a moment’s notice.
In the van, Mac and Lich were two hundred yards behind Knapp, with another unit another two hundred yards further back. The temperature was dropping quickly. The rain was changing to snow. The wipers were going high speed, cleaning the windshield while they sped into St. Paul.
“I hope Ray left the heat on in the garage,” Lich pleaded.
“Suppose you want some coffee too?”
“A man can dream,” Lich quipped.
Mac, getting back to business, “With this snow, visibility’ll be an issue.”
“You’re right, boyo. That area behind the bar ain’t well lit.”
Viper and Bouchard were parked, watching Riley and his crew a block south of the Italian restaurant. Suddenly the two vans and a Crown Victoria pulled out and sped by, disregarding the local speed limit. Two minutes later, a Ford Econoline van came by.
“There’s our boy, I bet,” Bouchard uttered.
“See if McRyan comes by.” He did, thirty seconds later, keeping his distance.
Viper and Bouchard waited and pulled in well behind Lich and McRyan, trailing Knapp back to St. Paul.
“You’re comfortable with everything?” Bouchard asked.
“Yes.”
“How about Hagen?”
“He said it would be easy. He even showed me how he does it.”
“And the get away?”
“Got it covered. It’ll take thirty seconds to a minute at best for them to figure out what happened. By the time they do, I’m gone.”
Doug Long was up on the second floor at the bar. His car was parked next to Linda Bradley’s Trailblazer. When Knapp was two minutes out, Young, another cop sitting down in the bar, jumped in Long’s car and pulled away three blocks north on Arundel.
Unfortunately, as Knapp pulled into the lot, a spot opened right along the back of the bar, three spaces from Bradley. It was not Long’s spot. He backed the van in, killed the motor and went inside.
Mac and Lich heard all of this on the radio and skipped the Dale Street exit, going further west on Interstate 94 to the Lexington Parkway exit and doubling back to Ray’s. Lich dropped the van in the parking lot on the west side of the garage, hidden from view of the bar parking lot. They entered the security code to the building and slowly worked their way to the back and to the door looking directly across Arundel into the parking lot behind Dick’s. There were no lights on in the back of the garage, and Mac and Lich slowly made their way to the window.
Mac moved to the right side of the garage door, and as if he was peering around a corner, looked out the window. There were a couple of problems. The snow, coming down in large, heavy snowflakes made visibility across the street and into the parking lot a problem. It was melting as it hit the pavement, but was gathering in the grass between the street and sidewalk. More important, Knapp’s van blocked his view of the back door. It wasn’t on the other side of Bradley’s Trailblazer, as they had planned. They wouldn’t be able to see Knapp move. They called it in. Riley told them to stay put and move when the call came.
Knapp came out of the bar at 1:15 a.m. and got back into the van. A half-hour later he slowly got out of the driver’s side of the van. Mac watched as Knapp slowly walked to the rear of the van and peered around to his left. Seeing nobody, Knapp moved left and disappeared from Mac’s view. His earpiece told him that Knapp was to the side of the back door, sneaking a peak in the back to see if anyone was coming down the back hall. He then scooted over to the gap between the bar and paint store.
Knapp was dressed all in black, with a stocking cap. Long, looking down at him from the dark second floor, reported that Knapp was set back about fifteen feet, having leaned against the bar wall, into an indentation where a door used to be. The boys across the street could make him out through the infrared vision on the video camera.
Everyone was in position.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Patience. A difficult thing to have when waiting for something to happen, when you know it is going to happen and even when it will happen. Mac must have looked at his watch every thirty seconds since Knapp left the van. Radio chatter quieted. Mac had noticed a light go on upstairs. Bradley was now up working the books, putting the money in the safe for tomorrow’s deposit.
At 2:15 a.m., per normal routine, Sheila Bradley left. She was well aware of what was going on with her little sister. She had been told to drive way away and not hang around. Everything needed to look normal. It seemed like an hour since she’d left. It had been five minutes. Upstairs Linda Bradley, Mac knew, would be sliding on a neck brace with Long’s assistance.
At 2:42 a.m. Mac’s earpiece cracked with Long’s voice. “She’s heading down now.”
Mac and Lich had moved to the left side of the garage door window, close to the back door. They were glued to the window, not that it did much good. They couldn’t see a thing.
Office building: “Knapp has moved to the edge of the gap.”
Mac whispered to Lich, “Alarm won’t go off when we open the back door?”
Lich, for the fifth time. “Nope, disarmed.” He was twirling the keys to the van in his hands. He’d be in the van if Knapp ran.
Long: “She’s at the back door.”
Mac left the window and went to the back door, hand on the knob, staring at the floor, waiting for the word.
Office building: “She’s opening the door… she’s turned her back, putting the key in the lock.”
As Mac heard it told later, as she put the key into the knob, Knapp sprung from the gap. He was on her in an instant. The key was still in the lock, and the force of his attack on her had snapped it off. Riley and Long were trapped inside.