Free Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution by Keith R.A. DeCandido Page A

Whitcombe-Sears.”
    “Okay, so we split up.” Jenny clapped her hands. Corbin had showed her the value of doing research, but at this point, she’d been sitting on her ass long enough. She was ready to take action. “I can sit on MCNY.”
    Abbie was shaking her head, but it was Irving who spoke. “Nah, I got the museum. I’ve got NYPD connections—past and present—that can help me out there.”
    “Fine, I can take Crane up to Ticonderoga. Can’t wait to see the look on his—”
    “No.” Abbie said the word with a lot more intensity than Jenny thought was at all warranted.
    “Excuse me?” Jenny stared at her sister with ahard expression. She was
not
putting up with her crap on this, and did not want to make this one of the times she hated her sister.
    “You’ll take Whitcombe-Sears. You already know the place.”
    Jenny rolled her eyes. “I’ve been there maybe three times, and the last time was years ago. Why can’t I go to Ticonderoga?”
    Abbie closed her eyes, then opened them again. “Because it’s against the law.”
    “Say
what
?”
    “Part of the terms of your release from Tarrytown Psychiatric into my custody was that you would stay in Westchester County. You can’t go down to the city, you can’t go across to Jersey, you can’t go east to Connecticut, and you can’t go upstate. That’s the deal, and if you break that deal, it’s back to Room 49 you go.”
    Crane frowned. “I can’t imagine that they would assign Miss Jenny the same room when …” He trailed off, probably seeing the look on Jenny’s face. She was certainly going for majorly pissed-off.
    “This
sucks
.”
    “I agree, but it was the only way to get the judge to sign off on your release.”
    Jenny stared angrily at her sister, but this time Abbie wasn’t giving her a nasty look back. It was a look of apology and of guilt.
    Abbie walked up to Jenny and put a hand on hershoulder. “Look, Jenny, cops may suck—but judges suck more.”
    Unable to help herself, Jenny burst out with a laugh. “Guess so. All right, fine, I’ll head to the library.”
    “Thanks for understanding.”
    “Oh, no.” Jenny took a step back and shook her head. “This isn’t understanding. At best, this is resignation.”
    “Fair enough.” Abbie turned to Crane. “It’s four hours to Ticonderoga from here. We hit the road now, we can get a motel room for the night and check the fort out in the morning.”
    “Very well.” Crane nodded.
    Abbie then turned to Irving. “I don’t suppose I can get the department to pay for the motel?”
    Jenny again couldn’t help bursting out with a laugh.
    For Irving, though, it was just a chuckle. “You want the honest answer or the polite answer?”
    Crane frowned. “The polite one, I should think.”
    “
Hell
no, not in your wildest dreams.”
    That just deepened Crane’s frown. “If you knew the full tenor of my dreams, Captain, you would not make such a statement. And I shudder to think what the honest answer was.”
    Abbie quickly said, “My credit card can handle it, as long as we stick with a cheap-ass motel. I’m still paying off the movers who had to ship everything
back
when I changed my mind about moving to D.C., plus I lost the security deposit on the apartment down there.”
    Jenny chuckled. “Always the little things, ain’t it, sis?”
    Irving nodded. “Yeah, all right. I got some other business in the city to take care of anyhow.” He pulled out his cell phone and called someone. After a few rings: “Hey, Beth. Listen, I need you to do me a favor.…”
    Whatever favor Irving wanted this Beth woman to do for him was lost as the captain left the room.
    “Who’s Beth?” she asked Abbie.
    “His former partner. She’s an insurance investigator for the company that insures the Met these days. She’s the one that verified that the medals were stolen.”
    Jenny nodded. “Cool. All right, I’ll head over to the library soon, then. I want to check a few more things