Cox did so.Slowly.Deliberately.Ensuring that Tyler had no time left to visit his whore.Cox knew that after his hunger strike, the warden had ordered Tyler to watch Cox eat until his meal was completely consumed.He had only this small window to find his harlot.Cox could take that away from him.And so, Cox could control him.
“Fine,” Tyler snapped.“God damn it.”
Cox frowned and glared at the door where he knew Tyler’s eye level was.“Donottake the Lord’s name in vain!”
“Whatever,” Tyler fired back.But he sounded scared, and when her spoke again, he sounded defeated.“I’ll get you your cell phone.”
Cox smiled.“Thank you.”
He finished his meal quickly.He didn’t approve of Tyler’s behavior, and he wouldn’t enable it under other circumstances, but God would understand.Cox needed the phone to accomplish his mission on Earth.Tyler had made the choices that would damn him to Hell already.Cox wasn’t condemning him.Only using his evil for good.
When he finished, Tyler retrieved the tray and hurried off to find his harlot.Cox chuckled and returned to his bed, resuming his cross-legged position on the cot.
Soon, he would have what he needed to escape.Once he called her, he would set in motion events that Kate couldn’t stop.
He would see her again.Soon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Retired Captain Carl Dennison’s Lincoln Park home was modest compared to many of the mansions occupying the wealthy North Side community, but still the nicest house Kate had seen here save for Derek Hammond’s lakefront mansion.A massive elm tree dominated the spacious front yard, and a brick planter sported a selection of summer annuals.Most of the plants were clinging to the edge of life, and some flowers had already browned and shriveled from neglect.Kate wondered at that as Whitaker led her and Marcus past the cluster of officers gathered on the porch.
Kate stopped when she saw the hysterical woman screaming in the center of a group of uniforms.Whitaker frowned, and the officers around her closed in protectively, sensing her presence before even looking at her.
“Hey, now’s not the best time,” Whitaker said.“She’s in shock.”
“I just need a minute,” Kate said.
“Seriously,” Whitaker replied firmly.“Not now.”
Kate met his eyes and calmly reminded him, “This is now officially a spree killing.Three victims in four days.I’m going to talk to the daughter.”
Whitaker glanced at her, then back at Kate.“Can you have a little human decency, please?She just lost her mother last winter and now her father.”
“I’m having human decency.I’m trying to find the person who killed her father before they take another life.”
She pushed through the uniforms without waiting for a response.A plainly built woman in her late thirties with straight brown hair and long bangs looked up.Her eyes were red and puffy, and seeing the naked anguish in her face, Kate almost thought better of her insistence on interviewing her before Laura said, “It’s because of Steven Friar, isn’t it?That’s why the killer did this.”
The officers closed around her again.“Laura, let’s go home,” one of them said.He glared at Kate and added, “You can talk to the FBI when you feel ready.”
“No, I’d like to talk to her now,” Kate said firmly.“Who is Steven Friar?”
“Bullshit, that’s who,” another uniform growled.
Kate was nearing the end of her patience, but getting confrontational wouldn’t help her right now.“Miss Dennison, would you like to speak with me?”
“You don’t have to,” one of the officers reminded her almost desperately.
“No, I do,” Laura said.She squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and nodded.“I do.”
The officers were clearly unhappy with this, and a moment later, Kate knew why.
“My father was accused of shooting an unarmed suspect during an arrest seventeen years ago.He was a Detective Sergeant at the time investigating a domestic abuse case.Steven Friar was the suspect.He fled his home when Dad showed up to arrest him.Dad chased him into an alley.There was a confrontation, and it ended with Dad shooting him in the chest.He died in the hospital nine days later.”
The officers around Laura were all looking away.Whitaker scowled at the ground.The others tried not to let their anger show, but it was clear their feelings toward Laura had cooled noticeably with this admission.Kate stifled the bubbling contempt rising to the surface.The thin blue line had strangled justice too many times to count, but officers still treated it like a religious mandate.You don’t turn on your own.You back them up, no matter what.
She wondered if that was what happened here.“Was there an investigation?”Kate asked.
“Special Agent, I’ll get you the files,” Whitaker said curtly.“Leave her alone, yeah?”
