“Alleged killers,” Kate reminded him.
“Fair enough and also not the point.”
“Do it,” Kate said.“Call them and tell them to take steps to protect themselves.Bring it up to PD and see what they say.At the very least, maybe they can all take a weekend trip to the West Coast while we figure out what’s going on here.”
“Yeah.”He frowned at Dennison’s body.“You think he did it?”
“Looks that way, I’m afraid.Guy reached for an inhaler, Dennison said it was a gun.Might have thought it was a hideaway, but he definitely twisted things after the fact to make the accident more justified.”
Marcus sighed.“Yeah.Shit.I was hoping that wasn’t it.”
Kate glanced at him to see the same grief on his face he’d shown in front of Whitaker earlier.“Everything okay?”
A wall clicked over him like a camera shutter.He gave her a quick smile.“Yeah, fine.I’ll go get started on those calls.”
He left the house, leaving Kate alone with the dead body of a cop who might have been crooked or who might have just made an unfortunate mistake at an unfortunate time.
Whether crooked or unfortunate, Kate knew one thing for sure.The wrong done Steven Friar’s family and the wrong done Carl Dennison’s daughter didn’t make anything right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Kate rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock.Ten-oh-nine.How had that happened?
She was back at the 18thDistrict headquarters.She’d followed up on Steven Friar’s family and learned they moved out of Chicago shortly after settling their wrongful death lawsuit.She was still waiting for confirmation on the younger brother’s alibi, but the rest of the family checked out, and their general attitude on the phone was one of mild frustration and strong desire to remain moved on from that episode.She was reasonably sure it wasn’t going to be Steven Friar’s younger brother.
Marcus had gone through the list of acquitted defendants from Whitmore’s and Hartwell’s research, twenty in all.He’d delegated finding other potential victims to the police department and stepped outside for “good coffee.”
The coffee in the breakroom was far from wonderful, but it wasn’t coffee Marcus was after.It was movement.He wasn’t good at the tedious stuff.He could do it when he absolutely needed to, but he preferred to be on his feet, tracking suspects, talking to persons of interest, looking for clues.Kate was normally the one who picked at the minutiae of a case, needling apart every detail, obsessing over each facet until one of them reflected the truth.
Right now, she had no idea which facet to obsess over.The one she wanted to obsess over appeared to have less to do with this case than any previous commandment killing.
That made no sense to her.If it looked like a duck, walked like a duck, and quacked like a duck, then how could it be a barn owl?It just didn’t fit.
She got to her feet and started to pace when the door opened and Whitaker walked in.He gave her a somewhat guilty half smile and said, “I just wanted to let you know I’ve officially stepped back from the case.With Denny being one of the victims, my head’s just not in the right place.I’m sorry I got in your way back there, and I’m sorry I really haven’t done a good job.I didn’t think this one was gonna get to me the way it did, but…” He took a breath.“Anyway, it’s probably going to go to Henriksen.She’s on leave right now, but she’ll be back here tomorrow.You’ll like her, she’s a spunky kid.Sharp as a razor.”
Kate smiled empathetically.“How are you feeling?”
“Me?Like shit.”
They both chuckled, and Kate admitted, “Yeah.I hear that.I know that feeling very well.”
Whitaker shrugged.“Well… it happens, right?You win most of them, but every now and then, you take some pitches you just can’t read.That’s when the boss calls in a pinch hitter.You take your lumps, learn the lessons you can, then you come back for the next at-bat.It is what it is.”
“That’s an admirable attitude,” Kate said and meant it.
She’d fought tooth and nail on multiple occasions to remain on the Cox case in spite of considerable evidence that being here was damaging her mental health.She still believed it was the right thing to do, especially after it became clear that Cox’s obsession with her wouldn’t change just because she wasn’t investigating him, but even absent the commandment killings, she wasn’t good at letting go.It was a big part of the reason she’d never had a romantic relationship that lasted.
Mike crossed her mind briefly, the sweet, shy, innocent bookstore owner who remained so far, the only person willing to give it a serious go with her.And she’d tried.She really had.But their relationship had been churned under the wheels of her job just like everything else.Love was something people in her line of work got to read about when it went right and investigate when it went wrong.It wasn’t something they got to experience.
Marcus crossed her mind then, and for the first time in a while, she thought of him and Cheryl sympathetically.Cheryl had tried, in her own way, to make things work with him, but like Kate, Marcus was wedded to the job.That would always be priority number one.Maybe the latest tiff was more serious because she had finally accepted that and decided she didn’t want it anymore.
As for Kate and Marcus?They’d never have time to work on a relationship either.Being together would only mean they’d get to screw each other in the hotel room while working a case and have awkward dinners with her mom when they weren’t working.How long could that last before the shine wore off and left something duller than had been there before?
Whitaker sighed and got to his feet.“Well,” he said, extending his hand.“It was a pleasure, Special Agent.Whatever comes next for you, I wish you luck.”
“You too,” Kate said, standing and accepting the handshake.“Thank you.”
He chuckled.“For what?”
