CJ’s eyes glistened with emotion when her gaze met his once more. “Will taking Nash down do it? I mean, won’t someone else just step up to the plate and take his place in the village?”
“They’ll try. And people like me and my partner will just have to see that it doesn’t take root. Nash’s power has built over time. He’s like those annoying little weeds that crop up in a nice lawn. If you ignore them, they’ll take over. You have to wipe them out as soon as they crop up. The new chief is working hard to clean up a mess that accumulated over two decades, but we have to be able to tie Nash to the murders to take him out.”
“If Nash wants you out of his way, why doesn’t he just do it? You know,” she said with a shrug, “pop a cap in your ass or whatever it is guys like him do?”
He smiled. Fair question. “I’m a cop. There are those at HPD who will look the other way for a few extra bucks, but most aren’t willing to pretend they don’t see when one of their own is murdered. Nash isn’t going to risk having his resources dry up on him or, worse, turn on him. He has to find a way to get rid of me that doesn’t include blatantly killing me. Plus, I can be slippery too. I’m not going to make whatever he decides to do easy for him. He already knows that.”
“Are you saying he’s tried?”
He lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “I’ve had the usual tactics attempted. My SUV’s brakes were tampered with more than once. The first apartment I lived in got a sudden gas leak. One or all may have been coincidental, but I don’t take the risk. I pay attention. Don’t let him catch me by surprise. He’d like nothing better than to see me suffer a littleaccident.”
She shuddered, got up, started to pace. “So what was it Shelley was supposed to give him? Some sort of evidence?”
“Nash wanted her to video me in a compromising position. You know, drugs, sex. She was supposed to slip me a mickey, so to speak, and then she and some of her friends were going to make it look as if we were—”
“I don’t need to hear the dirty details.”
Braddock heaved a sigh and went on. He hated like hell to tell her this part. “We had planned to ... last weekend.”
She sat in silence a long moment, absorbing the impact of his statement. Stewing, probably, over the pain he’d already caused her without adding this insult to the injury.
“Okay.” She seemed to gather her strength around her. “Why didn’t you ... do this thing the two of you had planned?”
He tamped back the emotions that accompanied the answer. “She was supposed to call me when she had it set up, but she didn’t call. When I tried to call her, I got her voicemail.”
CJ blinked, her face a veritable stage for the emotions playing out inside her. “I can see how what Shelley was supposed to give him would make you look bad, but how was that supposed to stop you?”
“He wanted leverage to be able to use me, I think. At least that was Shelley’s impression. Nash figured if he could get me in a malleable spot, he could up his ante of HPD assets.”
She thought about that a moment. “So I go in, tell Tyrone I want the truth about what happened to Shelley. He laughs in my face.” She sent a knowing look at Braddock. “Then I say that if he’ll tell me who killed her, I’ll give him something he wants.”
Braddock stood. “No. You tell him that and you may get asked for more than you want to give.”
Embarrassment darkened her cheeks. “I didn’t think of that.” She leveled her gaze on his. “So what do I say?”
“You tell him one thing and one thing only.”
Her gaze held his.
“That you can deliver me.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
North Huntsville Free Clinic, 11:00 a.m.
Damned bitch.
Carter glowered at the Camry he’d parked next to in the clinic’s lot. If he found out she had played him ...
What the hell was he thinking,if!
She would regret this.
He tossed back a couple of Vicodins, shoved out of his BMW, and stalked up to the entrance. He’d tried to find her ass last night. But she’d ignored his calls. She wasn’t stupid. She’d likely figured out that he’d heard from CJ about the autopsy report. Well, if she thought she could avoid answering his questions, she was insane.
Despite the lack of vehicles in the parking lot, the waiting room was jam-packed. Pathetic losers. The poor from neighborhoods all around the clinic’s North Huntsville location walked here each Saturday. To see the stupid bitch.
Carter cut through the line at the reception desk and elbowed his way to the front. “Tell Lusk I need to see her outside,” he ordered the girl behind the desk. No way was he speaking to her in here.
