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Ronan opened his mouth to say something, then stopped and reached into his pocket for his phone. His brow furrowed as he looked at the display.
“Everything okay?” Nick asked.
Declan came to stand next to him, obviously recovered from his near-death experience. “What’s up?”
“Richard Delaney is dead,” Ronan said. “Killed in a mugging.”
Nick unzipped the pocket on his sweatshirt and removed his phone. The breaking news headline screamed across the screen: Boston Police Lieutenant Killed During Robbery.
“The detective who was assigned to Alexa’s case?” Declan asked.
“That’s the one,” Ronan said, reading. “Not many details yet. The story’s still breaking.”
“Well… fuck,” Nick said, still staring at his phone.
“Think it’s connected to Alexa’s case?” Declan asked.
“Hard to say without more detail.” Nick put his phone back in his pocket, his mind already turning over the possibilities. “The paranoid part of my brain says it has to be, but the logical part says probably not.”
Delaney was a cop, and being a cop was a dangerous job. Alexa’s accident had happened ten years earlier, and by all accounts, Delaney was still tight with the Walkers, carefully tucked under their wing as he was ushered through promotion after promotion in the department.
It wasn’t like Delaney’s conscience seemed to be bothering him.
“It’s a good thing if it’s random, right?” Declan asked.
“I guess,” Nick said.
“I mean, it’s fitting considering what he did to Alexa. How does it feel to be on the receiving end of senseless crime, asshole?” Declan muttered.
“Chief, come!” Ronan shouted to be heard over the wind as the dog crept closer to the water. He stared across the sand and Chief trotted toward him.
Nick tried to imagine the scene of Richard Delaney’s death as Ronan bent to pet Chief’s head.
Declan was right: Nick should be happy. Delaney had been a dirty cop, willing to take money and favors to look the other way while powerful people like Leland Walker got a free pass to commit crime after crime. It would be fitting for him to die alone in some corner store or back alley, and Nick suddenly hoped Delaney had been conscious long enough to realize what was happening, that he’d felt even a fraction of the fear Alexa must have felt — in spite of the fact that she couldn’t remember it now — when Leland Walker plowed into the car Samantha had been driving. That maybe Delaney had felt even a fraction of the pain Alexa had felt in the years afterward when she recovered from surgery after surgery, when she cried her way through months of physical therapy.
But Nick couldn’t help feeling let down. What had he thought? That someday Delaney would be brought to justice along with Leland Walker? That Nick would get to see him perp-walked into prison after being convicted of bribery and fraud? That Alexa would get to witness his fall from grace?
It had been a long shot, but until this morning, the possibility had existed. Now Delaney was dead,forever immune to the consequences of his actions while Alexa continued to suffer.
The injustice of it took his breath away. He thought of Alexa, wondered if she’d gotten the same breaking news alert. A look at his phone told him he didn’t have a signal.
He started away from the water, already thinking about what he would say to her, how he could make okay yet another situation that would never be even close to okay.
5
Faneuil Hall marketplace was more of a village than an open air shopping mall. Food stalls lined the cobblestone street, the smell of fried dough and seared meat wafting through the frigid air as Alexa walked next to Elise and Julia, pushing John Thomas in his stroller. The baby had been an angel, alternatively dozing inside his pile of blankets and looking around, eyes bright with curiosity.
Alexa hadn’t wanted to come, but she couldn’t turn down every invitation from Julia and Elise. They did go out for coffee now and then, and Alexa made a point of accompanying Julia or Ronan to the grocery store to help with John Thomas while they did the food shopping, but she was still getting used to being part of a big family and her default was stillto withdraw, especially when she was fighting depression.
“Do you want to stop for a coffee?” Elise asked, scanning the market. “I’m freezing my ass off here.”
“It’ll have to be tea for me,” Julia said. “But I could definitely go for something warm, and John Thomas will need to nurse soon anyway.”
“We could go to the Market,” Alexa said. “It’ll be warmer there.”
“Warmer is good,” Elise said.
They headed for Quincy Market, a building at the marketplace that housed a variety of restaurants and coffee shops. Elise exhaled her relief when they stepped inside, the warm air enveloping them like a fuzzy blanket.
