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Elizabeth had expected to find Jim upset and agitated, but when she entered the dimly lit, small barren room, she found him slumped forward and motionless.
“Jim?” she said softly, touching his shoulder, worried he’d passed out. “Hey, Jim, are you okay?”
“Elizabeth?” he breathed, slowly raising his head.
His red-rimmed eyes stared up at her.
He looked a hundred years old.
“Are you okay?” she repeated.
“Yeah, just wiped out. Where’s your friend?”
“Busy, and I had to fight to be with you by myself.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. You always did debate orders you didn’t like.”
“Yeah, well, if you recall, I was proven right more times than not,” she quipped, lifting a folding chair from against the wall and sitting opposite him. “Don’t make me sorry I pushed my luck to talk to you.”
“I’ll do my best. What do you want to know?”
“What do you think? Why were you working for that bastard Conchello? What possessed you to screw up your life like that?”
“I can’t talk about it,” he grunted, dropping his eyes to the floor.
“Because you’re embarrassed.”
“Something like that.”
“Too bad, you have to tell me. How could such a good guy make such a horrible decision?”
“I guess it doesn’t matter now, the cat’s out of the bag, and it’s not complicated,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I wanted to give Susan and the kids everything. Working for Conchello I was able to do that. A nice house, cool cars, a great education, and I was hoping to take Susan on a world cruise when I retire, first class all the way.”
Watching him as she listened to his short, sorry story, she barely recognized the man she once admired. Jim Parker, the ultimate, straight-laced crime fighter, had been a facade. Fresh fury bubbled up inside her.
This is how you deliver revenge. Cold, calculating cleverness. Raw emotion has no place.
As Scott’s words rang in her ears, she stood up and paced, trying to swallow back her anger.
“I’m so sorry about Manny,” Jim suddenly burst out, copious tears spilling from his eyes. “I didn’t tell Conchello about you two, I didn’t, I swear. He called and asked me if you and Manny worked for the DEA. I told him I’d never heard of either of you.”
Disbelieving, she paused her step and stared at him.
“If it wasn’t you, who was it?” she demanded. “How did he find out?”
“As far as I know, he didn’t. He probably still doesn’t know. Dan Miller was the one spreading the rumor. He had it in for both of you. Manny because he was supposedly your boyfriend, and you because you rejected him.”
“That’s crazy, Dan’s a creep, women must reject him all the time.”
“You don’t understand, you’re not just any woman,” Jim remarked, lowering his voice.
“You’re right, I don’t understand.”
“No, you couldn’t,” he continued with the hint of a smile, “and that’s one of the things that makes you so special. Dan came from nothing, and a woman like you would be the ultimate prize. I honestly believe he was determined to win you over. When he realized that wasn’t going to happen, it made him crazy. Being around you probably drove him nuts. If he couldn’t have you, no one else would either.”
“So that’s why he was always so weird…” she remarked thoughtfully, recalling the many times she’d catch him staring at her, while other times he’d studiously ignore her.
“I suspect that was the madness driving him during the raid. When he discovered he’d killed Manny and missed you, he must have decided to frame you for the murder. Where is he, by the way? He still presents a very real threat.”
