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“They said she was alive when you found her. She must’ve said something to you.” Karim took a staggering step forward and Nico put a hand on his chest to prevent him from coming inside.
“Stay away,” Nico commanded. “Or I’ll have to arrest you.” Arrest him for what exactly, Nico wasn’t sure yet, but he couldn’t allow the guy to come into his house. He was so drunk he could hardly stand, and his words were coming out slurred and unintelligible.
“Rania. She must’ve said something to you,” Karim repeated loudly, staring at Lacey over Nico’s shoulder. “They’re going to frame me for murder.” At that, the man giggled wildly, as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Then he sobered again. “But she must’ve told you who did it. You must know.” Karim made a stumbling lunge, trying to reach Lacey over Nico’s shoulder. Nico swung into action, grabbing the man’s wrist as he reached for Lacey and twisting it savagely up and back, forcing the man to turn around so he could march him out of the door. Karim tried to struggle and break free, but Nico landed him on the floorboards with a thump, putting his knee directly into the man’s back. He’d used reasonable force to restrain the man, but the guy was so drunk, he suddenly stopped fighting.
“Call for backup,” Nico commanded without taking his eyes off the man underneath him.
He could feel Lacey hesitate behind him, as if loath to leave him, but then she did as she was told and ran inside for her phone.
Now he was incapacitated on the ground, Karim’s menacing behavior evaporated.
“I didn’t kill her,” Karim sobbed. “I loved her. I wouldn’t kill her. You’ve gotta believe me.”
Tell that to the judge, Nico thought. Lacey soon returned with her phone to her ear and a pair of zip ties, which she handed to him so he could restrain the guy. Karim had gone completely limp now, but was still muttering that he was innocent. Nico ignored him.
“There’s a car in the area,” Lacey reported, putting her phone in her back pocket. “They should be here in ten minutes.”
“Good,” Nico growled, wanting to get this guy off his front porch.
“I didn’t do it,” Karim continued, tipping his head sideways, to try and catch Lacey’s eye. Suddenly a light of perception entered Karim’s gaze, his face clearing a little. “You need to look at that little fucker, Floyd. He had a thing for Rania. I had to punch his lights out to get him to leave her alone. I bet he did it. You should look at him.” Karim rolled over onto his side, directing his last comment to Nico.
But Nico’s attention was diverted as a car pulled into the driveway, bright headlights spotlighting the scene on the veranda. It was too soon for the police cruiser to have arrived, and Nico tensed.
“Who’s there?” he shouted as he heard car doors slamming. He could only make out silhouettes of people approaching through the bright lights. “Stay where you are,” he commanded, wishing for the second time that he’d stopped to grab his service weapon before answering the door. He put his foot on Karim’s back to make sure he didn’t escape. This night could go from bad to really ugly in just a few seconds. Lacey stepped forward and stood at his elbow, almost as if she were ready to defend him if need be.
“Oh, no, Karim. Why you do this?” a female voice cried and Nico relaxed slightly. It was Karim’s mother. She stopped at the bottom of the steps.
“My boy! My boy!” Karim’s father joined his wife, and they both looked up with pleading faces. Squinting into the lights, Nico was pretty sure it was just the two of them.
“We are sorry, Detective Sergeant. He disappear. We tried to find him. But we don’t know where he go.”
Nico remembered the father’s name was Hamid. He’d met them at the station when they’d brought Karim in for questioning. Karim was now staying with his family in a hotel room as they grieved for a young life lost and worried about Karim’s future.
“Stay where you are, Hamid,” Nico warned again, although he was now less worried about being rushed by a hoard of angry family members. “I’m sorry,” he said in his most professional voice. “But I’m going to have to take him into custody. He threatened a police officer.”
“No. No. Please no.” The mother got down on her knees and wailed. “He’s a good boy. He won’t do this again.”
Nico stiffened his spine. He couldn’t allow the woman’s pleading to get to him. The parents might think the sun shone out of their son’s ass, but Nico knew better. This guy was at the very least a cocaine addict, and at the worst a cold-blooded murderer. Lacey took a step forward as if to go to the woman, and he laid a hand on her arm to stop her. She flinched at his touch but stayed where she was. Her closeness reminded him of what they’d been doing mere moments before. They’d been about to kiss. And it would’ve been good too; he just knew it. She would’ve tasted sweet, like honey, and of the red wine they’d been drinking, and her lips would’ve been soft and welcoming.
Now he was going to have to send this young man off in a police car to be charged with being drunk and disorderly, and perhaps even assaulting an officer. Then there’d be all the damned extra paperwork he’d have to fill out tomorrow. Karim moved sluggishly at Nico’s feet as if the booze had taken hold of his mind again, then groaned loudly before vomiting onto the wooden decking.
This was not the ending to his evening Nico had been hoping for.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
LACEY STARED OUT the kitchen window into the early morning light. She’d let Smudge out to relieve himself, and she’d been standing here for a full ten minutes. Fuming. Angry. At Nico. She tried to damp down the churlish emotions, but they kept rising to the surface. She’d hardly slept a wink, as the whole scene on the front porch replayed in her mind in luminous technicolor all night. Karim, drunk and slurring, demanding to see her. Then as she went to talk to him, Nico had pushed her behind him, as if she were nothing. As if she were some weak woman and he was the man in charge. She didn’t like being told what to do. And she didn’t like it when men let their egos and their testosterone get the better of them. She was a trained judo expert. She could look after herself.
And she’d wanted to talk to Karim. To find out what he meant when he said he was being framed. Who he meant by this guy Floyd he’d mentioned. Because for some reason, she believed him. Had believed his demands that he was innocent. A cop was supposed to take an unbiased view. Not to believe or disbelieve what a witness said, but to go on what the evidence told you instead. But there was also the unwritten rule, that a cop was trained to go on gut instinct. Even if it wasn’t an official term, a lot of police talked about how they got a feeling when someone was telling the truth. Or when they were lying. And she knew Karim was telling the truth. But Nico had kept pushing her aside. He wouldn’t let her follow her instincts. It’d been eating at her all night, the way he’d effectively dismissed her, disparaging her abilities. And the anger had grown in her belly.
“Good morning.” Nico’s deep baritone preceded him into the room. She closed her eyes for a second, trying to force down the emotions, continuing to face the window. “How are you this morning? I’m sorry you had to see all that,” he continued.
“Hmm,” she replied noncommittally. Turning to face him, she tried to put on a smile, but it wouldn’t come.
He must’ve misjudged her reply for one of worry, because he said, “You know you’re safe now. Karim is locked up. At least for the next day or so until he gets bail.”
It was possibly the worst thing he could’ve said. She wasn’t afraid of Karim. It was the exact opposite; she’d wanted to help him. And Nico had stepped in and taken the man down. To protect her.
To be fair, Nico had seen her at her worst, after she broke down at the sight of his blood, and then again after Rania’s death. Yes, she suffered from PTSD; she could say that now without cringing. And yes, she needed psychiatric help to deal with the fallout. Maybe that made her weak in Nico’s eyes. And she hated that.
