AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His attention went from the phone to side-eye her. “I told you to stop using my name at the precinct.”
“I don’t need to use your name,” she said, inspecting the tattoo picture. “They know me.”
“And they give you information because they think I’ve sanctioned what you’re doing,” he said. “Which I haven’t, by the way, I don’t.”
She put down the phone and picked up her drink. “You made that clear… many, many times… Did you ask for the case?”
“I’ve got enough on my plate,” he said. “You wouldn’t be any easier to deal with if it was my case. If any of them were my case. And I’m vice. Not homicide.”
“It’s just one case.”
“There are three dead women,” he said. “Three cases.”
“They’re linked.”
“So you keep saying,” he said, tipping beer into his mouth. “Show me proof.”
Frustration was grating. “Which is what you keep saying,” she said. “Trust me, they’re linked. I don’t know how you can—”
“The MO’s different,” he said, putting down his beer to count on his fingers. “Location of the bodies, different. State of the bodies, different. Cause of death, different.”
“Manner of death, the same.” Murder. “And they all have the tattoo,” she said, pushing her phone toward him.
“Doesn’t mean anything.”
“Why not?” The way he sealed his lips piqued her interest. “Why doesn’t it mean anything?”
He returned to his drink. “Just trust me. It doesn’t.”
“You won’t trust me, but I should trust you?”
“There are things I know that I can’t share with you,” he said. “You know that.”
Yeah, because being on the outside had been a sticking point in their relationship.
Persistence was the only route to potential victory.
“They’re the same age,” she said.
“Roughly.”
“From similar backgrounds.”
“Approximately.”
“None of them had debts or vices.”
“That you know about.”
“This is suspicious. There’s enough similarity to consider a connection,” she said. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re wrong,” he said, his lips curling around his bottle as he drank. She just sneered at him, which earned her a laugh. “Okay, look, I don’t know. Maybe they are connected.”
Hope. Finally! “You think?”
“No,” he said with a single head shake, then leaned in to kiss her temple. “Work the only reason you wanted to meet tonight?” She shrugged, propping a hand under her chin to hold up her head. He sighed. “You want me to get into it?” Dubious, she wouldn’t be fooled a second time. Was he serious or not? “I can ask some questions. No promises.”
Grinning, she threw both arms around him. “Thank you.”
