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She’d paced, saying bits of one thing and parts of another. Speaking in fragments jumbled together. There were facts in there. Though making sense of them wasn’t straightforward.
At the end of the liberation of energy, it didn’t take much to convince Mila to get washed up in the bathroom. The woman needed her sleep. They all did.
“You can go,” she said, alone with Jagg in the hotel bedroom. “I mean I’m not dismissing you. I appreciate you sticking with us, but you have a life to get back to.”
“She thinks she’s in danger.”
“For what she told me,” she said, conflicted by her own guilt. “And what I might have passed on to Lach. If she’s in danger, it’s because of me.”
“This is not your fault. You had to tell the cop.”
“They still don’t see it as a single case. How can they not see that these women are linked? Mila said there’s someone else. Another victim.”
“Who?” Jagg asked.
She shook her head and sank onto the end of the bed. “I don’t know. Remember I told you I thought there were others? I just couldn’t pick out which was which. This is my first time as lead detective on a serial homicide case. I’m figuring this out as I go along.”
The quip was intended to be funny, ish. It was also true. Being the only one who recognized the pattern, she was the only one on the case. Or had been. Before Mila joined her.
“You have to be careful,” Jagg said. “If this Bryan works for Vex, it’s a setup.”
“We don’t know that. Maybe he knows something. Someone warned her to leave her apartment. Someone’s watching her back.”
It could be this Bryan. Whose side was he on?
“Don’t assume that either. See her behavior? The way she is now? Paranoid and tweaked. Everything you said the victims weren’t. They set it up like this, make her paranoid. Scared of what goes bump in the night, so she’s acting crazy before she disappears. Then everyone says they should’ve seen it coming. That she’d lost her mind since her roommate died.”
“How do you know that?” she asked. “How do you know they operate that way?”
“Because I was one of them. I did this kinda thing.”
“Driving people nutty?”
“She needs rest.”
He didn’t intend to answer the question. That much was clear from the finality of those words.
Curious as she was, it wasn’t the time to satisfy herself. “We all do,” she said, standing up. “You too. You should go.”
“Because you think I’m working for him? That I’m a spy for the other side?”
The accusation clanged around her skull, unfair and untrue.
“If I said yes, wouldn’t that make me paranoid and tweaky too?” The inhale and half roll of his eyes that preceded his chin descending didn’t fill her with confidence. “Hey…” Getting up close, she laid her hands on his waist. “I know you’re no saint. You have a past. Big deal. Who doesn’t? Just because I ask questions doesn’t mean I’m judging or doubting you.”
“You should. And you should stay away from guys like me. That’s what Strat and Ford would tell you.”
“I’ve never been good at doing what I’m told.” Sliding both arms around him, she nestled in close, sinking into his strength. “I feel bad sending you away when there are two beds right here… But I’m not sure I’d trust myself in bed with you.”
He caught her chin on a finger and raised it up. Her body was still wrapped around his, but his discerning eye probed for something more.
“Bad boys were never your thing. Growing up you had plenty of opportunity with Ford and Strat’s crews hanging around. You never fell for that shit.”
No, she hadn’t. People said women went for men like their fathers. That hadn’t been her experience.
“Maybe I don’t see you as a bad boy. You’re a good man. Legit. On the straight and narrow. You run a business, look after those important to you. Don’t you see? You’re a stand-up guy.”
“This isn’t on the table.”
