AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was like Tori said ... everything was wrong ... upside down.
“You can’t be sure, Devlin,” Peterson argued. “Kids do stupid shit sometimes.”
“You see,” she shouted at him, tears way too damned close to the surface, “that very attitude is why this investigation is so screwed up. You two are only looking for the easiest and fastest way out of this.”
“I know you’re upset,” Sykes allowed, “but that’s going too far, Devlin.”
“Is it?” she roared.
“Stop. Now,” Brooks commanded. “This discussion is over.”
“Sir,” Kerri began.
“Enough,” Brooks ordered.
When the room was silent, he turned to Sykes and Peterson. “You two will follow through with the information provided to Devlin by Grimes, and you will follow up on the Redmond girl’s disappearance. Talk to her parents. Talk to the head of Walker Academy. Check in with the detective assigned to both cases. If these events are in any way linked to the Myers case, I want to know. Are we understood?”
Yes, sirs sang out.
“Go,” Brooks ordered. “I don’t want to see your faces again until you have something concrete for me. This investigation is dragging on way too long. Find some damned answers.”
The two walked out without another glance at Kerri.
After the door closed, Brooks settled his attention on her once more. “Detective, as of this moment, you are on paid leave.”
“What?” Kerri surged to her feet. “But, sir, I—”
“No buts, Devlin. This is all too close for you.”
She shook her head. Before she could argue, he said, “You think I don’t know something happened last year?”
Shock kept her quiet.
“Oh yeah, Detective, I’m aware. I know you far too well not to have seen it. That case changed you, and it’s because of whatever part you and Falco left out of your final reports. I may never know what thatpart was, but I will not watch history repeat itself. Now go home and take care of your daughter.”
Kerri wanted to argue. She wanted to show how offended she was that he would even suggest such a thing. But she couldn’t.
Because he was right.
She had crossed a line during that investigation.
The memory would haunt her for the rest of her life.
29
9:05 a.m.
Sadie’s Loft
Sixth Avenue, Twenty-Seventh Street
Birmingham
Sadie sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning against the door to her loft.
She’d slept here last night. On the floor. Her body pressed into the wood like a wedge to make sure no one got inside.
Hours and hours she had studied all those damned pieces of paper—fragments of her past she had posted on her wall. Trying to remember more. To somehow shift those pieces together in a way that made sense.
