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“Because you lied to me!” he spits. “Becauseshelied to me. Because you put me here, and now I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do about it.”
“Pass off the file! Let someone else run it. They won’t be able to solve it, they’ll archive the case, and we’ll move on with our lives.”
“Iknow who killed Fentone,” he seethes. “Iknow, Arch! So when I ask the captain to reassign the case, what am I supposed to say?Please, Cap. I just don’t feel like solving this one?”
“You tell him it’s a conflict of interest.” My phone trills in my pocket, but I ignore it and focus on Fletch’s honeycomb stare. The hurt in his eyes, and the rage he holds on to. “Fentone was coming for Mia. He was coming for your baby next. That’smorethan enough to excuse you from the case… and you fuckin’ know it.”
Fletch’s phone bleats now, too. Both of our devices going at once. Which means someone is dead, or Georgiana has been located.
I sigh. “You pass it on and move on with your life. You accept that Minka and I lied to protect you, and we killed Fentone to protect everyone else.”
“You’re a cop,” he groans. “A fuckin’ homicide detective, Arch. We can’t just move on from this.”
“I can.” My phone stops, but his doesn’t. “I’ve moved on, Fletch. I made my choices, and I stand by what happened as a result: we stopped a monster. And we stepped in onlyafterthe law was allowed the chance to take its shot.”
“Well, what if you got it wrong?” He takes out his phone and checks the screen. Frowns. But he brings his eyes back to me. “What if you killed the wrong man?”
“We didn’t. You think I haven’t already had this exact fucking argument with Minka? Thehow can you be sure? Andhow can you expect me to let you do this? We’ve had this discussion, Fletch! But she doesn’t get it wrong. He confessed to what he did, and now he’s dead. If he’d have lived, Mia would have been next. We have proof of that!”
My phone trills again, somehow louder. Demanding. So I take it from my pocket—and find my captain’s name flashing on the screen.
“Fuck.” My stomach drops with dread.
Swiping to answer, I look into Fletch’s eyes and hold his stare. “Captain Bower? This is Malone.”
“Detective Malone, where are you?”
“Uh…” I look down at the tile floor, like that’ll help me reorient myself. “Mays Lane. Mariana crime scene. Did you need something?”
“Yeah. Something’s come up. Something I need you to remain calm about.”
“What?” My heart kicks painfully in my chest as I shove Fletch to the side and swing the bathroom door open to charge into the hall. Moving to the window at the end, I look out to find the media crews gone. The vans, disappeared. Though cops remain. “Captain? What’s wrong?”
“There’s a situation in the city, Detective. We have a dozen cruisers on site, but we can’t breach.”
“Breach what?” I turn on my heels and start down the stairs. “What’s this got to do with me?”
“There’s an active hostage situation. Perp is armed and dangerous. One victim so far, with a GSW to the midsection, though we can’t get medics in to stabilize. The place is locked up tight, and there are not enough ingress points for our men to storm in and take back control. The front of the building is wide open with windows, and the stairs create a dead man’s walk type situation.” He stops and takes a breath. “We can’t take the building back yet.”
I push through the front door of the Georgiana house and emerge onto the lawn to find our cruisers still here. Cops still present. But everyone is glued to their radios.
Their eyes, however, are on me.
“What building, Captain? Is someone dead?” I turn when Fletch bolts out of the house behind me. His face, pale. His eyes, terrified. “I work homicide, so unless someone is dead, there’s no reas—”
“Chief Medical Examiner Minka Mayet is inside,” Captain Bower exhales.
Regret weaves through his every word, but he can’t know the way my stomach drops. How my heart stops. Or how my brain anxiously does the math as I try desperately to remember if Minka infused Factor VIII for her blood disorder last night, or if it’s tonight that she’s due.
If it’s the latter, she’ll bleed out and die at even the smallest injury.
“Detective Malone,” he murmurs. “Effective immediately, you’re being relieved of the Georgiana case, as well as all other actives you’re currently running. You’re officially off duty.”
“Captain—”
“Additionally, you are hereby forbidden from entering the scene at Copeland First National.”
“Captain!”
