Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“I’m free tomorrow. Come to the house for breakfast. Bring your girl. Don’t come before ten,” Sebastian instructed before leaving Kettle and me standing there.
Kettle watched the VP go, and then turned to me.
“Viddy and Adeline talk,” he said slowly.
I raised my eyebrow at him in question. “And?”
“Maybe your girl would like to join their talk sometime. They feel like you’re purposefully not bringing her around because she’s scared of the club. Said your girl freaks out whenever Trance gets near,” he said
I looked back to Channing who was nearly done getting her stitches. “It’s not the club, necessarily, but cops. She was...yeah. I don’t really want to talk about it, and it’s her information to share. But suffice it to say, she didn’t have a good experience with one when she was sixteen, and that’s left her wary. I’ll bring her by tomorrow if she’s up to it. Don’t let them gossip about her though. She’s already self-conscious enough.”
He nodded. “Gotta go. We were in the middle of dinner when we got that call. I’ll check you later.”
“Later,” I said.
Forty five minutes later, I was walking with Channing up her front walk.
“Will you do it?” She asked as she searched through her purse. “It gives me the hives being under a time constraint. Do you remember that game where you had to try to fit all the shapes into that little box before the timer went off and popped all the pieces back out? That’s the way I feel when I’m disarming the alarm.”
I laughed as I took the keys from her, unlocked it, and easily disarmed the alarm.
We were just walking through when my pager went off.
“Fuck,” I groaned and glanced at the pager.
Pulling out my phone, I called into dispatch with a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“This is Detective Rector, I just got paged,” I said evenly, trying to contain the roiling emotions trying to entice me to spill my guts all over the white tiled floor of Channing’s entrance way.
“Detective Rector, we have a single suspected homicide at the gas station on June and Trail Road. Are you available to lead?” Dispatch asked.
“10-4. I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” I confirmed and we hung up.
Turning around, I found Channing looking at me worriedly. “Does this happen a lot?”
Putting the phone back in my pocket, I looked at her closely, studying her disposition, and very reluctant to leave her here alone after she’d just been hurt.
“You okay to be left alone?” I asked her quietly.
She wouldn’t really be left alone. I had a few prospects keeping an eye out on the house, but I’d ask her anyway.
She nodded. “I’m fine.”
She didn’t look fine. She looked wary.
“If you need me, you’ll call me, right?” I asked.
She nodded, but stopped mid-nod. “I don’t have your number.”
I wanted to smack myself in the head.
Taking my phone out of my pocket, I dialed her number.
Her phone rang from the direction of her back pocket, but she didn’t reach for it.
Once I was assured she had my number, I put my own phone away and walked up to her until our lips were only millimeters apart.
“Be good,” I said against her lips.
I felt her lips open up into a smile underneath my own as she answered.
“Never anything but.”
***
I knew as soon as I pulled onto June Street that this case was connected with the one two days ago.
As I pulled into the drive, parking directly next to the police line now encompassing the entire lot, I looked directly across the street to where Channing and I were not even two hours before.
The funeral home’s front exit was directly across from the gas station the victim died at, and the side door we’d rushed out of shared the same street that the side of the gas station did.
Which meant that we walked outside right about the time the man was being murdered across the street from us.
“Goddamn,” I said as I hauled myself out of the car.
The first person to walk up to me was Tunnel Morrison, and I knew him being here as the first responder for the second murder wasn’t a coincidence, either.
“You were first on the scene?” I asked, praying for a different answer than the one I knew was about to come out of his mouth.
He nodded grimly. “Yes, sir.”
His voice was quiet and serious. He knew just as well as I did what this meant.
We had a killer on our hands. One that had my name etched on the edge of his sword.
He was gunning for me, and he wanted me to know it.
“Walk me through what you know,” I said to Tunnel as we walked towards the scene.
He turned and walked at my side.
“I arrived after the convenience clerk called in a dog barking at the back of his shop. It was the victim’s cell phone ringing. His wife was concerned because the man was supposed to be home over an hour ago. He stops here every night for a 6-pack and a scratch off ticket. ID on him identifies him as Brian Jones, 32,” he said clearing his throat. “He’s got stab wounds to his chest and neck. Clothes are in a pile near the back door.”
Twenty minutes later, I’d observed the scene and then turned it over to the crime scene techs to do their magic.
I found myself facing my boss, and a look of haunted fury was etched all over his face.
“Tell me what you know,” Cabe demanded.
After telling him how I thought the cases were related and why, I finished off with one last succulent statement. “Goddammit, he’s just playing with me. He knew turning the lights off would draw me out of there. He also knew I’d be the one called on this one due to its similarity to the last murder. He wanted me to be the one to lead the case.”
Cabe shook his head. “I don’t see how it could be Varian. He turned over eight men, who are now in the custody of BPD. They’re on a trip to county lock-up in the morning.”