by Karen Rose
The shot made David flinch and made Kirby jerk as his body dropped away, dead before David drew a full breath. Stunned, David hung there, staring at the neat new hole in Kirby’s temple. Then, with a hoarse cough, he pulled Kirby’s lifeless hand from his collar and rolled to his back, his chest heaving as he struggled to fill his lungs. When he forced his eyes open, Olivia still held her gun in both hands, still pointed at Kirby’s head, her face an expressionless mask. Slowly she lowered the gun, reholstering it.
Pushing himself to his knees, David pressed his fingers to Kirby’s neck, then looked up at Olivia with grim satisfaction. “That’s all, folks,” he murmured.
She choked out a sound that was neither laugh nor sob, then fell to her knees next to David, her fingertips lightly grazing his face. “Oh God, look at you.” Sitting on his heels, he winced when she touched the back of his head, then frowned at the blood on her fingers. “You’re bleeding,” she said.
David blinked hard. Now that it was over the adrenaline was fading, pain seeping in to take its place. “Hit my head,” he said fractiously, then ran his fingers over his jaw, his frown deepening. “And busted a few stitches. Hurts like a bitch.”
“I guess so.” She brushed her lips over his temple. “I couldn’t get the shot without risking you. How did you know what to do?”
He breathed her scent and it calmed him. “I smelled honeysuckle. I knew you were there. I knew you’d do the right thing.”
She rested her brow against his. “I was afraid he’d take you, too,” she whispered.
His arms closed around her, absorbing her shudder. “He didn’t. You didn’t let him.”
“Liv?” Noah stood in the ruined glass doorway, reholstering his gun. Olivia pulled away, glancing at Kirby’s body before lifting her eyes to Noah’s.
“Kirby’s dead.”
“I know. I saw it all.” He nodded once, hard. “Very nice shot. You okay, David?”
Olivia stood up. “He needs an ambulance,” she answered for him.
“No, I don’t,” David said, rising as well, riding out the wave of dizziness and nausea. “Where’s my mother and Tom?”
“I called the EMTs,” Noah said, as if David hadn’t spoken. “They’re five minutes out. Your mother is in our car with Tom. She’s fine.”
David let out a relieved breath. “Kirby called to her. I thought for sure she’d come back and that Kirby would shoot her, too.”
“We were here already,” Noah said. “We heard Kirby yell. Phoebe almost did run back here. I convinced her to trust us. To let Olivia and me do our jobs.”
David closed his eyes. Between the relief and the pain in his head, he was feeling sick. “Thank you.”
“What about Mary?” Olivia asked. “Where is she?”
“In the kitchen,” Noah said. “She’s dead.”
David grimaced, remembering how her head had exploded. “Kirby shot her.”
Olivia sighed. “Now we’ll never get answers.”
“We have a few,” David said, and told them what he’d overheard.
“Mary issued the ex-con attacker an engraved invitation,” Noah said. “I guess I can’t blame Kirby for being a little annoyed at that. But the rest…”
“He was a sociopath,” Olivia said flatly. “He killed without blinking an eye.”
So had she. But that was entirely different. He thought of her cold focus in spite of everything she’d been through and was proud of her. He brushed at the glass sticking to his shirt, his ears pricking at the sound of a siren. The police. Finally.
“What took the cops so long?” he demanded.
“They didn’t have the aerial view that we did,” Olivia said. “Lots of cabins have green awnings. They’ve been searching from the ground while we waited for the state’s helicopter. I called in the address right before Tom crashed his car into the cabin.”
“Why did Tom crash the car into the house?” Noah asked.
“It was the only diversion I could think of big enough to keep Kirby busy while I got my mom out. He’d just shot his sister and he didn’t believe Mary when she said she’d already killed my mom. I knew he’d go looking for Mom next. I had to do something.”
Olivia blinked. “Mary told him she’d killed your mom already? She lied?”
“Yeah. Kirby came in, pointing his gun and asked where her hostage was. He’d guessed she was my mother. Asked if she’d stashed her in the closet. But Mary lied.”
“Because she didn’t want to hurt me.”
David spun around. His mother stood on the patio, Tom at her side. She was pale but otherwise unharmed. “Mom.” Heart in his throat, he met her halfway, intending to keep his hug light but tightening his arms when she started to cry. “Are you hurt?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m fine. I just… I could hear him. He shot his own sister. I thought he was going to kill you.”
“I thought he was, too,” David murmured. “But I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re fine.”
“We are.” She pulled back to search his face, wincing at the cuts and bruises, her eyes haunted. “I waited in the car as long as I could. Oh, honey, your face.”
“Just a few cuts and bruises. I’ll heal. Are you sure that you’re all right?”
“She was moving pretty fast,” Tom said wryly. “I could barely keep up with her when Noah gave us the all-clear signal after the gunshot.”
Unconvinced, David looked her over. “We’ll get a doctor’s opinion.”
“I do not need—” his mother began, but David cut her off with a look.
“For me. Please.”
She lifted her chin. “I will if you will.”
David had to smile. “You did that once, when I was six.”
“When you fell out of that tree and I thought you’d broken your arm. It worked then, it’ll work today.” She turned to Olivia, her heart in her eyes. “Thank you.”
“Thank you for trusting us just now. I know waiting and listening was hard to do.”
His mother lifted a visibly trembling hand to Olivia’s face, cupping her jaw. “You saved my son’s life.”
Olivia’s eyes closed briefly, as if absorbing the contact. “It was my pleasure.” Her eyes flickered down to Kirby. “On many levels.” She lifted her gaze to David. “Let’s get you sewn up again.”
He touched the knot on the back of her head. She tried to hide her flinch and failed terribly. “I will if you will,” he said. “You could have a concussion.”
“I can’t go now,” she protested. “I killed Kirby. I have reports to write.”
His mother frowned. “Those reports can wait a few hours, can’t they, Noah?”
“Absolutely,” Noah said. “Go, Olivia. I can handle things here.”
David slid his arm around Olivia’s waist. “Come,” he murmured in her ear. “Let go now. It’s all over. Let me take care of you.”
She leaned into him, and it felt right. “We’ll take care of each other.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Thursday, September 23, 2:00 p.m.
Excuse me. I’m looking for Detective Sutherland.”
David looked away from the window into Abbott’s office where the team had been debriefing for nearly an hour. A small woman in a dark dress was walking across the bull pen and David came to his feet. Her eyes were red, her face weary, and in her hands she held a large box. Instinctively, he knew who she was. If so, he could guess what was in the box.
“Detective Sutherland is in a debriefing,” David said.
Abbott had called Olivia while they’d been about to sit down to lunch with his family, asking her to come in, that they had some ends to tie off as the investigation wound down. David had insisted on accompanying her, aware that he’d be sitting, waiting until the cops were done. But her eyes still showed signs of strain and he was afraid that after the meeting, she’d lose herself in paperwork, even though she’d taken the day off. He could make sure that didn’t happen. “I’m just waiting for her, but o
ne of the other detectives can help you.”
“No, that’s all right. You’re the firefighter. The one who caught the ball.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m David Hunter.”
“I’m Jennie Kane.”
“I thought so. I’m sorry.”
She nodded once. “Thank you.” She said it determinedly, as if getting used to the taste of the words in her mouth. “I didn’t really come to talk to the detectives. I’m not sure I can right now.” She lifted her chin. “You’re Olivia’s young man?”
“Yes, ma’am. I am.”
Her lips whisked up in a ghost of a smile. “And your mother? She’s well?”
“She is.” David wanted to ask her to sit down, but he sensed Jennie Kane wanted to get out as soon as she possibly could. “Can I help you with something?”
She nodded again, relieved. “I want Olivia to have this. Tell her it was Kane’s favorite. Tell her…” Her voice trembled and she drew a breath. “Tell her she was, too. Of all the rookie detectives he trained, she was his favorite.” She held out the box and David took it, respectfully. She drew another breath, her hands fluttering at her sides. “He worried about her. So did I. But you’ll take good care of her.”
It wasn’t really a question. “Yes, ma’am. I promise.”
“Good. Thank you.” Then she rushed away before anyone saw her.
A few minutes later, the door to Abbott’s office opened and the team filed out, quietly going about their business. Noah went to his desk, a thick folder in his hand.
“Micki’s group got into the files on Kirby’s laptop,” Noah said. “These were his blackmail victims.”
“All those?” David asked. “Are you going to tell them?”
“We have to,” Noah said. “Most of these people are still paying him. You should have seen the operation this guy had. Microphones all over the Deli, recorders in the apartment above. It’s going to take us weeks to go through everything we found.”
David moved from Olivia’s chair to the edge of her desk, sliding the box behind him for the moment. Wearily she sank into her chair. “They found this little gizmo in his pocket. It let him tune in to any conversation that he wanted. I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of what I said to Kane standing in that line, waiting for coffee over the years. We met Val the interpreter there. That had to be where he found out about her.”
“Any idea of where he may have taken her?” David asked her and she closed her eyes. Once the dust had settled last night, finding the interpreter had been uppermost in her mind.
“Yes. Micki found blood in his van, Val’s blood type. Then she realized Kirby had a GPS unit. They worked all night to trace where he’d gone and found he’d taken a drive to the country.” She opened her eyes and he saw sadness and more than a little guilt. “Micki and Bruce had Brie and GusGus go over the area. Didn’t take them long to find Val’s body.”
“Olivia.”
She swallowed hard. “He tortured her.”
“Not your fault, baby.”
“I know. But still…” She sighed heavily. “Dammit. Bruce had to tell her kids.”
David cleared his throat, not wanting to picture that scene but unable to keep himself from doing so. “What did Andy Crawford have to say?” he asked, changing the subject. The FBI agent’s son had been in Abbott’s office when Olivia arrived and had left after a half hour, grim-faced and silent, not saying a word to David as he hurried out.
“When we told him Mary had been an IV drug user, he couldn’t believe it. He said he knew she’d had Percocet once when she started college because she’d had dental surgery. He hadn’t seen her in a long time. Didn’t know she was an addict. But he funded it. He paid all her bills, gave her spending money and never asked questions. He felt guilty that his father had spent the family savings on him, leaving Jonathan and Mary with nothing. But Mary made him uncomfortable, too. So he kept his distance.”
“Why didn’t he mention Jonathan when you talked to him yesterday?”
“Andy said he hadn’t heard from Jonathan since the day he left home. Andy was in medical school by then, too busy with his own life to worry about Jonathan. And he said he was happy that was the case. Andy didn’t like his father too well either. We asked him where Mary could be. We didn’t think to ask about another brother and Andy didn’t think that’s where she’d go. Jonathan and Mary hated each other.”
“Yeah, I got that,” David murmured, thinking about what he’d heard. And seen.
“I know,” she said. “I’m glad you and your mother heard them. Otherwise, we might never have known why.”
“And the blackmailing?” David asked. “When did he start?”
“From his business records, it looks like Jonathan started working part-time at the Deli when he started college, then dropped out of school to work full-time.”
Noah patted the thick folder he was working through. “Which corresponds to the time he started blackmailing.”
“He could make more money that way,” David said. “Immoral, but sensible.”
“He was very sensible,” Noah said coldly. “He knew when not to blackmail, when to stay the hell away.” He held up a DVD. “We found this in his nightstand drawer. It’s the first victim I found hanging in her apartment last February. We knew she’d met her killer at a coffee shop. Our lead suspect at the time went to the Deli every day, so we asked Kirby for his tapes. He said he had cameras only on the register, but he obviously lied. He saw the victim her last night. Saw the killer follow her. He knew.”
“And said nothing.” Then David frowned. “But he warned Eve that she was being stalked by that guy posing as a reporter. That helped save her life.”
“I don’t know why,” Noah admitted. “Maybe we’ll figure him out through his files.”
“I know enough.” Olivia’s jaw was clenched. “He killed Kane. Killed Weems. Killed Tomlinson and Blunt. Crawford and Mary. And he would have killed you.”
David shuddered, the memory of Kirby’s gun in his face all too clear. “But he didn’t.”
“No.” She looked at her hands, then back up to meet his eyes. “Abbott had the parents of Tracey Mullen in yesterday, while we were searching for your mother. He showed them the autopsy report—the abuse. The parents pointed fingers at each other, but finally her mother confessed. She’d been angry with Tracey for refusing to use her cochlear implant. Tracey had been purposely leaving it in a drawer. The mother’s new husband was annoyed that he’d spent money on the surgery and that Tracey ‘wasn’t even trying’ to learn to use it. Mom got mad and twisted her arm, told Tracey that if she couldn’t sign, she’d have to try harder with the implant. Mom’s been living with the guilt.”
“Will she be charged?” David asked.
“Oh yes. She’s being handed over to the Florida authorities.”
“So Tracey ran away, to Austin Dent,” David said. “Why not tell her father?”
“Because she was sixteen and scared. And thought she was in love with Austin. Austin told the same story, that Tracey was running from her mother, afraid her father would do something foolish if she told him the truth. I keep wondering what Kirby would have done if Tracey hadn’t been there that night. If he’d have pushed Mary and the others to set more fires. He wouldn’t have been searching for Kenny at the school had Tracey and Austin not been involved. Val would still be alive. And so would Kane.”
“You can’t think like that, Olivia,” David said gently. “You can’t lay what happened to Kane on Tracey’s mother’s shoulders. The incidents are linked, but so many other factors came into play.”
“I know. But it’s hard not to.”
“I know. You, uh, had a visitor while you were in the meeting. Jennie was here.”
She sat up straighter in her chair. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she really didn’t want to talk. She brought you this.” He put the box in front of her and watched as she stared at it, recognition in her eyes.
“I can’t take it,” she whispered.
“Olivia. She wanted you to have it.”
Her hands trembled as she lifted the hat from the box. “This was his favorite.”
“Jennie said you were, too.”
Her eyes filled. “What do I do with it?”
David took her fedora from the head of the goddess bust on her desk. “Wear yours and keep his there.”
Her mouth opened, then closed before she found her voice. “And look at it every day?”
He said nothing, letting her make the decision.
It didn’t take her long. She carefully put Kane’s hat on the goddess head. “Where we can all see it every day. It’s good.” She met David’s eyes. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Your hat needs to be cleaned. It’s got blood on the brim.”
“It’s Crawford’s.” She put her hat in the box. “Kane presented this fedora when I cleared my first homicide. Said ‘Nice job.’” She smiled at the memory. “From Kane that was high praise.”
Noah cleared his throat. “His burial is Saturday. Full honors, brass in dress, bagpipes—Kane’ll get the works.”
Olivia looked at Kane’s hat, her expression sadly fond. “He’d like that. Especially the brass in their dress uniforms and tight shoes. He’d be happy that their feet hurt. Come on. Dr. Donahue called while we were in meeting. Lincoln is awake and asking to talk to you.” Olivia patted Noah’s shoulder as she passed by. “Tomorrow, partner.”
“It’s official?” David asked. Noah would be a good partner. He’d watch her back. And Olivia would watch his. “That means both Evie and I will sleep better at night.” Noah lifted his brows and David chuckled. “In our respective places. You knew that.”
Noah smiled. “I knew. How’s your partner? Zell?”
“He’s got a little feeling in his toes, so that’s good news. Nobody’s sure how much better it’ll get. However it ends up, he’ll be on disability for a long time. Which means I’ll get a new partner after these damn stitches come out. Hey, my mother’s planning a big dinner at my loft tonight, since the family’s here. You’re coming?”