“What? You’re crazy. Romia doesn’t even know what’s going on.”
“So you have heard from her?”
“No,” Keliegh lied bold faced and stared at the IA man, Maxwell Huntington. He held his lie solid until finally Maxwell realized he would not take it back.
“Fine! But be warned, Detective Jack. That woman is not who you think she is. She’s a vicious killer—an assassin. If you had done your homework, you’d know what I’m talking about. But for now, just know that if you get in her way, you can expect to die next.”
“She would never hurt me.”
“Oh, no? I’m sure the bartender Mike, that ‘friend’ of hers, thought the same thing.”
“She didn’t kill Mike.”
Maxwell shrugged again, allowing a wicked grin to cross his lips. Keliegh realized then that the man with him earlier had walked off. “I wouldn’t chance it,” Maxwell said, bringing his attention back to their conversation. “She’s bent. Gone.”
Keliegh knew in his heart he didn’t believe any of this, yet just hearing it was making him uncomfortable. Why hadn’t Romia told him her mother had been murdered? “Where is the body from last night? I want to know his name. I want to know who she supposedly killed today. And, yeah, how did you know so fast? My uncle just got there and—”
“Oh, we’ve had our eyes on her. Make no mistake about that.” Maxwell shook his finger in Keliegh’s face. “And when we catch her, she’s goin’ down. And you listen good, mister, you are suspended. Go home. Go on vacation. Get outta our way, because if we keep tripping over your ass, you’re going down too.”
“You’ll never catch her,” Keliegh said, giving the receptionist who had gotten interested in their conversation an irritated look.
“Don’t bet on it,” Maxwell said.
Just then the phone rang. The receptionist answered it.
“You must be bad luck, mister. Now we got four bodies coming in all at once. Sheesh!” the receptionist called out. “As if my job isn’t hard enough, gotta log in this stuff,” she mumbled, focusing on her computer screen as if waiting for electronic confirmation of her phone call.
Keliegh turned back and looked at Maxwell, who smiled and shrugged.
“And I bet they have assassination written on all over them in bold letters—Romia Smith.”
“Not everybody who dies in this city has Romia’s name on them.”
“Again, Mr. Bad Luck,” Maxwell chuckled, repeating the receptionist, “don’t bet on it!” Maxwell pushed Keliegh back and quickly headed back toward the elevator, as if he wanted to be the first to see the bodies that were coming in. Still, Keliegh looked around for the other man that was talking with Maxwell earlier, but he was gone.
Stepping outside, Keliegh thought about Romia. He needed to talk to her. He needed to believe her—to clear out from his head all Maxwell had said. Just then the phone rang. It was Tommy.
“Whatcha got?” he asked Tommy.
“Not much, but then, maybe a lot,” she answered.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Don’t bite my head off. I’m stepping out on a limb here and maybe worse. I’m not even getting a thanks.”
“Thanks,” Keliegh barked.
“And you’re welcome too.”
“Sorry, it’s that Maxwell Huntington guy. He was here at the morgue. The body wasn’t here, but he was.”
“Really? Wow, this is getting really interesting.”
“I wouldn’t call it interesting…not really.” Keliegh responded.
“I would…’cause nobody’s heard of the guy. I keep trying to corner the captain but can’t get near him.” Tommy said.
“Who the hell is he?” Keliegh asked, turning back to the morgue doors, debating if he would go back in and find out on his own.
“Want another mystery? I was doing some snooping around, you know, seeing who’s on this case and well, nobody is. That means nobody’s heard of this Maxwell cat or a shooting last night. I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t suspended either. Hold on…”
Keliegh could hear the commotion through the muted phone. “You hear that? Captain stormed through asking what the hell was going on. He asked where you were. He said, ‘Mike’s dead?’ This is like a sick joke.”
“No joke. Apparently, somebody is claiming that Romia took out some guys at The Spot about an hour ago. For real. One of them was Mike.”
“She killed Mike? Is that what all the hubbub is about? Things are getting really nutty around here. Mike is dead? Hey, wait a sec…who knew before we did?”
“Maxwell,” they said at the same time.
“I’ma see if I can find out more about this Maxwell dude, maybe find out his game. Then I’m headed out to The Spot.”
“I’ll meet you there. Hey, what about your girlfriend?” Tommy said, allowing plenty of sarcasm to come through. “I mean, she just dropped outta sight and that’s not like her.”
Keliegh sighed heavily and hung up. “Oh, don’t I know it. I still need to go see her.”
After storming back into the morgue, Keliegh was told that Maxwell and his partner were gone. “How? I didn’t see them leave.” he asked the receptionist.
“Guess what? Apparently there is more than one way outta here, Mr. Bad Luck!”
“Hey, by the way, who all came in last night? I’ll just take the entire roster.”
“Ah, well, this I can tell you. Mr. Huntington told me not to tell you anything else. So as far as you’re concerned, nobody did.”
“Fine!” Keliegh growled before rushing back out of the morgue to his car.
Chapter 15
Shashoni barely cracked the door after Keliegh knocked relentlessly. “Go away,” she whined.
“Open the door, baby. What’s the matter with you?”
“I can’t talk about it,” she cried.
Pushing the door open, he stormed in like Bogart.
She stepped back. She was wearing a robe and her hair was a mess. Dark circles had formed under her sleepless red eyes. She looked as if she’d been through the mill.
“What’s going on?”
Holding back for a moment longer she finally burst into tears, falling into his open arms. “Oh, Keliegh. I was abducted by aliens!”
“What?” he asked. Holding back his first thoughts, he held her up. He supported her in her clearly weakened state, while moving her over to her sofa. Shashoni looked frightful and although Keliegh didn’t believe for a moment it was aliens, he did know something horrible had happened. Besides, where had she been since the shooting last night? Where was she during all that madness?
“They kidnapped me and, well…” She shook her head vehemently as if trying to forget. “It was awful.”
Keliegh held her tight now, as she cried pitiably in his arms. His mind spun while trying to get ahead of her side of this conversation. He had nothing to say that would help, so he planned to just listen. After a moment or two, she kissed him, urging him to return the affection. Moving his hands inside her robe, he found her naked underneath. Sex for pity…pity for sex was what she wanted now. Keliegh knew the signs. No talking, just sex: that was Shashoni. “Shash, where were you?” He pushed himself back, closing her robe quickly.
“I don’t know,” she answered in a whiny voice. “This man grabbed me when I ran out of the bar. They threw me in a big car.”
“He or they?”
“What?”
“You said ‘he grabbed you’ and then you said ‘they threw you in the car,’ which one was it?”
“He,” she answered, sitting up now, showing irritation with Keliegh’s lack of concern for her near-death experience. “He grabbed me and threw me in this big black car and they…there was a they in the car…they drove me to this awful place and wouldn’t let me leave until just a few hours ago. Then they brought me home.”
“So nothing happened. Well, I mean, something happened, but nothing. Can you ID them?”
Shashoni sat back on
the sofa, fully cooling the space between them. “You don’t even care that they could have killed me.”
“Did you hear any names? Could you identify them if you saw a picture or heard them again? Did you call the police?”
“No.” Shashoni stood and adjusted her robe, making sure she was fully covered and out of Keliegh’s reach in case he changed his mind. “They said they were the police.”
“And you believed them?”
She smacked her lips. “Well, I’m not believing you! What a foul attitude you have. I think we need to break up,” she said, sounding impulsive.
Rolling his eyes, he stood. “Do you even know what happened last night?”
“Yes. I was kidnapped and my man was too busy with his ex-partner to notice I was even gone until over twenty-four hours later.”
“It hasn’t been twenty-four hours, but—”
“Get outta here!” Shashoni rushed to the door and opened it. Keliegh stood his ground.
“I really want to know who threw you in the car. I just wish you could tell me something. Romia needs all the help—”
“Romia? Ugh,” Shashoni gasped. “That’s all those men were talking about too. Romia this and Romia that. They were saying she was a communist or something.”
Shashoni ran out and was detained out of the way until conveniently everything was over. Why? Who knew what was about to happen? And why were they talking about Romia? Standing in the foyer in front of the door, Keliegh tried to put some thoughts together. “They were talking about Romia? The men who nabbed you were talking about her. Did they have accents?”
“Ugh,” Shashoni gasped again, this time shoving him out the door. Suddenly Shashoni’s door flew open. “Keliegh, come back. You need to hear this!”
“Shash, I—”
“The TV. Keliegh! It’s about your ex-partner!”
Keliegh dashed back into the small apartment in time to hear the end of the newsflash.
“Again, she is believed to be armed and dangerous. Anyone seeing this woman is urged to call the San Francisco Police Department immediately. Do not try to apprehend this woman, as she is suspected to have single-handedly slaughtered five people on a killing spree, which started last night at approximately ten P.M. at The Spot tavern in the Palemos. This spree has resulted in the murder of the tavern’s owner, Mike Brumsky…”
“Mike is really dead,” Keliegh repeated, sitting back down on the sofa. Mike, their Mike, the bartender who over the years had become a friend to all on the force. The day’s news was catching up to his brain, fact by awful fact. Sure he’d heard that Mike was dead, but reality was hitting him. “Dead! Romia?” How could Romia be a murder suspect?
Shashoni wrapped her arms around his shoulders, embracing him, consolingly nuzzling his neck. Slowly, her hands wandered over his shoulders to his chest, where she began to massage him sensually.
He grabbed her hands, pulling them over his head as he stood and spun to face her. “Look, this is serious!”
“I am serious. This all is very crazy and I’m scared, Kel. I need you to hold me,” she added, outstretching her arms.
“Here is a picture of the suspect,” the newscaster went on as a very unflattering photo of Romia flashed on the screen.
“God, she looks horrible,” Shashoni gasped, turning her head toward the TV just as Romia’s picture flashed on the screen. “Where did they find that god-awful photo? She needs to sue them. Well, I guess if she’s out killing people it doesn’t really matter. That’s crazy, Kel…and to think that you thought you knew her.”
Keliegh turned back to the screen with wide eyes, and then, without saying good-bye, he darted out the door. His head was whirling and his cell phone was ringing. It was Tommy.
He didn’t pick up.
Chapter 16
Keliegh’s trip out to The Spot was different from Romia’s in that he was met with yellow tape, photographers, plenty of plastic gloves, and a grimacing uncle who was making his way through blood and gore while looking for evidence.
“So you knew about this?” Lawrence Miller asked Keliegh, who still seemed amazed at the sight he was seeing.
People gathering to get a glimpse of dead bodies was always what Keliegh hated most about scenes like this. He worked vice, but sometimes it overlapped with homicide and when it did, it was usually bad news.
“Tell me how in the hell you knew about this before it happened?”
“I didn’t…I don’t.” Keliegh was fighting shock. “I want to know what you got, though. I want to know who’s dead.”
“How should I know, nobody seems to carry ID anymore.”
Keliegh shook his head. He was thinking of Maxwell Huntington. How did he know about this? “Damn.”
“So, you need to get back to finding your little ex-partner. We have some questions for her and if we find her first…” Lawrence said before gagging.
His partner then joined their conversation. Jim Beem was a shorter white guy with a cool, scruffy look. On some level he was probably considered a handsome man, but to Keliegh he just seemed like an odd little man. “You gonna puke? Please don’t puke,” Jim said before turning his attention to Keliegh. “Hey, Kel, you rubberneckin’ or what?”
“No, just here to see if there really are dead bodies here this time,” Keliegh said without thinking.
“As opposed to a crime scene without any…now what fun is that?” Jim asked. “My question here is how many killers?”
“One,” Lawrence barked. “Witnesses say a woman fitting Romia’s description came in to talk to”—he pointed at one of the body bags—“body number one, and when”—he pointed at the other three bags—“they came in, she turned into a ninja warrior and did a number on those three before tossing a knife into”—again he pointed at the first body bag in the row—“that guy.”
“Who are these witnesses?”
“Kel, this is not your case. You need to leave. I’m not giving you an option, I’m giving you a direct order. Now get outta here.”
“It’s my ex-partner, guys. You have to let me—”
“No, we don’t,” Lawrence argued, fanning over a uniformed cop. “Arrest him.”
The officer reached for cuffs.
Keliegh jumped back out of his reach. “Get the hell away from me. Look, Unk, you want Romia, this is not the way to get her.”
“I know. An APB is the way to get her. Blasting her cute little deadly ninja ass over every newspaper in the city will get her…”
“Ooh, a cute little ninja ass,” Jim teased before patting the officer on the shoulder, urging him to back off Keliegh and taking him back into the ongoing investigation. Jim then began pointing the photographers into the directions they needed to head into.
“Look, Unk,” Keliegh then whispered. “I’ll get you Romia if you promise me you guys will listen to her.”
Lawrence took a deep breath as if regaining his composure. “Listen to what? Look, just get her to me. No promises.”
Keliegh shook his head. “Can’t work with that.”
“Look, your ass better work with it because if you know where she is, you’re gonna go down as an accomplice. To what, I don’t know yet, but—”
“I don’t. But I have a feeling she’s gonna come to me.”
Lawrence rolled his eyes. “Why? You sleeping with her?”
“No. No. I just…” Keliegh sighed. “We’re soulmates, Unk. We’re…” Keliegh rubbed his heart that suddenly began to ache with just the words he’d said.
“Whatever,” Lawrence groaned while rolling his eyes.
“You recognize this?” Jim asked, holding up a small dirty piece of fabric brightly colored with the emblem Romia treasured—the phoenix.
Keliegh tightened his lips, knowing it was Romia’s. He’d seen it in her apartment in a frame. He’d seen it on her gear. It was her symbol and represented who she was. This piece of fabric used to belong to her mother. He knew that much.
“No,” he lied. “Look, I’m gonn
a go see my girlfriend,” he lied, backing out of the conversation as best he could.
“You still seeing that Sha…sha…” Lawrence struggled.
“Shashoni, yeah, I’ma check with you all later,” Keliegh said, realizing then they had had no idea that Shashoni had been involved the night before. Actually, it was clear that Jim and Lawrence had no clue about anything that had to do with the night before.
His cell phone rang. It was Tommy.
Man, she is always quick to catch a whistle.
Chapter 17
Only a crazy person would ride around on her motorcycle during broad daylight with a helmet that showed a brightly colored phoenix on it. Romia felt crazy and, frankly, too tired to care. There was no way she was going to hide out during all of this. But she wasn’t just going to march into Maxwell’s office and turn herself in. Something about that guy rubbed her the wrong way.
Right now she needed to figure out who the Shadow was and why he was helping her one minute and trying to kill her the next. It was obvious he had brought her motorcycle and helmet to her, because he had taken her helmet. But how did he get her bike back from the cops? She tried to remember all she could about him, but it was a waste, because he and she were always fighting in each other’s presence. Pretty hard to get acquainted, she reasoned.
Entering Richmond city limits, she pulled into an out-of-the-way Japanese restaurant; one she knew served purely vegan cuisine. She smiled thinking about Keliegh and how impossible it was to convince him to give up meat. Pulling into the parking lot, she took off her helmet and loosed her hair from the staunch ponytail she wore. Still in her nightclothes, she thought about how easily she could be spotted, and unzipped her hoodie to reveal her wifebeater underneath. “I need to get on foot during the day,” she reasoned. “I need to park my bike somewhere safe.” Glancing at her watch, she saw that it had been only hours since the men were killed at the tavern. No doubt her face had been plastered all over the news. Glancing around at the few patrons, she gave second thought to her meal and opted for a Greek drive-thru she knew about. Quickly pulling herself back together, she jumped back on her bike and she headed for it.
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