This made her cry even harder. Avi leaned forward and snagged the box of tissues from the table with an arm his brother had compared to an orangutan’s.
Kimi pulled two out and held them to her face as she cried. “He can’t tell you. So you’ll never find her. And it’s all our fault.”
“What did you do?” He didn’t look at her. He didn’t move away. He just asked the question.
And she answered.
“We heard of a guy. All we’d have to do is pay him. This is a bad man, Avi. He pet our hair and looked down our shirts and everyone knew you could get a better grade if you wore a skirt. But no one listened. And he’s friends with cops. Not like you. With the kind of cops who wear suits.”
Kimi wasn’t making any sense but Avi didn’t interrupt. He hoped she’d drop a name if he let her keep babbling.
“And they were gonna promote him. Someone had to do something. All we needed was ten thousand dollars. So we held bake sales and car washes and lots of us got cash for prom stuff. Brit gave it all to the guy. And now we’ll never find Moira.”
Kimi broke down in tears again. When Avi tried to calm her she shook him off and stood. She paced around the room. He had to get her talking again.
“Brit gave ten thousand dollars to this guy to stop touching you?”
“NO!” Kimi screamed. She punched the table and then dropped into the murderer’s chair like a rag doll, shoving the CPR dummy out of her way. She sat there looking at her empty hands, horrified. “Coach. You can’t find Moira because Coach took her. And you can’t find Coach because. . .” she looked at Avi, “Brit gave the KC ten thousand dollars to kill him.”
All the blood drained from Avi’s face and his hands went cold. Then he used the wall to stand up and grinned. “Well, it’s all okay then. Because I can find the KC.”
Fourteen
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Kevin Koehler leaped back off his stool and shook a few drops of gin and tonic from his hand. He looked like he might punch Tim in the face. Kissy looked as though she’d like do the same.
Tim put his hands up in front of him. “Hey, hey. Just having some fun. Easy now, Coach.”
He stumbled just enough, slurring his apology. As Koehler looked down at the empty glass in disgust, Tim shot a glance at Avi who was staring in horror at his dripping wet lover. Tim glanced over and stifled a smile. He raised an eyebrow at Avi who finally took the hint.
The big man stepped in between Koehler and Tim. “Look, you’ve had a bit too much. Buy the man another drink and. . .”
Tim could see Avi wanted to make him apologize to Kissy. But he needed to get Koehler to trust him and being nice to women was not the way to get in good with this tool.
Tim rescued him. And Kissy. “Jessica!” he hollered much too loudly. “My friend spilled his drink.”
Koehler made a lunge for Tim. Avi grabbed him. “He’s not worth it.”
“Get him a new one. Anything his pansy heart desires.” Tim threw a taunting smile back at Koehler as he stumbled away. “On me, of course.”
He heard Avi consoling the man through gritted teeth. “Hey, we’re getting a private wet t-shirt contest.”
Tim glanced back just in time to catch Kissy shoot Avi the evil eye. She set the empty glass in the sink and grabbed a fresh bar towel. She ducked under the bar and headed for the back hall. Tim followed as quickly as he could while keeping up his drunken facade.
She slipped into the ladies room, unbuttoning her top. The door had barely closed when Tim caught it and slipped in after her. He looked around as he grabbed her shoulders and steered her back to the door.
“You’ll dry. We have to erase that footage,” he whispered in her ear.
She started to protest, but he shushed her and pulled her quickly and quietly into the hall and back to the surveillance room door. Though she was fired up and struggling, she had the key out and ready when they got there. Once inside though, she turned on him.
“What the hell, Timothy? You said I would kill him for you and you were right. But when I try, you throw the drink in my face. What’s going on? And what is that patch you put on his neck?”
“Please erase the footage.” He ushered her over to the rolling chair and pulled the keyboard from its hidey hole. “We have to hurry.”
She glared at him but started typing.
“Koehler kidnapped a girl.”
“What?!” Her head whipped around.
“Erase! The cops are gonna be looking.”
She pulled up file structures and skimmed through the stored footage.
“Koehler took a girl named Moira. The patch is a regular old seasickness patch with a slight modification.” Tim couldn’t keep the pride out of his voice.
Kissy was not impressed. “You painted it with cyanide?”
“You’re not getting it. We can’t kill him until we find out where the girl is. The patch is a three day delivery system for Scopolamine. I just removed the layer that regulates the drug’s delivery. He’s getting three days’ worth shunted into his system over the next half hour.”
Kissy shook her head as she worked. “So he really, really won’t barf. So what?”
“Scopolamine is what you might call a truth serum.” Tim dropped into the rolling chair since Kissy wasn’t using it. “Right now he is bonding with Avi over their hate of me and their preference for young girls. In fifteen minutes he’s gonna be ready to tell Avi the truth about anything he asks.”
“Your plan hinges on Avi bonding with the guy over being a misogynistic sexual pervert?” Kissy looked at Tim doubtfully.
“I admit it’s not a plan without faults.” He turned to look at the monitors. He half stood out of the chair. “Are you done?”
“Almost. I just need to double check. . .”
“I trust you,” he insisted, frantically working at his belt. “Close out!”
“What?”
“Now!” Tim leaned forward and shoved the keyboard back into its cubby.
Kissy pulled the keyboard back out to hit the escape key, returning the monitors to video display mode. Tim’s pants suddenly fell to his ankles and Kissy automatically took a step away but she was distracted by the sound of the door opening. So when Tim pulled her, she landed in the chair, kneeling on top of him. The chair was slammed back into the desk sending the keyboard clattering to the floor. Tim bruised his lips as he smashed his face into hers.
Kissy tried to protest and push back but Tim hissed, “Which would you rather get caught at?”
It took her a split second to decide and she grabbed the hair on the back of his head and kissed him just in time for Avi to walk in.
Fifteen
Avi saw Kissy the second he entered the surveillance room. Kissy didn’t see him though because her face was literally smashed against Tim’s. Avi could only assume it was Tim because her face was completely covering his. He had a momentary thought that she actually was eating his face off. But then she clearly heard her boss, following Avi in, holler, “What the hell is going on in here?!”
Tim scrambled to yank up his pants as Kissy leapt from his lap. She smoothed down her skirt and was buttoning up her still wet top even as she began stuttering apologies. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. I. . .”
And then she turned.
Avi watched her stop dead in her tracks as she saw him. He almost smiled. She ducked her head, blushed, and glanced at Tim in rapid succession. Before either one of them could speak, the owner of the restaurant introduced them as if this were a common occurrence.
“Kissy, this is Officer Avi Kee. He’s here to keep an eye on things while Mayor Sutton is in the restaurant. By the way, Mayor Sutton is in the restaurant. If you’re done here, maybe you could go help Jessica at the bar?”
“Sure, Dick.” Kissy tried to rush Tim into his shirts without success. She turned back to her boss, avoiding Avi’s eyes. “Why is the mayor here? I thought he was busy running for governor.”
“You do
n’t think important people come to my restaurant to be seen?” Dick took offense at the suggestion.
“No,” she stuttered. “I just. . .”
With his belt finally buckled, Tim answered as he headed for the door, “He’s here to do a final interview with our future superintendent of all schools.”
Dick stopped Kissy as she followed Tim out. “Look, there’s sensitive equipment in here. Maybe use a blindfold the next time you bring a friend in. Okay?”
Kissy could only nod. She did not look at Avi.
Dick watched her leave, clearly appreciating the view. “Didn’t expect I’d have to have that conversation with her. She seemed like a nice girl. Ah well.”
Avi turned to the monitors so that Dick wouldn’t see his thoughts on the matter written all over his face. “This is a pretty fancy system.”
Dick bent and picked up the keyboard from under the long desk. “Chief Woodsen is my brother-in-law. He donated a lot of this equipment in exchange for the use of table seventeen any time he wants to record an interview without the suspect knowing.”
Avi knew he should hold his tongue. But he didn’t. “That violates all kinds of laws.” He tried to soften his appalled tone. “Doesn’t it?”
“Nope.”
Dick typed on the keyboard and a screen on the top left zoomed in on a sign on the ivy-covered gate beside the hostess stand. It read Premises are under surveillance for your safety. By entering this establishment you agree to be recorded.
“It’s so sad,” Dick observed. “Nobody reads these days.”
Sixteen
After a quick review of the way the monitoring system worked Dick left Avi alone in the surveillance room. The big man settled himself in the swivel chair and flipped through views on the various monitors. He changed the upper right screen from a well-lit view of the alley behind the bar to an angle of the valet station. And the lower right shot of the hallway just outside he changed to a secondary view of the bar by Koehler and the mayor.
Then he sat back and considered again why he wasn’t handling this like a cop. He’d been at the station following orders from the detectives on the case. When he’d found out from Kimi that the Killer with a Conscience was involved, he’d planned to follow protocol. But here he was in the famed Freckled Dog surveillance room, working with Tim rather than his boys in blue. He thought back to figure out how he’d gotten here.
At the Goldwater Police Station, he left Kimi in the softened interrogation room, texting Kissy as he went down the hall to the detectives’ office. With Julia on crutches Kissy and Tim were making sure she could always reach them. It might take a few calls but Avi could lead a team to search Tim and Julia’s apartment for clues on where he might be planning the kill while Kissy got Julia to reach out to her brother. Meanwhile the detectives could focus their investigation on the school’s coaches. Maybe Moira played a sport. That would narrow the field down.
He knocked on the door of the room where he’d left Detectives Pants and Locke questioning Moira’s fathers.
“Come”
Avi opened the door ready to spill his news. But as he stepped in his phone buzzed. He glanced down to see Kissy’s message, He’s here. Why?
“Kee.” Detective Pants was alone with the dads. “Locke went to locate the kid’s chemistry teacher. Mr. Bagwell says he was Moira’s favorite.”
“Not her favorite,” the taller, calmer Mr. Trevor Bagwell corrected. “She talks about him a lot.”
Detective Pants barely glanced at the man before turning back to Avi. “Find Locke—“
Locke pushed into the office past Avi. “Keep your pants on. I’m right here.”
He paused for a laugh at his own joke and Avi saw Colin Bagwell grab his husband’s hand. The fathers’ faces were both red though Trevor was breathing deeply trying to keep them both calm. Locke didn’t notice.
“Chief Woodsen says Coach is at The Freckled Dog for his final interview with the mayor.”
“Coach?” Avi looked up sharply.
“Coach Koehler, the science teacher.”
The penny finally dropped.
They’d expected to be in grief counseling tomorrow, the kids had said. Conner had intended the volcano to blow up in his face as a backup plan. They were talking about their teacher. They were all in on hiring Tim to kill the coach, Coach Kevin Koehler who was good friends with the chief of police.
“Well, we can’t interrupt the mayor’s interview. What did you need, Kee?” Pants finally thought to ask Avi.
Avi was thrown by the question. He wanted to ask why the interview was more important than finding a missing child. He wanted to ask why, forty-five minutes after finding out a child had gone missing, they were still both sitting in an office questioning the dads. If he told Pants and Locke that the Killer with a Conscience was about to murder the child molester who had kidnapped Moira, they’d be more interested in the killer. They’d wonder how he knew. They’d waste time and resources capturing Tim rather than finding Moira. And they definitely wouldn’t risk pissing off the Chief by harassing his friend Kevin Koehler.
“Kee?”
Avi scrambled, “I’m sick. Food poisoning I think. Could I take one of Kimi’s uncles to watch her? Colin?”
Both fathers stood while Locke leaned back in his chair checking his phone. Pants stood belatedly as the fathers had a moment’s private conference.
Trevor Bagwell took the line Avi thought should have been Pants’. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her.”
Pants said, “Don’t leave the station, Mr. Bagwell. We may need to question you further.”
Avi hustled the man out of the room. A tumble of thoughts raced through his brain as they walked down the hallway to interrogation room C. But Avi pushed them aside to help the man in front of him. Before he let him in to see Kimi, Avi put a hand on the father’s arm.
“We will. We’ll find Moira.”
Avi was prepared to take all the vitriol Colin had built up in the last hour with Pants and Locke.
But when he looked up at Avi, all he said was, “Please.”
Avi’s thoughts clarified. Moira was the most important thing. Not justice or law. Not his job or his moral misgivings. Simply this one girl’s life.
So he held the door for Colin Bagwell and then ran for his car.
On the steps outside the station he found Conner sitting by his backpack.
“Hey Conner.” Avi stopped short. “They released you?”
The kid nodded. A half smile played across his lips. “I told them Mr. Koehler okayed the thermite.”
“Where are your parents?”
“They’re busy. I think I’m gonna walk over to the hospital and see how Emily’s doing.” He stood up and slung the backpack over his shoulder revealing a freezer bag of gray powder on the step. That he picked up and shoved into a pocket of his cargo pants. “Any word on Moira?”
A thought sprung into Avi’s mind. “They’re letting you keep your thermite?”
“It’s not illegal. They can’t take it.” Conner bristled, ready for a fight.
“Can you create an explosion that’s loud but safe with that stuff?”
“Sure.” The kid’s face lit up. “The water was an accident. I wouldn’t want to hurt Emily.”
“Come with me.” Avi started down the stairs. Conner didn’t move. Avi called back up to him, “Kimi says Koehler kidnapped Moira.”
“What?!” Conner hustled down the steps after Avi. “But—“
Avi interrupted, holding the cruiser door open for the little pyro. “I know the guy you hired to kill him.”
Conner froze in mid-step.
“Well?” Avi asked. “Want to help me save Moira?”
The kid got in the car.
Seventeen
Kissy ran from the Big Brother room and grabbed Tim before he could slip around the bar. But then she couldn’t think of what to say.
Tim giggled at her contorted expression. “If Avi loves you, he’ll let you expla
in.”
“We’ve been on three dates!”
“Then he really doesn’t have any reason to be upset.”
Tim broke away and headed past the Amaretto Sour boys to get back to his stool. Ducking under the bar, Kissy grabbed a dishtowel from the pile under the cash register. Jessica approached with their personal Patron bottle and a couple of black shot glasses.
Kissy grabbed one. “Not a word, sister.”
Jessica poured and they slammed back the shots of raspberry iced tea. Kissy set her glass on the bar empty side up and Jessica poured again. After the second drink, Kissy took a deep breath.
“Sorry I keep leaving you. I’ll take Koehler and the mayor if you want.”
Almost before she got the offer out Jessica leapt on it. “You got ‘em.” She replaced the bottle on the inner bar, took the shot glasses and danced away along the southern curve.
Kissy straightened her clothes, now regretting the sparkly red bra she’d been so excited about earlier, and headed over to the pair of power brokers. “You gentlemen need a refill?”
Mayor Sutton was a slight man with a pompadour of grey speckled black hair. He wore a yellow sweater vest over a green polo. The high school’s colors. One of the two men in awkwardly fitting sports coats standing a few feet away took a step towards the bar. The other continued scanning the room. Kissy saw that out by the hostess stand a woman guarded the entrance to the Freckled Dog. Her sports coat fit rather well except where it puckered over her service piece.
The mayor glanced up at his security detail and shook his head. The ape returned to his post. Then the mayor looked up at Kissy and her previously false smile spread to her eyes. She’d unconsciously expected that anyone planning to hire Koehler had to be as bad an apple. But Mayor Sutton’s eyes sparkled with honest charm.
“Hi. I’m Rory Sutton.”
“Hi.” Kissy held out her hand. “I’m Kissy.” She paused, not wanting to say her last name in front of the man she had tried to kill.
The mayor didn’t even notice. “What a wonderful name. I think Kevin has had plenty and I really shouldn’t be having any more caffeine tonight.”
Killer on Call 6 Book Bundle (Books 1-6) Page 9