by Kylie Brant
"Because he already knows where I live?"
Gray eyes battled green. He respected her enough to be honest with her. "Probably. If he doesn't yet, he will."
She took a breath, released it. "He's not going to drive me out of my own home. I'm not going to live in fear."
The fierceness in the words made him wonder what other emotion was behind them. But he wasn't going to push. Not right now. As long as he could keep her safe in her home, she could stay there. And the minute he thought her safety was compromised, she'd leave, even if he had to carry her out himself.
"I don't want you taking taxis anymore." He wasn't going to take the chance of LeFrenz grabbing her while she was waiting for a cab. "Someone on the detail will escort you to work and back home again each night. And anywhere else you want to go."
She skirted his gaze, folding the ice pack and replacing it in the freezer. "Like I said, I really don't expect him to come after me. Not anytime soon, at any rate."
He never knew what made him cross to her, torn her around and tip her face up to his. "He's not going to get you," he said firmly. It was a promise, both to her and to himself. And for reasons he didn't completely understand, it was imperative that she believe him. "A cop-killer warrants a lot of attention. We're going to catch up with him. I won't let him near you."
"I can take care of myself," she started.
A smile played across his mouth. "Yeah, you look pretty tough. But if it's okay with you, the NOPD might just hang around, anyway, in case you need any help kicking bad guys' butts."
A faint sheen of pink stained her cheeks, as if she was unused to such teasing banter. "I just meant—"
"That you're self-sufficient." He didn't need her explanation to know that much. "You're not used to letting anyone do anything for you. You like to keep everyone at a distance, and the police at a greater distance than most. Yeah, I've figured that much out."
Her brows skimmed upward and that detached mask descended over her features. "What I can't figure is why that matters to you."
Her tone was so honestly baffled that something in him lightened. And made it easier to recognize that he'd been asking himself that very thing almost since he'd met her. "I'm a cop. It's my nature to be curious about people. And there's something about you," he murmured, brushing his thumb across the angry mark on her cheek. "Something I can't explain. But the harder you push me away, the closer I want to get. And I don't think that can bother you half as much as it does me." The flash of panic on her face called him a liar. "Guess we're just both going to have to get used to it."
* * *
Chapter 8
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Cade had a two-o'clock meeting with the team assigned to the LeFrenz investigation back at headquarters. Glancing at his watch, he figured he had just enough time to go by the man's apartment once more and do another walkthrough. The place had been thoroughly searched by the backup team Cade had called for, while Cade had accompanied LeFrenz to the hospital. Upon his escape from the hospital, it had been searched again. And although they had an officer staking it out, Cade doubted very much that their suspect planned to return to it. Even if he was that stupid, it was a good bet his accomplice was not.
The place was a walk-up a couple of blocks off Bourbon Street
, situated above a seedy tavern. He didn't doubt that LeFrenz could have afforded better, but the locale he'd chosen put him near a ready source of customers, none of whom would raise any eyebrows as they entered and left his place at odd hours of the day and night.
The detective in the car across the street was a sixteen-year veteran from Cade's district. They chatted for a few minutes before Cade entered the building. Police tape still crisscrossed the doorway to the apartment, and a padlock had been affixed to the door to secure it. Whatever locks had previously been in place had been rendered useless when Cade had kicked the door in to apprehend the man.
He experienced a sense of déjà vu as he entered the place and surveyed it. The kitchen table where LeFrenz had been sitting when he'd entered was still standing by the wall. The man's first instinct had been to lunge out of his seat and go for his weapon.
Involuntarily Cade's gaze went to the wall at his side. The two bullets LeFrenz had fired had lodged in the plaster, to be retrieved by the investigative team. His own single shot had taken the punk down.
With his hands shoved in his coat pockets, Cade moved around the small space. He'd busted LeFrenz two other times before the shootout that had wounded the man. The first time Jonny had only been sixteen and had avoided doing real time by hiring a slick lawyer who'd gotten him tried as a juvenile. Three years later Cade and Brian had brought him in with a solid case. The week of the trial, their star witness had suffered a convenient lapse of memory. The trial had progressed, but without the eye-witness testimony, LeFrenz had been acquitted. The memory of the smug look on LeFrenz's face when he'd sauntered out of the courtroom still burned.
But he was no longer the two-bit punk they'd brought up those last two times. Cade crossed to pick up a remote, flipped the power switch. The big-screen TV in the corner developed into a three-foot picture of a bikini-clad blonde on a white-sand beach. He flipped it off again. Next to the TV was a state-of-the-art entertainment center that looked like solid pecan. Jonny had come up in the world in the past couple of years. Due to lucrative business decisions or a more highly placed supplier?
The apartment itself wouldn't cost him much, but its furnishings must have. Having an eye for the finer things himself, Cade recognized the authentic Italian leather, the craftsmanship of the wood. If he stepped into the next room he'd find a closet filled with expensive, if gaudy clothes arid a large bed covered with leopard sheets. Money could buy just about everything but taste.
LeFrenz would relax right there, in the big double-wide recliner situated a few feet from the TV. Eyes slitted, Cade imagined the scene. A lamp and the remote would be within easy reach. A small fridge sat next to the chair to save a few steps to the kitchen. Memory told Cade it was filled with bottles of imported beer.
He crossed to the chair and sat, releasing the mechanism so it would recline. He could almost see LeFrenz there, everything he needed to run his little empire within arm's reach. He'd feel satisfied at the way he'd managed to surround himself with the finest things money could afford. He'd beaten the cops. That was what the punk would have thought. They'd tried but hadn't been able to touch him. His territory was expanding, and he could afford to buy just about anything he wanted. He must have felt like a king. One who could lift his finger and have just about anything he wanted.
And now he wanted Shae.
Cade's eyes snapped open. He was already on the run from the NOPD, facing a long stretch in prison for his client's overdose. Facing death if it could be proved he'd been an accessory to his police guard's murder.
There was little more dangerous, Cade knew, than a man with nothing left to lose.
While LeFrenz was free, Shae was in jeopardy; he was more convinced of that than ever. If he were LeFrenz, he'd have run long and hard. He could never hope to continue to operate in New Orleans undetected again. But from his conversation with Shae, it had sounded very much as though he was still in the vicinity. And that meant something important was keeping him here.
Cade concentrated fiercely, trying to think the way the other man would. Was it his physical injuries that had him hanging around? Because from the conversation Shae had relayed, it sounded as though he was intent on staying put, at least for the time being. What would convince a man to stay in the midst of the hunt going on for him right now?
Not a woman, Cade thought. They would come too easily to LeFrenz for him to value one that much. That lead had already been exhausted, at any rate. They'd interrogated every female he'd ever been seen with, and none claimed to know his whereabouts. Right now he was fixated on Shae, but would he risk his life to follow through on his plans for her?
Money was usually a powerful motivator. But L
eFrenz's store of drugs and cash had been removed from the safe they'd found in his bedroom closet. Noticeably missing had been any list of business contacts, dates or transactions. He was a very careful man. The place had been turned upside down twice, and no records had been found. He must have had them stashed elsewhere.
Questions without answers continued whirling in Cade's mind. His gaze fell to the floor as he considered the possibilities. It was a moment before he noticed the ballpoint pen there. It had probably fallen off the table during the search.
Reaching down, Cade retrieved it, went to set it back on the table—then his hand froze in midmotion.
Everything LeFrenz needed was right here.
A quick glance around reaffirmed that earlier thought. The easy chair, the lamp, the remote, the fridge. There was no traditional phone service to the apartment, but with a cell phone the man could sit right here and control his little empire. It didn't make sense to keep his paperwork somewhere other than his apartment. Like most businessmen, LeFrenz had records to update. The most secure place for him to do it would be here.
Interest sharpening, Cade sat up, looked around with new eyes. Everything in the room pointed to a man who enjoyed his creature comforts. Someone who sat in his own little throne while he enjoyed his ill-gotten gains. Launching himself from the chair, Cade went to the table, running his hands over the wood. Maybe the top lifted, to reveal a shallow compartment. He was unable to pry the top up, however. And a more thorough examination of the wood revealed no mechanism that would release it.
Rocking back on his heels, Cade's gaze skated to the chair. In the next moment he was beside it, turning it upside down, to carefully check the springs and mechanism. Minutes later he was just as convinced it wasn't concealing what he was looking for.
Undeterred, Cade reassessed. The more he thought about it, the more certain he became that he was on to something. But he found nothing beneath the carpeting nearby, nor did an examination of the drywall yield anything.
Which left the mini refrigerator. Taking out his pocketknife, he extracted the utensil that doubled as a screwdriver. Within minutes he had the back off the appliance to reveal … only dust and electrical coils.
Muttering a curse, he opened the door, surveyed the interior balefully. The molded plastic that covered the back and sides didn't provide any clues. Which only left the door. There were two buttons on the interior side of the door. One would secure it when it was closed. The other … Cade pressed it, heard a tiny click. Quickly he ran his fingers over the front testingly, trying to move it. And was rewarded when he was able to slide the panel upward.
He released a breath. Jackpot. The false front revealed a fat black notebook. Flipping through it, he found notations of names and transactions, complete with each customer's preferences, dating back three years. The only other item in the compartment was a cell phone.
So the punk hadn't used his own cell to call Shae. He'd either used a conventional telephone or one belonging to someone else. Either way, they were going to get some valuable information once the number was traced. Extracting the cell phone from the fridge, he flipped through the numbers LeFrenz had plugged into its memory and grinned as one after another was displayed. With any luck, this discovery was going to lead them to LeFrenz even sooner than he'd hoped. Before the man could follow through on his plans.
Before he acted on his promise to Shae.
"Nice work, Tremaine." Lieutenant Howard's face wore an uncustomary smile. The dozen officers working the LeFrenz case would have filled his office to overflowing, and so they were sitting in the coffee room. The notebook Cade had discovered in the apartment was being passed around the table.
"I can't believe we missed this," Josh Birtch, the rookie detective on the squad, muttered. "I went over the fridge myself three times."
"Maybe your attention was on the beer inside," Joe Pascan, a six-year veteran, joked. The other men laughed.
"I missed it myself the last time through," Cade said. And it would be a long while before he'd forgive himself for that mistake. "But we've got it now, and the records and cell phone should give us plenty of new leads." He knew he wasn't the only one in the room feeling an increasing sense of urgency on this case. It was a well-known fact in police work that if more than twenty-fours had passed since the commission of a crime, the chances of its being solved decreased dramatically. Allowing LeFrenz to get away with murder, literally, wasn't an option.
In a few succinct sentences, Cade informed the rest of the men about the phone call Shae had received.
When he'd finished, Howard said, "The phone company called a few minutes ago with the location LeFrenz called her from." Looking around the table, he ordered, "Pascan, Rollins, LeGrand and Pearce, you check out the contacts in LeFrenz's book. Lloyd and Manden, see where the cell phone takes you. Those on stakeout will continue. Tremaine, you and Birtch follow up on the origin of that phone call." He took a slip of paper from his clipboard and handed it to Cade. "Here's the address."
Cade made a point of keeping his expression blank, while everything inside him rebelled. He had nothing against the kid, Birtch. Someday he might even be a hell of a cop. But he hadn't partnered with anyone since Brian was killed. It wasn't that he hadn't thought he would again someday. He just hadn't been prepared for someday to be now.
He looked at the paper, then at his superior. "I was planning to set up the trap and trace for O'Riley's phone. Do we have the court order for that yet?"
Howard nodded. "You can do that, too. I want everyone reporting in at end of shift today with whatever you've gotten so far." He stood. "That's it for now." The men got up and started drifting from the room. "Tremaine." Cade stopped in the act of rising. "I'd like another minute."
The lieutenant waited for the last officer to leave the room before shutting the door and turning back to face him. "What went down with I.A. this morning?"
Just the thought of the earlier meeting was enough to make Cade's gut clench. "They didn't give up much of anything. It's for sure they think Brian was taking kickbacks from someone. Since we've been working narcotics, it goes to figure they're thinking he was either dealing or allowing others to. They seemed awfully interested in his phone calls to Freddie over the couple of weeks before he died."
Howard lowered himself back into a chair. "You mean they thought the junkie was somehow connected to dealing? He only used, didn't he?"
Cade shrugged. "He might've sold small amounts when he had plenty, but no, he wasn't into anything big. If I.A. thinks Freddie was paying off Brian, they're on the wrong track completely."
"Forget what I.A. thinks," Lieutenant Howard ordered. "What do you think?"
"The only thing Freddie dealt in that was worth a damn was information," Cade said flatly. "And according to Brian, even that was suspect half the time. That's the only explanation I can think of for their communications."
"But Brian never mentioned anything the man had told him before the meeting in the park?"
Shaking his head slowly, Cade admitted, "No. But that doesn't mean anything, either. I didn't tell him every time I worked a snitch, especially if they didn't have anything important to give." His words sounded more certain than he felt. Because those phone calls to Freddie did bother him. A lot. Brian had made it sound like the man wasn't particularly reliable. So why would he have hit him up for information as often has he had? It didn't make sense. But it sat a hell of a lot more easily than considering I.A.'s assumption—that Brian had been corrupt.
"Still no sign of Freddie on the street?"
"I don't expect him to hang around. LeFrenz claimed he advised him to get out of town. That he gave him enough supply to hold him awhile. Ryder and Sanover told me they've notified departments around the area, sent his picture. If he's seen, he'll be grabbed."
Howard grimaced. "Since he hasn't been found yet, he's probably long gone."
"Probably. But he did get a wad of cash for giving us up to the shooters," Cade reminded hi
m. "That could buy him plenty of dope and a place to stay until the money runs out."
"Who knows? When we catch up with LeFrenz, we might learn something about Freddie's whereabouts from him."
"I keep wondering about that last conversation with him in the hospital." Because he thought better on the move, Cade rose to his feet to pace. "I figured at the time he was probably claiming to know something about the shootings just to get at me. He had to have realized we'd check out his information before offering him a deal. But naming his supplier would only buy him a reduced sentence, while giving up a cop killer might just get him off scot-free, with protection to boot."
The lieutenant frowned. "So?"
Cade stopped pacing and arrowed a look at the other man. "So who do you think would be more interested in getting LeFrenz out of police custody? His supplier? Or the guy responsible for the shootings?"
Howard stared hard at Cade. "So now you're thinking his information might be on the up-and-up?"
Giving a grim smile, Cade said, "I'm considering three possibilities." Holding up his hand, he ticked them off one by one on his fingers. "LeFrenz lied about what he knows, which wouldn't have taken us long to prove. Or he only had secondhand info from Freddie, which wouldn't buy him dick from the D.A."
The lieutenant was following his line of thought. "Or he had firsthand knowledge of the shootings."
"I'm not saying he was one of the shooters." Forensics had told them there'd been at least two. "But yeah, he might have been involved on some level. A person would be pretty motivated to keep that kind of information from coming to light."
"Motivated enough to kill the cop at the hospital."
Cade nodded, his mind working furiously. "And if it was the guy responsible for the shootings who helped him escape, LeFrenz would have had to know and trust him to go along. Which means somehow he's connected."