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“Yeah, you always say that,” she griped.
“And I’m always right, because it’s true.”
“Whatever you say.”
He looked over at me. “Detective Windsor.”
“Pretty sure you can call me Dayton. We get beers together,” I muttered. My chin lifted toward the scene. “What’s going on here?”
“Straight forward.” Felix launched into detailing the mess with mind-numbing intricacy before Anderson and I could move in with our cursory investigation, careful not to disturb things and directing the on-scene photographer on what we wanted. By noon, it became apparent the likely perpetrator was the female victim’s ex-boyfriend. By mid-afternoon, I was still reeling through my own memories of Melonie’s murder, while Anderson and I put together our findings and strategy to nail our suspect, who hadn’t been savvy enough to cover his tracks.
“What are you doing tonight?” she asked over her cup of acrid, police-station coffee. Stereotypical but unfortunately a fact at our precinct.
“You asking me for a date?”
She sniffed a laugh. “Felix might seem laid back, but we’d have another murder on our hands if that happened. And trust me, he’d know how to make it look like natural causes.”
My pen tapped on the folder we’d compiled so far. “Fair. Brennan’s got some summer lacrosse thing going on tonight, then he’s hanging out with the team. So I’m probably gonna grab some wings and kick back with a beer to watch the game.”
“Your team is shit this year.”
“My team is always shit, but hope for homeruns springs eternal.”
“Yeah, good luck with that. You think we’ve got enough to haul in this guy?” she asked.
“Uniforms are meeting him when he gets off the airplane in the morning.” Looked like the asshole had killed his ex and her new boyfriend then hopped a plane to take a three-day vacation in Cancun. If he thought it would be an alibi, he didn’t know much about forensics.
“Hope it scares him enough he wets himself and sings. No way he did it alone.”
“He might have. He could have ambushed one then taken the other by surprise when they got home,.”
“Timeline doesn’t really line up with that.” She was right. The security footage and cell records didn’t point to the couple coming home separately. She studied me. “You okay? You seem distracted. Worse than usual when we catch one of these.”
Distracted? Yeah, I was. For the last few days, my mind had been on a Melonie loop practically 24/7. I wasn’t getting enough sleep and certainly no peace of mind.
“Today’s the anniversary of it.”
“Shit! You should have taken today off.”
“For what, though?” Wallowing in grief wouldn’t bring back my wife, but taking down the bad guys sure helped. If only, I could nail the one person who’d destroyed my future. Then I might take a day off. After he or she went down.
Five
Vale
“Cookie!”
I rolled my eyes, turning away from the door and leaving it hanging open for the huge, blond-haired man who’d been leaning negligently against the frame when I’d opened the door. I’d say a different guy from the club visited me every day, but this giant seemed to be here most afternoons.
“Biter, don’t you have a bank to rob or something?”
“Ow,” he gasped, his heavy footfalls following me into the living room. “You wound me.”
“Doubtful,” I replied in a low voice. He and I had a long-running banter. We were probably as close as Kale and I were. In fact, I’d probably call Biter my best friend. Weird really. Growing up as the daughter of a prosecutor then being the wife of a cop, an association with an MC was outside the scope of my reality or imagination. Which was one reason, I never considered contacting my parents now. We’d never been close, and never in a million years would they believe I was their daughter who’d come back in another body. I wasn’t even sure yet how I’d sell that news to Dayton.
“So…to what do I owe this visit?” I continued, still heading toward the kitchen. It wasn’t as if I didn’t already know. “If Kale wants to check on me, he could just call. Or install a security cam.”
“Like you’d let him do that,” Biter scoffed. “You know how Spear is. He’s worried about you being out here, and he misses you. He wants you to come home.”
