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MINKA
“What did he say?” Cato pulls out a bucket of popcorn and plops onto the couch beside me, his long, lanky legs almost touching my shoulder. His very presence, when he’s supposed to be in Copeland, is enough to set my stomach on fire. “He whispered something to Emeri. What’d he say?”
“Something that embarrassed her.” I hunch on the couch, folding my back and resting my elbows on my knees. While around me, three of five Malone brothers watch the fourth-born on the news. “She’s nervous, so he probably said something ridiculous and rude.” Snarling, I peer across and meet Felix’s glare. “It’s theMalonein him. Grown ass men incapable of being decent human beings.”
He only shrugs, grinning behind the lip of a wine glass and draping his arm over Debbie’s shoulders. “Bland is boring, Doctor Cutie. I bet my left nut Archer didn’t come to you with a standard, ‘Oh hey there, miss. I couldn’t help but notice you’re very beautiful. Can you friend-zone me for seven to ten years, sleep with me after that, then we’ll marry and never fuck again for the rest of our lives? I prefer the prudish lifestyle.’”He shakes his head, solemn and sure. “Bet that got your engines revving.”
No, I admit to myself.He certainly didn’t say those things when we met.
“What did he say about this case when he put you on that plane?” Instead of discussing my private life with Felix, I look at Cato instead. “There’s a reason he wanted you out of the city. There’s a reason he’s parading Aubree in front of the media right now.”
“Which probably means Tim is there, too.” Micah watches the television closely, his eyes narrowed and his stance rigid. The cameras focus mostly on the police station and the team who stands upon the steps out front—my team. Which meansifTim is in attendance, he won’t be caught on camera any time soon.
“He just said the apartment might not be safe right now, and I wasn’t allowed to stay at his other apartment. He insisted I get on the jet and skedaddle for a day or two, and since I guess I missed home anyway…”
“You did the right thing.” Felix peels his arm off Christabelle’s shoulder and drops his hand on the boy’s head. He ruffles Cato’s hair and preens when the youngest Malone practically purrs under his touch. “Arch is a good cop, so if he says the city ain’t safe right now, then I’m apt to believe him.”
“Sure, excepthestayed,” I growl. “I suggested a press conference. I saidnothingabout painting a target on his own back and tempting a shooter to reveal himself via national television.”
Piqued, Micah’s eyes burn the side of my face as he brings his gaze across. “How often does my brother make himself the target?”
“Not much that I’ve seen,” Cato answers instead. “He’s intuitive and works fast, so I guess that alone makes him a target. But he and Fletch work well together. They have each other’s backs.”
“Like how Wright had Mercer’s?” I press my hands together, steepling my fingers, and set the tips to my lips as Aubree takes the podium and nervously wraps her palm around the microphone. I see two dead cops in my mind’s eye, three, when I add Detective Haightman to the pack.
“Cops pride themselves on keeping their partner safe,” I breathe. “And yet, there are three on the slab in my building right now. Will they find Detective Haightman’s partner by the morning?”
“My name is Doctor Aubree Emeri,” Aubs finally announces. Her voice crackles with nerves; her eyes flit from place to place as she struggles to know where to look. My focus goes to the pulse in her throat, thundering as her heart pushes blood through her veins. Her chest rising, rising, rising, and then dropping when she exhales. “I am the medical examiner appointed to the case we’ve come out to discuss tonight, and I work at the George Stanley Medical Facility down…” Shakily, she points to her right. “A few blocks that way.”
“Where is Chief Medical Examiner Mayet?” Already, reporters screamfor attention and demand answers they have no right to. “Why is Chief Mayet notably absent?”
“You’re famous, Doctor Cutie.” Felix drags Debbie in and sips at his wine, but he grins, too. Ridiculously smug at the thought thatone of his ownis being mentioned on the news. “They wanna see your face. I wonder if they begrudge you because you’re not there?”
“C-Chief Mayet has been called away this week,” Aubree stammers. “She is to testify in court about a case she was a part of before her post in Copeland.”
Archer steps forward, and on Aubree’s other side, Fifi does the same. The latter taps the notecards I would recognize anywhere. Any time. Any state. Because Seraphina Lewis likes to use blue paper. Sky blue, like the color somehow helps our eyes.
Or our nerves, maybe.
I don’t know. I never thought to ask.
“Um…” Aubree clears her throat. “We appreciate that you’ve come out tonight. In the cold. I wish to speak about Detective Lucas Mercer, Detective Daniel Wright, and Issac Haightman’s murders?—”
“So they weremurdered?” A reporter shouts. “You’re confirming homicide, Doctor Emeri?”
“They were shot,” I snarl to myself. “By someone other than themselves. Of course it’s murder, you brainless fuckwit.”
Cato snickers until his shoulders vibrate.
“Perhaps those questions are better left for Detectives Malone and Fletcher,” she answers. “I wish only to discuss the medical angle of this investigation. All three victims were decorated and respected Copeland City police detectives. All three knew each other, and all three died from gunshot wounds to their abdominal and chest regions. Each of our victims were male, within the thirty-five to forty-five years age range. All three died in the cold, in the dark, and relatively quickly.”
“So they were all shot by the same person?” Miranda London, that tacky bitch in power-red, shoves her hand into the air and demands attention. Her lips curl up on the side in a smirk I know she enjoys.
“I cannot and will not comment on the investigative details,” Aubree counters. The more she speaks, the firmer her voice grows. “I wish to briefly speak on the causes of death. Then I’ll pass the mic off to the detectives, who may be able to elaborate further.”
“She’s kinda interesting to watch while she’s working.” Micah’s eyesburn, his head tilting to the side as he stares at the television. “I saw her in Jamaica, but we didn’t talk more than three words the whole time.”
“Tim is ridiculously, head over tit in love with her,” Cato says. “It’s tricky to get a read on her right now. She’s nervous as fuck. But when she’s her normal self, she’s pretty sassy.”
