Page 41 of Phoenix

“Fuck this whole fucking day.”

“You just won a dog of a case, stop whining.”

He flipped her off. His client answered and Jule explained the situation. “Detective Wyble and I will come get you now. What’s your address?”

“Are you sure it’s safe to give that to the cops?”

“Am I sure it’s safe for you to give a location to the detective who is going to drive to that location to pick you up? Well, I guess that depends. Are you somewhere you shouldn’t be?”

Marcie chuckled.

“I’m at home.”

“You have his home address, Marcie?” Jule asked.

She nodded.

“Never mind, Tommy. We’ve got it. Wait outside if you don’t want her to accidentally see anything when we get there. My phone’s about to die so I have to go.” He ended the call. “Are you sure you guys can’t make the case without this idiot?”

“Rape cases are difficult. You know that.”

He grunted. “Let’s get this over with. I really am beat.”

“Shouldn’t take too long.”

Everything took too long.

They were driving in rush hour traffic. They passed three accidents on the way to Tommy’s house, which slowed things down even more. When they finally got there, Tommy wasn’t waiting outside as planned.

“Want me to go into the house and get him?” Marcie asked, grinning. “Take the opportunity to have a look around?”

“I wish.” Jule unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door. “Be right back.”

He banged on Tommy’s door for a full minute before he opened it.

“Slow your roll, man.” Tommy tugged on his shoe and yanked it over his heel. “I was getting dressed.”

“You’ve had forty minutes to get dressed. We’re late. Let’s go.”

“A king is never late. Everyone else is just early.”

His fingers tightened into a fist and his knuckles cracked. He wondered whether Marcie would arrest him if he punched his client in the face right where she could see. Probably not but he didn’t want to do anything to make this day drag on any longer than it had to. “That’s just fucking rude. Let’s go, Tommy.”

The drive to the warehouse took even longer than the drive to Tommy’s house. By the time they pulled up outside, the sun had long since set.

“Is Martin Franks meeting us here?” Jule asked, squinting into the dark night.

“He’s supposed to be.” Marcie picked up her phone and looked at the screen. “Ariel sent a text.” She scrunched her eyebrows together. “He said the door’s unlocked and we’re supposed to go in.” She glanced at Jule. “Maybe Franks got tired of waiting on us?”

“How would he know that?”

“Franks called him, I guess?”

“He doesn’t know Ariel’s off the case?”

She shrugged.

“Can we get this over with?” Tommy asked from the back seat. “This place gives me the creeps.”