Chapter Ten
Kane
Petra was sitting at her desk, crumpled fast food wrappers all over the top and in her wastebasket.
You wouldn’t know it to look at her, but she was in her late thirties, dressed like she was seventeen.
Her wild green and blue hair was pinned up in a messy bun, two pencils stuck through it as if she was going to need to write something at any point and didn’t want to be caught out.
She had her wireless earbuds in and was listening to something I could hear the deep bass of from the doorway.
The other techs in this room were all doing something similar.
I sat on the side of her desk, the one spot that wasn’t soiled from fast food.
She yanked her earbuds out and smiled up at me.
“Detective.”
“You know you can call me Garrick,” I told her.
“I know,” she said. “What can I do for you?”
“I need to know if you’ve been able to track her.”
“Since she left town a few weeks ago?” she asked, turning back to her computer and tapping on the keys a few times.
Screens moved about her four screens quickly, enough to make me dizzy just looking at it.
There was no way she could read the information on the screens before they were replaced with new ones.
“She’s been picked up on airport surveillance,” she said, pointing to one screen and zooming in. The image was unmistakably Maurelle, traveling with a small overnight bag over her shoulder, large black sunglasses and her hair slicked back in a ponytail. “Looks like she’s back. I can’t imagine why.”
“Can you tell where she came from?”
“No, she’s obviously got an alias she traveled under because none of the names you gave me are popping.”
It didn’t surprise me that she would burn through the names she’d already used.
She knew I wouldn’t stop. After she left me alone in bed a few weeks ago after we’d tumbled around a few times through the night, I thought things were different, that I could get through to her, but now I knew she wasn’t going to stop.
I had to do my job.
I had to arrest her and bring her to justice.
If I lost faith in the justice system, I lost who I was as a man and I couldn’t risk that.
Not now.
“Can you get me the manifest of all flights that arrived around that time and I’ll see if I can figure it out?”
“Got it, I’ll email you,” she said, tapping away at her computer when I left the room. My phone dinged with the email before I’d even gotten to my floor. That woman was good.
I scrolled through the names on the manifests and found one that I had a feeling might be the way to go.
Mireille Picton.
I looked up the ID for her and saw her face smiling back at me on her driver’s license. How many identities did she have?”
The floor was abuzz, as I looked over at the Captain heading my way.
“New case,” he said. “I’ll have the details sent to your phone. Tommy’s busy so this is your case, okay?”
I nodded. “What do we know?”
“Politician was poisoned,” he said with little care. It was no secret O’Leary couldn’t stand the politics of the job, and that meant the local politicians. “Looks to be a bad hookup, but the wife is a friend of the brass, so we need to treat it carefully.”
“Got it,” I said. “I’ll keep you apprised.”
O’Leary waved me off, the job taking its toll on him. I looked down at the message that came through to me with the address.
I grabbed my leather jacket and headed down to the garage where I’d parked today.
Once I looked down at the body, I knew instantly that it was her work.
She was back, and dropping bodies already. It was almost scary that she could easily sneak in and out of the city without alerting people. I needed to know what her endgame was, because I knew she would have to have one.
There was no way I could let her go free, even though it had been a fleeting idea if I could stop her from doing this over and over, it was ludicrous. She was a serial killer, and she needed to be punished for her crimes.
Sal had a sour look on her face as she looked over at me, while also giving instructions to her team. She made her way over to me after a beat or two.
“Is this her?” she asked me.
“I’m not totally sure,” I lied. “But it could be.”
“Why would she come back here?” she asked me.
“I don’t know,” I told her. That was the truth, at least. I had no idea why she would return. She had a clean break. There was no way I’d be able to pin anything on her and I knew it.
But she was back. Maybe some part of me wanted it to be for me, for her to choose me over her life of crime, but the realistic part of me knew it wasn’t.
She had unsettled business here.
I had to arrest her.
I had to obey the law, and I knew it.
“Are you good here?” I asked Sal. “I’ve got somewhere to be.”
“Kane…”
When Sal used my real name, I knew she was serious. She’d only ever called me Garrick unless she was pissed off with me.
“Just trust me, Sal, like you always have.”
She gave me the same concerned mother look she normally did when she didn’t approve of something I was doing before I headed back to my car. There was one person I could speak to that I knew would give me some clarity.
I got in my car and hightailed it to them.
Maurelle
“Why are you back?” Camille asked me as I paced her living room floor.
Personally, I didn’t know why I came back, it was a pull I couldn’t resist. Was it Kane?
Possibly, which only spelled disaster for me.
I’d left him after our tumble a few weeks ago for a reason.
I could feel the pull of the noose they’d certainly hang over my head getting tighter.
“I don’t know, Cami. I don’t understand, but I had to.”
“It’s him, isn’t it?” she asked. “It’s that detective…you like him.”
“Stop, Cami, you know that’s not what is happening here. I’m unable to love.”
Camille got up from her seat and came over to me, holding me still. Her hands on my arms as she forced me to look into her eyes.
Those same eyes she inherited from her father, but different to him, she was kind and he had been a monster.
“I didn’t say anything about love,” she said. “But it’s clear that he got his hooks into you. He’s a good man, and I know that because he’s helped me out. For what it’s worth, I think he likes you too.”
No kidding, I thought.
“I don’t have the time for love.”
She took her hands away and headed back to her chair.
“It’s better this way,” she said. “At least you can stay alive. You know they’ll fry you for what you did. You need to break things off with the detective so you can flee.”
“I intend to do that,” I told her, almost as if I were trying to tell myself. “I tracked him down, you know.”
The change of subject confused her, and I had to be honest, I was confused too. It had never been so easy to find him.
Almost as if he were trapping me.
I had to be careful.
He wasn’t an easy man to get to…so if I found this out…I might be walking into my own death, but it was the reason I started this.
He was the reason I was the way I was.
“Him?” Camille asked, her surprise evident.
I nodded in response.
“Where? How?”
“I was just looking for another mid level, you know, like I normally do,” I told her, sitting down on the couch. “And his photo appeared…I tracked him. I know where he is.”
“Is he here?”
“No,” I told her. “He’s in Alaska.”
“But he’s never been easy to find before,” Camille said, coming to sit on the couch with me. The shakiness to her voice told me she was just as rattled as I was. “Could this be a trap?”
“Very possible,” I told her. “I don’t want you to worry. He doesn’t know about you, okay?”
That was a lie. He was very aware I’d given birth right after I’d been “saved” from the compound. He’d lost another baby that he could raise to be a sex servant, which was the nature of his business, and I knew that it pissed him off.
I’d always been the one to piss him off the most.
“Will you go to see Kane before you go?” Camille asked. It was a good question. It seemed he was the magnet I felt myself pulled toward always.
“I don’t know,” I answered her honestly.
She nodded, as if she were trying to convince herself that I was making a good choice.
“He’s a good man,” she said. “But he’s also a good cop.
His close rate is top notch, and he’s highly regarded even if he’s been in hot water recently.
He’s under pressure to close this case by his Captain who is threatening his career. ”
“How do you know that?”
“I just do,” she said. “He will be forced to hand you over. I can’t lose you…not now.”
I pulled her to me, hugging her tight. It felt so natural to hug and comfort her, as if I were made to do it, and yet I’d killed men with ease with these same arms.
It was confusing at best.
“You won’t,” I promised her, even though I knew I couldn’t promise that. I couldn’t even promise I’d make it out of the city without falling. Kane had that effect on me.
I just wanted one more time.
One more time to feel like I should have always felt.
Safe.
That’s how I felt in his arms, like I could achieve anything with him at my side. But that was only going to trap me into serving a death sentence.
And I knew it.
Yet, I couldn’t stop myself.
Kane Garrick would be my undoing, and I would be his.
Kane
The bars opened with a loud clang, reminding me just what a horrible fate it was to be locked up here. I’d put so many criminals in here over the years, and worse, my former partner and friend Henry was locked up in here.
He still had two years on his sentence, but I’d known it had taken its toll already.
I sat in the room waiting for him to be brought in.
He was a non-violent offender, which meant he wasn’t in cuffs when they brought him in.
He was only here because he went too far with a politician and that guy had friends in high places.
It was a warning to the rest of us to keep ourselves behind that thin blue line or end up in the one place you could be killed and no one would care.
The door opened and I saw Henry walk in, his stubble was graying faster than I thought possible, and the streaks of gray over his ears and peppered through the back of his longer hair was startling. The bags under his eyes was another feature I wasn’t expecting. His eyes lit up when they saw me.
“Garrick,” he said, his voice tight with emotion. When was the last time I'd come by?
“Come on, Hen,” I said, recalling the name I’d always called him even though he hated it. “Let’s sit.”
He moved over to the chair and sat down, his hands on the steel surface of the table. His nails were cut back short, and his fingertips were red and worn. Working in the prison was hard work, and I could see the loneliness of protective custody was getting to him.
“What brings you here?” he asked. “You don’t need to come and see me.”
“I should come more often,” I admitted to him. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re busy,” he smiled, half-heartedly. “I understand. You shouldn’t feel the need to come by.”
“I need to ask you something,” I said, trying to find the right way to ask him.
“Sure.”
“You knew pursuing Bellamy was dangerous,” I said. “You’d been warned, you knew what could happen but it didn’t stop you…why?”
He sat back in his chair, his hands moving to his lap, as he looked at me, almost as if he were trying to figure out why I would be asking, and why now.
“He was corrupt,” he said, as if that answered my question.
“I know, but you knew nothing good would come of it.”
“No?” he responded. “I may have lost my liberty, but he lost everything, and the people know what he did.”
He was right. Bellamy had been removed from office, lost his family, and been indicted on multiple felonies. Henry had done that.
“Someone has you here asking these questions,” he said, leaning forward. “Who is it?”
“I may have my own pickle I’ve landed myself in,” I admitted to him. “I’m lost on what to do.”
“Tell me.”
As I recounted my dilemma, Henry listened and waited for me to finish before he let out a deep breath.
“That sure is a dilemma,” he said. “Especially after you’ve fallen for her.”
“What?” I scoffed. “That’s not what happened.”
“You’re lying to yourself because you know it’s true,” he replied. “I know you just as much as you know yourself. You wouldn’t be this caught up unless you loved her.”
The admission hit me in the chest so hard I was struggling to find the right way to breathe. If I loved her…then I was in trouble.
She killed those who loved her.
“Listen,” Henry leaned forward. “You are tormented with your decisions because you know she’s doing this for a reason, and you don’t want to stop her because she is doing the world a service.
If you want to stay on the right side of the law, then you can, but you know she’s doing what we can’t. You could…simply look the other way.”
“If I don’t trust the justice system, I would lose everything,” I admitted. I’d leant on the system for years, to stabilize me. I’d given up two marriages for this damn job, and to put it at risk for one woman who I knew couldn’t possibly love me back…was crazy.
“You want me to give you an answer that will save you both and I can’t do that,” Henry said. “By the sounds of it, she’ll never be taken alive. By pursuing her, you end her life but keep your job. By looking away and following fake leads, you keep your job and your conscience is free.”
“Is it though?” I asked.
“Is it ever free? The justice system put me in here even though those who locked me away knew I was right. It works for those with money, and influence. There’s no one that is truly innocent. Not even O’Leary.”
The door opened and the guards signaled our time was up. Henry was pulled to his feet and walked out. He turned back right before I got to the door.
“Trust your gut,” he called out to me.
Feeling even more confused than before I came here, I headed out of the prison gates and to my car. Speeding down the highway, I got to my apartment and hit my fist on the wheel out of frustration.
Nothing had ever torn me up this badly before.
Nothing.
I got out of my car and headed up the path to the front door of my apartment building when I heard someone behind me.
Turning, I felt dread wash over me as I saw Mimi, her face red with tears, coming up behind me.
“What are you doing?” I asked her. “I told you to stay away from me. Give me fucking space, Mimi.”
I looked around, hoping she didn’t have eyes on me.
“I’m fighting with Kemp, and I need someone to talk to,” she said. “Please, Kane.”
This was dangerous, if she knew what I was trying to protect her from…but I could never allow her to be this upset and do nothing about it.
“Okay, come in,” I said, ushering her into the door and up to my apartment. At least it would be a welcome distraction from all things Maurelle.