Allison Brennan - See No Evil

“Let’s go.”

The Ridges were talking to another couple. Julia made small talk, not knowing who they were even though they knew her. It made her uncomfortable, but she was used to it. Finally, they left, and before the Ridges could excuse themselves, Julia said, “We haven’t met formally, but I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about what happened to your son.”

James’s face tightened. “That was nearly a year ago.”

“I know, but I work for the District Attorney’s Office and another steroid death has been brought to our attention. Jason has been on my mind lately.”

“Jason didn’t use steroids,” James Ridge said with complete confidence, or total denial.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“I don’t care what your idiot coroner found, Jason was clean. As Garrett can tell you.”

“Garrett? You mean, Dr. Bowen?”

“Yes, he was seeing Jason. He’ll tell you Jason worshipped his body and would never put alcohol or drugs into it. Jason’s body was his temple.”

“The autopsy report-” Julia was uncertain how to proceed.

“Mistakes happen, Ms. Chandler.” James Ridge put his arm around his wife. She had tears in her eyes. Julia felt bad for bringing up their son’s death.

Dillon saved her. “We wanted to talk to Michelle O’Dell, Jason’s ex-girlfriend. In the initial investigation she seemed to have some information that may have helped-”

“Good riddance. She was no good for Jason.” Stephanie Ridge spoke up for the first time.

“Excuse me?”

“I didn’t like Michelle. He broke up with her after just a couple months. And that’s when his problems started, and-”

“Stephanie,” James said, his voice low and threatening.

“It’s water under the bridge,” Stephanie said with a half smile. “Jason was a good boy. He was.”

“Excuse us,” James said and steered his wife away.

“What do you think?” Dillon asked Julia when the Ridges were out of earshot.

“I think I want to talk to Stephanie Ridge without her husband.”

They regrouped at Julia’s house. Connor watched how Julia and Dillon played off each other as they shared their conversations and observations. Julia was relaxed and smiled at Dillon. He felt a pang of something odd in his chest. It couldn’t be jealousy because, dammit, he didn’t even like Julia.

He just didn’t like the thought of Dillon kissing her.

He tried to convince himself that it was simply because the counselor had screwed him so royally five years ago. Dillon shouldn’t be consorting with the enemy, so to speak. He knew damn well how Julia had messed with Connor’s life. Wouldn’t a good brother help keep her at arm’s length?

But in the back of his mind, Connor acknowledged that it was the thought of Dillon intimately touching Julia that set him off. Kissing her lips…touching her breasts…making love to her.

“I think we’re done,” Connor said, jumping up. “Let’s go.”

“What about the disk you got?” Julia said. “I thought we were going to look at it.”

Connor pulled it from his pocket and tossed it to her. “I assume you have a computer somewhere.”

Julia frowned. She led the way down the hall to an office. It was perfectly furnished, with built-in bookshelves filled to the brim with legal, historical, and fiction books. Her computer sat on a large mahogany desk in the middle of the orderly room.

Parking herself in the leather swivel chair, Julia booted up the hard drive and put in the CD. Dillon and Connor looked over her shoulder. “So what did you get?” she asked Connor.

“I copied anything that looked potentially relevant, including e-mails.”

“Hmmm.” Julia clicked this and that and dragged the e-mail file into a program.

“He didn’t use his home computer much, did he?” Dillon said, looking at the sparse information.

“No,” Connor concurred. “There weren’t a lot of files to download.”

“Nothing about Wishlist,” Julia said, disappointed. “Just messages from his nephew, his girlfriend, colleagues. And they’re all recent, nothing older than two months.”

“He may well have purged his e-mail file,” Dillon said. “I do it regularly.”

“Dammit. I really thought there’d be something here.”

“It wouldn’t be admissible in court anyway, Julia,” Dillon reminded her.

“I know,” she snapped. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired.”

Dillon glanced at his watch. “It’s late,” he acknowledged, then said to Julia, “It’s been a long couple days for you. Are you okay here?”

Julia smiled, nodded. “I’m fine, thank you for your concern. I talked to Emily earlier and am going by the hospital in the morning. She sounds better. I just-I’m scared about letting the police in to talk to her. Do you think she’s ready?”

“Yes, I do. We’ll prepare her in the morning. Meet there at ten? Will isn’t coming until noon.”

“What’s going on tomorrow?” Connor asked, feeling out of the loop.

Julia said, “We’re meeting at the hospital to talk to Emily about her police interview. I thought I told you.”

“You didn’t.”

“I’m sorry,” Julia began.

“I have a vested interest in this case, Julia. You hired me to help Emily. Don’t keep me in the dark.”

Dillon intervened. “I’ll pick you up on the way,” he said to Connor. “All right?”

Connor nodded. “Fine. Good night.” He walked out. He heard Dillon mumble something incoherent to Julia, then follow him to the front porch. Behind them, bolts slid into place.

“What was that about?” Dillon asked. “Julia’s been through hell this week and you just jumped all over her.”

“I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did.”

Connor slid into Dillon’s passenger seat and drummed his fingers against the dashboard.

Dillon turned on the ignition. “What’s with you?”

“Nothing.”

When Connor didn’t elaborate, Dillon said, “It’s difficult for you to let go of the hatred you felt for Julia, isn’t it?”

“Don’t psychoanalyze me, Dil. I don’t need it.”

“She’s beautiful and smart. It’s impossible to hate her.”

“So you’re hot for her,” Connor said, his jaw tense.

“I like her. I’ve worked with her on several cases over the years and have the utmost respect for her. I wouldn’t say I was hot for her.”

“Then what would you say?” Connor demanded, slapping his palm on the dashboard.

“I’d say that you were hot for her.”

“That woman destroyed my career, Dil. I shouldn’t have to remind you of what happened.”

“No, you don’t. And it was lousy. But it wasn’t Julia acting alone. The case was bigger than her, bigger than you. I hate that you were pushed off the police force. You’re a great cop with better instincts than anyone I’ve met. But sometimes things happen and they’re no one’s fault. Would you have wanted Crutcher to get off? To go back to pocketing an extra hundred thousand a year to turn his back on the murders of dozens of young women when they became too much trouble for their pimps?”

“Of course not. But it’s the Blue Code. You don’t turn on your own. I gave them everything they needed. They didn’t need my testimony. I had already gone farther than I wanted.”

“Evidently, they did need your testimony. And it worked. And just because some of your colleagues couldn’t get beyond the Code doesn’t mean you did the wrong thing.”

No one outside law enforcement could understand. Being a cop was a different job from any others out there. On the other side of the shield, you were a family. Your brothers and sisters went through marriages because marriage was difficult enough, but as a cop they were almost impossible to sustain. You lost them to violence, to violent junkies pumped up on PCP or heroin. Good cops were sued by rapists and murderers who hurt innocent citizens, but who screamed brutality when they were slammed to the cement during arrest.