Karen Rose - Kill for Me

He hesitated, then spoke when she gave him a look. “It’s just that I’m surprised it wasn’t with Simon’s collection. Either the one Daniel found or the box you found.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t believe me?”

“Of course I do,” he said quickly and her frown smoothed. “I definitely believe you. I’m just wondering where the picture went.” He sandwiched her hand between his. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll go with you to see Garth when morning meeting is finished. He may know where Bobby is hiding. Now I gotta go.” He dropped a kiss on her lips.

“Luke.” He turned at the door. Her eyes were wide, her hands clutched together so tightly her knuckles were white. “Tell Chloe to make up her mind. I’d rather just know.”

Atlanta, Monday, February 5, 7:55 a.m.

“You look better,” Chase said to Luke when he sat at the conference room table.

“You don’t,” Luke replied. “Any news on Leigh?”

“No. I talked to her family. Nobody seems to know why she would have done this.”

The rest of the team filed in. With the exception of Ed and Chloe, all looked rested, but worn. Ed slipped Luke a note as he passed. Loomis paternity , it read. Positive .

That was one question confirmed. He met Ed’s eyes across the table with a nod.

“You want to share the note with the rest of the class?” Chase asked sarcastically.

Susannah had already given her okay to share the information, now that she’d told Daniel first. “Angie Delacroix, the hairdresser in Dutton, told Susannah that Arthur Vartanian wasn’t her father. That her mother had had an affair with Frank Loomis. Ed ran the tests and it’s true. Frank Loomis is Susannah’s biological father.”

Chase blinked. “Well. I didn’t see that coming.”

“Neither did she,” Luke said. “Seems like Frank Loomis fixed a lot of Simon’s legal problems, including falsifying evidence in the Gary Fulmore case.”

“That explains a lot,” Chloe said. “I’ll make sure that gets included with the record. We’d started an investigation into Loomis the day before he was killed.”

“Speaking of investigations,” Luke said. “She needs to know, Chloe.”

Chloe looked miserable. “I didn’t sleep a wink. But, Luke, I have to file charges.”

He bit back what would have been a sharp reply. “At least she’ll know. Tell them,” he added, when the team looked confused.

“Susannah Vartanian was in possession of a firearm illegally yesterday,” Chloe said.

“Oh my God,” Talia snapped. “ Chloe .”

“That’s stupid,” Pete added. “Talk about adding insult to injury.”

“No time served. Right, Chloe?” Chase said wearily.

“No time. Community service, but no time.” She looked at Luke and for the first time he saw the sassy Chloe on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry.”

He patted her hand. “She’s okay with it. She said she’d do the same thing.”

Chloe blew out a breath. “It still sucks.”

“Nothing about the last week has done anything other than suck,” Chase said. “Ed, you were busy during the night. Tell them what you’ve got.”

“A couple things.” His eyes grew bright in his worn face. “We lifted some prints off the syringes we found in the bunker and got a match with the hospital’s records.” He pulled a photo from his folder. “Jeff Katowsky, thirty-nine years old. He’s a nurse at the hospital. We picked him up this morning, hiding in his mother’s basement.”

“He tried to kill Ryan Beardsley?” Luke asked.

“He’s confessed,” Chase said. “He was contacted by a woman and threatened that she’d reveal his drug habit if he didn’t kill Beardsley. Just like Jennifer, the nurse.”

“How did Bobby know these people’s secrets?” Nancy asked. “Bobby had to have a source. Who knew about Jeff Katowsky’s drug problem?”

“He won’t say,” Chase said. “Chloe offered him a deal, and he still wouldn’t say.”

“He was genuinely terrified,” Chloe said. “We said we’d protect him. He laughed.”

“Just like Michael Ellis, Darcy’s killer,” Luke said. “Not a coincidence.”

“Chloe, did you ask Al Landers about pressing Darcy’s killer again?” Chase asked.

“I called him before I came in this morning, but he wasn’t in yet.” She took her BlackBerry from her purse. “I also e-mailed him after last night’s meeting.” She scrolled through her messages, then looked up with a frown. “Here’s his reply. He says he’ll go up to the prison himself today, but he didn’t get the police sketch we faxed up to him. The one Susannah gave of the man who raped her the night Darcy was killed.”

Luke closed his eyes. “Susannah said the artist gave the sketch to Leigh.”

“Fuck.” Chase called for the new clerk sitting at Leigh’s desk. Minutes later, he was scowling. “No record of a fax to New York. Leigh didn’t send it and it’s not in her desk.”

“The artist will have a copy,” Pete said. “We can send it again.”

“Yeah, we can,” Luke said. “But why would Leigh not send it? She seemed to be playing both sides of the fence, giving information to Bobby and to us. I wonder what else she held back from us.”

“I’ve been going through the record of calls to her office phone as well as the hotline records all night,” Chase said. “Seems like she shared everything that came through.”

“Maybe she knew him,” Luke said. “Or maybe Bobby told her not to send it.”

Chase stared for a moment, then sighed. “You could be right. I asked the new clerk to contact the sketch artist. We’ll get the sketch sent out and see what shakes out. For now, we focus on identifying the unknown man Monica Cassidy heard in the bunker. He could be the only one left who was willing to help Bobby escape.”

“Mansfield took pictures of Granville in the bunker as insurance in case Granville ever crossed him,” Ed said. “Maybe this guy is in one of them.”

Luke’s stomach turned, bile rising in his throat at the thought of having to look at those pictures again. “I’ll look at them.”

Chase shot him a look of sympathy. “I can get somebody else to do it.”

“No. I want this guy. I’ll do it.” And if it got to be too much, he now had somewhere to turn. He wondered if Susannah understood exactly what she’d offered to do, then he remembered that first afternoon in his car. And a little more of you dies each day . She knew. From experience she knew. It made her need to help him all the sweeter. “But first I want to talk to Garth Davis. He may know where his wife is hiding.”

“He gets arraigned this afternoon,” Chloe said. “He’ll be transported by eleven.”

“Can you get remand?” Talia asked.

“I’m going to try, but I don’t think so. I’ll probably get a pretty high bail, though, which may amount to the same thing. Garth Davis’s bank account is empty. It appears Bobby cleaned him out right before she supposedly ran away.”

“Won’t he get that money back?” Nancy asked, and Chloe shrugged.

“If we could separate Garth’s money from Bobby’s revenue,” she said innocently. “We found her bank accounts on her hard drive, no problem.”

“That hard drive of Bobby’s was just packed with information,” Ed said, his jaw hard. “She was getting rich selling children to rich perverts. Right now we’re too busy trying to document her business transactions to find Garth’s money. He can sit a while and rot.”

“Amen,” Luke said. “Are we done? I want to see Garth before he gets transported.”

“In a minute,” Chase said. “Pete, get that artist’s sketch and pass it around. Show it to Leigh’s friends and family, see if they recognize him. I want to know who he is. Talia, get with the police in Arkansas. Find out whatever you can about Bobby’s childhood, anybody she might go to for help. Ed, what do you have going?”