Beg for Mercy (19 page)

The kitchen was sparsely furnished, the few dishes tucked neatly away in the cabinets. It was weird. The refrigerator contained a six-pack of Diet Coke, a half-empty bottle of wine, and a gallon of milk well past its expiration date. The freezer was empty. The rest of the cabinets revealed a box of saltines and a box of Cheerios. Other than the pile of magazines and scant food, the place showed very little sign of being lived in.

The bedrooms revealed little else. One room, which she assumed had been Bianca’s, looked like the scene of a robbery. Closet doors hung open; dresser drawers lay empty on the carpeted floor. The entire room had been stripped bare. Sister MT hadn’t been exaggerating when she said it seemed as though Bianca had donated everything she owned.

A search of the other room showed a few more clothes, but nothing else. No papers, no odds and ends, no bills with the inhabitants’ names. All of the wastebaskets in the house had been emptied, but underneath the kitchen sink, far back in the corner, was a crumpled piece of paper. Megan fished it out and smoothed it. It was faded and food-stained, but she easily recognized Binca in the black-and-white photo of the woman reclining on a bed wearing a black lace bra and matching panties. She saw the address in the upper right corner and realized it was the printout of a Web page.

Megan felt a buzz of excitement as she pulled out her phone and entered the URL to check later. She wouldn’t know until she checked, but she bet this was how Bianca was reaching out to clients. Maybe it was how the killer found his other victims too. It was unlikely it would provide the link to Evangeline she was looking for, but it was something. She crumpled the paper back up and tucked it into the corner for the police to find when they eventually searched the house.

Megan went back to Stephanie’s room and pulled open the closet, determined to do one last search for information.

It was in the back pocket of a pair of black leather pants that she found it. A cocktail napkin with a crimson smear of lipstick against the snowy-white backdrop.

Megan’s stomach clutched at the logo embossed in the corner.

Club One.

You have no idea what you’re sticking your nose into.

The bedroom door flew open, slamming into the wall with a crash. Her heart leaped to her throat as she whirled around; then her stomach bottomed out when she saw the uniformed officer in the doorway, her standard-issue Glock trained on Megan. “Drop to your knees. Hands in the air.”

Megan obeyed, wincing as the officer wrenched her arms behind her and snapped the cuffs around her wrists, the sharp metallic click echoing through the silent room.

Cole slipped his cell phone out of his pocket, grimacing when he saw Tasso’s number on the caller ID. The SAC was calling for an update.

“You got anything yet?”

“We narrowed down the neighborhood where Bianca has been seen around, and we’re still trying to find anyone who knows where she might have lived.”

At Cole’s voice, Petersen looked up from where she was talking, or rather trying to talk, to a working girl who was shaking her head and trying to pull the
no hablo inglés
on her.

Cole rolled his eyes and mouthed “Tasso” at her.

The truth was, they’d been canvassing downtown, questioning the usual crew for hours now and had fuck all to show for it. If Bianca had ever set foot in this part of town, no one was willing to open up to the cops about it. The
gangs who ran in this part of town hadn’t been shy about letting people know what happened when you snitched. Recently a local store owner had been found stabbed to death with his tongue cut out. It made a population already disinclined to trust the cops even more tight-lipped.

Trying to reassure folks that the guy they were after had nothing to do with the gangs didn’t help. A cop was a cop and a rat was a rat as far ashey were concerned.

“So you haven’t found any new information about her?”

Cole didn’t like the edge creeping into Tasso’s tone. “Nothing substantive,” Cole said, his grip tightening around the phone. “Is there anything else you needed, sir?” If Tasso was going to chew his ass out over something, Cole wanted to get it over with. If not, Cole needed to get back to work.

“No, but I thought you might be interested to know Megan Flynn was arrested for breaking and entering.”

Cole shook his head, sure he hadn’t heard right. “She what?”

“And that’s not the best part. She claims she was there because some kid from a noodle house told her that’s where Bianca and her roommate lived.”

Cole felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.
Fuck.
He’d passed on the information to Megan, convinced there was nothing she could do with it. When was he going to learn to stop underestimating her and the power of pure desperation?

“What is it with this chick?” Petersen said as they pulled into the parking lot. “You’re a good cop, Cole. You
follow procedure and you don’t fuck up. And you sure as hell don’t leak confidential information to civilians not involved in the case.”

Cole shook his head. “Drop it, Olivia.” The truth was he didn’t have an answer for why Megan Flynn made him so fucking stupid and reckless.

“For you of all people to think with your dick—”

“It wasn’t like that. I wanted to help her.”

“Yeah, well, you helped yourself into getting thrown off an investigation that could make you a sergeant. Hell, Lieutenant Chin could fire you for this.”

The truth was like a fist knotting in his gut. Petersen was right. And Chin didn’t even know about him showing Megan the information on the other victims. He was trying to be a good guy, help Megan get some closure. Instead he was at serious risk of losing the career that had defined his entire adult life.

Talk about a warning sign to stay the hell away from her.

Yet the first thing Cole did when he got to the station was ask the desk sergeant where he could find Megan Flynn.

“Are you kidding?” Petersen gaped. “Tasso and Lieutenant Chin are waiting for you.”

He knew what she was thinking—that the Detective Cole Williams she knew would never consider leaving his superiors waiting. Hell, that Detective Williams would never do something so stupid, so reckless, as to deserve the kind of ass reaming he had coming.

But he’d dug himself in this far, and he needed to talk to Megan face-to-face, find out what the fuck she thought she was going to accomplish that the police couldn’t. /font>

No surprise, rather than being booked and tossed in a cell with the other petty thieves, Megan had been taken upstairs for questioning by Tasso and Chin. They would want to know why she was at Bianca’s house, what she was looking for.

What else she knew.

Fuck.
Cole was a master of interrogation, and he knew all the tricks and tactics they would use. Even if she was inclined to protect him, Megan would be helpless if they really turned the screws.

But deep down, did he really want her to lie for him? He’d dug his own grave, fucked himself over. He couldn’t really blame her.

He found her, mercifully alone, in an interrogation room. Under other circumstances, he might have admired her ability to nose out Bianca’s address before he had. Right now, all he felt was angry, not just at the prospect of losing his career, but also at her for going by herself to a sketchy neighborhood. He knew Megan thought of herself as tough and street smart, but just the idea of her walking around there alone was enough to make him want to keep her locked up for her own safety.

Cole turned off the monitors and cameras and ducked inside the room.

Some of his anger dissipated when he saw her, small and fragile, sitting at that table. Her shoulders were hunched, her dark hair spilling forward to hide her face. They’d removed the cuffs, but she was rubbing her wrists like they still hurt.

The urge to hug her was as strong as the urge to shake her.

He closed the door quietly behind him.

Megan’s head snapped up, her face melting into a mask of guilt the second she recognized him. “I’m so sorry, Cole—”

He held his hand up. “Save it. This whole thing is my own fucking fault for being so stupid. I should know by now that being around you only causes me trouble.”

She winced at that, but Cole was so pissed, mostly at himself, he couldn’t muster any sympathy. “What I want to know is what the hell you think you were doing, going by yourself to that part of town, breaking into someone’s house.”

Megan licked her lips and stared at the table. “Two years ago, Devany ran away and ended up at Mission St. Jude. Bianca was a volunteer there. Devany didn’t realize it was her right away, but she remembered the mark on her shoulder.”

“And instead of calling me immediately, you decided to interfere with the investigation and go nosing around yourself.”

“I was going to tell you, I swear! I just wanted to take a look myself, because I might see something you guys won’t.”

“You used confidential information to go off half-cocked and then neglected to relay information that could help us learn more about the victim.”

“I didn’t conceal it,” Megan said. “I just didn’t tell you right away. I knew you wouldn’t tell me if you discovered anything in her house, so I wanted to get there before you—”

“Don’t rub it in. Even if I do keep my badge, no one’s ever going to let me live that down. I leak information to
a fucking court advocate, for Christ’s sake, and she tracks down the victim’s address before I can.”

“I was going to tell you about Devany and anything else I found out.”

“You should have left it up to the police—”

“Right, because you’re so willing to entertain the idea that these cases are connected to Sean’s? After today, why would I trust you to do that?”

Just like that, Cole was back in her apartment, Megan stripped almost bare beneath him. His hands running over her silky skin, the salty-sweet taste of her in his mouth. He felt himself thicken as blood rushed south. “After what happened today, wouldn’t you think I’d be more inclined to help you out?”

Hot color flooded her cheeks, and her green eyes skittered away from his. “I was talking about what you
said.
About the knife wounds. I wasn’t talking about what you
did.
”

“
We
were both on that couch, Megan.” He took a step closer and heard her breath catch. He leaned over the table, so close he could smell her hair. “I did what you asked and showed you the files. You saw for yourself there was nothing in there to prove your theory.” He shook his head in exasperation. “Or you should have. But instead you had to break into the victim’s house. I’ll be lucky to get off with just a suspension.”

Her mouth pulled down at the corners, shame mingling with guilt. “I’m sorry, Cole. I had no idea anything like this would happen.” She ran her eyes around the interrogation room. “Obviously.”

“It’s my own goddamn fault. I know better.” He rubbed his eyes. “Do you have an attorney you can call?”

She nodded. “I called a friend, and a lawyer should be
here soon. And I really was going to tell you if I found out anything. Like you should know—”

Before Megan could get the words out, the conference door opened again. Lieutenant Chin’s face tightened with anger. “What the hell are you doing in here, Williams? I told you to come to my office as soon as you got back.”

Cole had always had a solid relationship with his lieutenant, but now he fought the urge to pop him in the face as payback for chastising him like a child. “I was just on my way.”