Deadly Charade (3 page)

Too bad for both of them he hadn’t been able to stay away.

At least Mark Guapo was dead. The man couldn’t hurt anyone anymore, and that included Linda. Of course that didn’t mean she was safe, especially now that Tony was here, in her world, which made it all the more possible that Tony and all the crap he’d gotten hooked up with lately could be linked to
her.

Tony closed his eyes, praying no one could see the longing and indecision on his face. No, Guapo’s death didn’t change anything. Despite Tony’s best attempts to get it out of him, the man had indeed taken the name of the Rapture supplier to the grave. That meant Tony still had a job to do, and part of that job included keeping Linda out of harm’s way. To do that, he needed people to believe she meant nothing to him. That she never would.

And that included the people she worked with.

According to the men Tony was working for, Guapo had bribed his way not only into police stations and judge’s chambers, but into the D.A.’s office, as well. Why else would so many of his men have avoided prosecution or been given such lenient sentences over the past few years? Even though ferreting out those moles wasn’t Tony’s responsibility, he sure as hell wasn’t going to do anything to call their attention to Linda. And if anyone found out about their past, how much she’d once cared about him, or how much he
still
cared about her, it would definitely call attention to her, possibly placing her in danger and making it harder for a drug supplier to trust Tony.

Still...playing his part was hard—so much harder than he’d anticipated—when Linda was almost close enough to touch. To smell and taste.

To love.

In the past year and a half, he’d toughened up. He hadn’t magically transformed into the badass he was trying to project, yet the threat of death didn’t shake him anymore. Nor did the thought of what various criminal elements would do to him if they ever got the chance.

But the woman who’d just run from the room, averting her gaze and pretending she didn’t know him? Didn’t see him?

She was a different matter altogether.

Chapter 3

L
inda burst into the ladies’ room and immediately backed against the swinging door to hold back the demons chasing her. It did her no good. She couldn’t erase the horrible image of Tony wearing jail clothes and standing among the other defendants in the courtroom.

As far as she knew, Tony had never been arrested before. Yet now he was being charged with Guapo’s murder?

Her heart beating rapidly, Linda stumbled to one of the bathroom sinks. As she stared at her reflection, she automatically touched her hip. She could almost feel the tattoo burning her skin, as if it were about to combust.

Out damned spot! Out.
Like Lady Macbeth, she longed to be released from the guilt the symbol caused her. But like Hester Prynne, she’d chosen to keep her brand. As a reminder. In case she ever felt tempted by her impulsive nature. In case she ever started to believe that being with an addict or giving in to a vice herself was okay. In a sense they were one and the same for her. Seeing Tony just now proved it.

Despite the reason he was here, despite knowing he was being charged with Guapo’s murder, seeing him had burst open a hunger inside her that she’d barely been managing to keep suppressed. A hunger for him. In comparison the pleasure she’d felt when flirting with Neil seemed laughable.

If Tony had killed Guapo, he had to have been acting in self-defense. Guapo must have gone after Tony, or even Tony’s family. But how was that possible? They’d been in the Witness Security Program. They should have been states away from Sacramento. Was Mattie here, too? And if so, why hadn’t she—why hadn’t Tony himself—called Linda as soon as he’d been arrested?

Because they’d known she wouldn’t help? When the only possible reason she’d refuse to help would be...

For just a second Linda’s belief in Tony’s innocence faltered.

The bathroom door suddenly pushed open. A young woman, a pretty yet world-worn looking brunette with gold highlights and a scowl on her face, walked in. Although Linda kept her gaze averted, she felt the woman staring at her for a few seconds, likely wondering why Linda was upset, before she stepped into a stall and kicked the door shut.

Shakily Linda splashed cool water on her face. It didn’t make her feel any better. Her stomach rolled. She bent forward, her hands gripping the cool porcelain sink, and gasped for breath.

He’d changed, she thought again. Not just his hair, but...inside. He’d changed. He’d looked at her with empty eyes when before they’d always been full of life. And love. For her.

Even on the last night they’d been together, even when he’d accepted she wouldn’t change her mind about breaking up with him, there’d been a spark behind the desperation and regret. As if there would always be a part of him that would be hers, and that he wouldn’t stop trying to convince her. Ever.

But that spark was gone now.

Something cold and hollow had taken its place. She felt it trying to press itself inside her—that same insidious sensation: cold and hollow. And once again she wondered why Tony hadn’t called her.

She wondered if he truly had murdered Guapo.

Straightening, Linda swiftly washed her hands. As she did so, she heard sniffing from the stall behind her. Was the woman crying? If so, what a pathetic pair they made. Before she could leave, the other woman stepped out of the stall. Linda turned to look at her.

And barely stopped herself from flinching.

For a split second the woman seemed to look at her with an expression of utter hatred. Then the expression was gone and the woman smiled. She moved to the sink beside Linda and washed her hands.

Was she a friend of one of the defendants Linda was prosecuting? Or a defendant herself, one who’d been released on her own recognizance after her arrest? If that was the case, she was likely being charged with a petty theft, minor assault or drug charge. Given those three options, though she couldn’t know for sure, Linda would place bets on the woman being a druggie. Despite her subdued clothing and makeup, the woman had a pinched look to her face and a jittery way of moving. A look in her eyes that seemed all too familiar to Linda. For all she knew, the sniffing she’d heard had been the woman ingesting a controlled substance.

Then again, would she really be so foolish as to do it here? With Linda present?

It didn’t matter. Linda hadn’t seen her doing anything illegal and she couldn’t avoid her own troublesome situation by imagining another one.

Tony had come back into her life with a vengeance. Now she had to deal with it.

* * *

The courtroom doors opened and the room quieted as Linda walked back inside. Though Tony stared at her, practically willing her gaze to his, she refused to look at him.

The bailiff called his name, signaling that Tony should stand again. Pain shot through his left thigh, causing him to grit his teeth. Thanks to Guapo and the damage he’d done, Tony now walked with a strong limp that his leg shackles only worsened. But to Tony his physical injuries weren’t what hurt the most.

It was the memory of Linda’s expression a few minutes ago. The horror and betrayal she hadn’t quite been able to hide. Just as she hadn’t been able to hide her disappointment on the night she’d woken and found him in the kitchen, staring at that damn bag of drugs.

He was overwhelmed with conflicting feelings of joy and anger. God, he’d tried so hard to put his past behind him. Didn’t that count for something? Didn’t he deserve to at least tell her the truth, so that he could leave this world knowing she still cared about him? Knowing that she didn’t think he was some kind of sick bastard?

But no. It didn’t matter that he’d tried. He’d failed. He’d still ended up hurting the people he’d cared about most. His failure could hurt them yet again.

The emotions circling inside him momentarily paralyzed him.

Grief. Confusion. Regret. Longing.

He pushed all of them away. Forced himself to remain impassive as the clerk read the charges against him.

When the judge asked him how he pled, Tony followed the advice of the public defender he’d met with earlier. He lied. “Not guilty, Your Honor.”

Chapter 4

A
s soon as the arraignment calendar was over, Linda rushed back to her office to read Tony’s entire file. She’d just reached for it when a voice broke her concentration.

“Hey, are you ready for lunch?”

She looked up to see Allie hovering in the doorway. What was she talking about?

Oh, right. Lunch.

“I’m sorry, Allie, but something’s come up. I need to go over a few files so I’ll have to skip lunch today.”

“No worries,” Allie said. “Can I help?”

Linda hesitated. Despite her inexperience, Allie was sharp and had already proven helpful numerous times before. Maybe she could help Linda see beyond her own past and stay objective.

“Sure, take a seat,” she said, waving the intern into her office. She flipped open Tony’s file. The first things she saw were Tony’s booking photos.

At first glance he looked like any other hard-eyed street thug. Defiant. Posturing. But to her he also looked desolate. Empty. Abandoned.

She closed her eyes. Took a deep breath.

I didn’t abandon him. I broke up with him because I had to. He wasn’t healthy then and he obviously still isn’t. So move on.

Aware that Allie was waiting, Linda opened her eyes and forced herself to speak. “Tony Cooper,” she said. “Arrested for murder.” She handed the photos over to Allie, who took her time perusing the black and whites, no expression on her face.

Linda read the arresting officer’s report and said, “Last week the police received an anonymous call that Mark Guapo—”

“That’s the drug lord, right?” Allie asked. “The one whose prison conviction was recently overturned?”

Continuing to read, Linda nodded. “Yes. He was released from prison and murdered shortly thereafter. An anonymous caller identified Guapo’s killer as a man named ‘Coop.’ The woman said this ‘Coop’ had been trying to take over Guapo’s criminal endeavors while he’d been in prison.” Linda felt her throat close up on her and focused on her breathing. Tony wasn’t a criminal. Not the way Guapo had been.

“Bad guy, huh?” Allie asked.

Bad guy? Tony? On paper, it seemed that way. But in real life? Well, besides the drug addiction, Linda couldn’t imagine Tony ever being a bad guy. Weak, maybe. But not bad.

Linda flipped through the pages, noting that the charging deputy had been Brian Heald. Ideally Heald should have made the connection that Linda had previously prosecuted Guapo and given her a heads-up about his death, but because Heald had started at the D.A.’s office less than a year ago, long after Guapo’s conviction, she wasn’t surprised he hadn’t. That was especially true given she’d consistently turned down Heald’s invitations to go clubbing—he’d been getting snottier and snottier ever since, so the guy was even less likely to do her any favors. Tony’s failure to call her when he’d been arrested still ate at her, however.

Searching for possible answers, she summarized the police report for Allie. “When patrol officers reached the location where they’d been directed, a closed car repair shop in West Sacramento, the defendant was passed out near the front door, several feet from Guapo’s body. Mr. Cooper was bleeding from an injury to the back of his head and from one leg.”

“Did they find the murder weapon?”

Linda licked her finger and turned the page, then nodded. “Police patted him down for a weapon and discovered a bloody wrench tucked inside the waistband of his pants. After that he was transported to the hospital and treated for his injuries. As soon as he’d been well enough, he was transferred to the county jail.”

The details of Tony’s injuries caught Linda’s attention. His left leg, which had always caused him pain anyway, had suffered the most damage, but hadn’t been fatal. The infection he’d caught afterward had almost been. He’d fought it for days, but during that time Detective Derek Humphries had interviewed him.

Allie moved behind Linda and read over her shoulder. “Despite his not guilty plea in court, he confessed to the investigating detective,” Allie stated. “So he’s guilty, right?” She said it with a slight smile, acknowledging that
most
but not all people who confessed were usually being truthful. Though it was rare, people falsely confessed for a variety of reasons, including to protect another. Was that the case here?

“Maybe,” Linda said. Tony had admitted killing Mark Guapo, but he’d refused to say anything more. Frustrated, she flipped through the file but found nothing else. That was where the report ended.

Humphries had stopped the investigation at Tony’s confession when he should have done far more. He should have asked about motive and the events leading up to the day. He should have asked Tony about his injuries. Sure, Tony hadn’t been forthcoming with further information, but he hadn’t invoked his right to an attorney yet, either.

She tipped back in her chair, running her fingers across the smooth surface of her wooden desk, letting thoughts run through her mind. It didn’t matter that Tony had pled not guilty at his arraignment hearing. Everyone did that as a matter of course and it wouldn’t be persuasive evidence against his confession. Still, when he’d said those words, Linda had prayed for them to be true.

She still did.

Standing, she shrugged off her jacket.

“Are we settling in for the long haul?” Allie asked.

“Want to brainstorm?”

At Allie’s eager nod, Linda tossed her a yellow legal pad and pen, and asked her to draw a line down the center of one sheet. Over the next few minutes, she and Allie listed on one side the evidence against Tony.

Anonymous call reporting a man named “Coop” had killed Guapo.

Tony Cooper found at the crime scene next to Guapo’s dead body.

Tony Cooper found with possible murder weapon, a bloody wrench.

Confession.

Linda hesitated, unsure whether she should add information that she personally knew but that had not been elicited from police. Finally, she told Allie to write down:

Known association with Mark Guapo.

Confirmed drug addict.

Allie raised her eyebrows at the last statement. Nothing in the report had indicated either of those things. Linda pretended she hadn’t noticed Allie’s questioning expression, and indicated she wanted to look at the list.

Allie handed her the yellow sheet of paper and Linda stared at the items they’d just listed. Humphries’s shoddy police work to the contrary, the evidence was more than enough to charge Tony with murder. But this wasn’t a completely objective analysis she was conducting.

Linda had once known Tony as intimately as anyone. Previous drug use aside, Tony was a good person. The Tony she’d known? No one could believe he would have murdered Guapo in cold blood.

She couldn’t have been so wrong about him and that certainty prompted her to continue with her list.

“What would a defense attorney argue to sway a jury?” she asked Allie.

“The wound on the back of Tony’s head suggests an offensive attack,” Allie said quickly.

“True. In addition, the use of the wrench against Guapo suggests self-defense or heat of passion rather than premeditation. But what would the defense say about Guapo’s knife wound? How would one explain away a stabbing to the chest?”

“By arguing Guapo attacked Tony and things just escalated from there. He grabbed the knife because it was handy?” Allie asked.

“But where did the knife come from? Did Tony bring it with him?”

“Maybe. Or maybe Guapo had it on him.”

That was entirely possible. Both scenarios were. Had Tony brought the knife with him, intending to kill Guapo? Did Linda believe Tony could actually commit murder? Given the right circumstances?

Yes, she thought. Good people committed murder all the time, the most obvious reason being self-defense.

It was entirely possible Tony had indeed killed Guapo, if not in self-defense then out of revenge because Guapo had sent his men after Mattie. Maybe even because Guapo’s men had hurt Linda.

“Damn it,” she muttered. What if that was the case? What if Tony still loved her, just as he’d told her in the letter he’d left her, and had been trying to show her that by killing Guapo? It would still have been wrong, but not as wrong as killing Guapo to protect his stake in the other man’s drug business. Not as wrong as killing Guapo for the sheer pleasure of it. And it would mean Linda hadn’t loved a man who was so dead inside. So she’d cling to that explanation for now. She’d pray that Tony hadn’t killed Guapo at all.

She couldn’t escape the truth, however. She’d believed in Tony before. She’d believed in him from the day she’d met him. Yet twice he’d managed to shatter her belief in him. What’s to say it wouldn’t happen again?