Finding Justice (23 page)

“Who is he?”

The smile stretched to a grin. “Well, Inspector Bennett, of
course.”

Cat sucked in a shocked breath before she could stop it and
teetered back on her heels, gripping the back of the chair. “Bennett? Bennett
took the money? Killed Sarah?”

“The one and only.”

She met Jay’s eyes above Kyle’s head. They stormed with a rage,
bewilderment and hatred that scared the hell out of her. “How can I trust what
you’re saying? Bennett wouldn’t have—”

“Yes, missy, he would. He’s taken a cut of my earnings for his
silence for a long, long time.” He reached into his pocket for a cigarette. “He
showed me that damn letter he took from her.”

Cat spun away from his gaze, no longer worried about what Jay
did or didn’t do with her back turned. She fisted her hands into her hair,
unable to look at Kyle. “The letter he mailed a week later.”

“Yep. Stupid son of a bitch still had the thing. He was all
pleased with himself ’cause he took it from her before she could send it.” He
shook his head. “When I asked him what he was going to do if she told someone
about it, or someone watched her write it, he turned whiter than a line of coke.
Christ only knows how he got to be an inspector.” He laughed.

Cat swallowed the nausea rising in her throat, struggled to
focus her mind. “Why the hell would he show you a letter that could get him
locked up for murder? You two best friends or something?”

He smiled. “Not best friends, but he’s earned a damn sight more
money from me in the past five years than from being a cop.”

Cat looked to Jay and he squeezed his eyes shut. She turned
back to Kyle. “Bennett takes money from you? For doing what?”

“For turning a blind eye. He’s got my back covered. What can I
say?”

“Yet now you’re giving him to us on a plate. Sorry, Kyle,
but—”

“He lied to me and he killed a good woman. I may not have the
best morals in the world, pretty lady, but no cop deserves to get away with
that. Not even my mate Bennett.”

Cat looked at the ceiling. “I can’t believe this. I was
convinced it was someone she loved, someone she was sleeping with.”

He grinned. “She did and she was.”

“Oh, God.” Cat slapped her hand over her mouth and rushed to
the sink. She stared down the drain and fought the urge to vomit. She couldn’t.
Not in front of Kyle. “How could people not notice?”

Jay came beside her, his hand on her back. “Remember your
theory that people must have been used to them being together?”

She nodded.

“Sarah worked with the police all the time. With young
offenders.”

Cat squeezed her eyes shut. A chair scraped behind her. Kyle
snorted.

“Yep. Hold on to your hat, Sergeant. You’re going to send down
the top man in the Templeton police force. Bennett was banging the best damn
teacher this town has ever known.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

C
AT
WALKED
BACK
TO
J
AY
’
S
CAR
with her head held high but her legs shaking. Bennett? Inspector Bennett whom
she respected? Trusted? She closed her eyes for a second and swallowed the
betrayal burning her throat and stinging her eyes. His face filled her mind’s
eye. His cold stare and holier-than-thou smile swam in her vision. How could he?
How could anyone stand in front of their victim’s friends and family stating he
would do all he could to find her killer? It was sick. Sick and wrong.

Nausea whirled hard and fast in her stomach, and Cat swallowed
against the urge to gag. She’d thought he was on their side, Sarah’s side. Just
the day before, Bennett had stood in front of a horde of television cameras and
appealed for help. That had been the catalyst to letting her final reservations
about Jay’s involvement diminish. It was a public admission they were still
searching for a killer. Cat closed her eyes. Before she could crumple to the
sidewalk, regardless of Kyle Jordon watching her from the front door of the
crack house, Jay caught her elbow.

She trembled at the passenger door as he opened it and gently
eased her inside. Once she was seated, he closed the door and Cat turned to look
out the side window.

Kyle stared straight back at her, his expression unreadable
with his arm pitched against the door frame. He said he was giving them Bennett
because he stole Kyle’s money and killed Sarah, but Cat sensed it had nothing to
do with the money and everything to do with Bennett getting away with the murder
of a young and vibrant woman with her entire life ahead of her. Kyle had clearly
been fond of Sarah, too.

That didn’t make him any better a person than Bennett. She
turned away, concentrated her gaze ahead. She didn’t know which of them was
worse. Bennett for his coldhearted, murdering, lying ass or Kyle for thinking
Bennett was less than him even though he supplied drugs to men and women often
younger than Sarah. They were both killers.

The car purred to life and Jay drove away from the crack house
and everything it represented.

He took her limp hand in his. “Are you okay?”

She closed her hand tightly around his. “No.”

“I could kill Bennett. Right now. Just curl my hands around his
neck like he did Sarah’s.”

“Me, too.”

“He shared information with us. Appealed to the public. Allowed
you access to the incident board. Accused me...” He squeezed her fingers. “What
do we do next? Do you want to go see him?”

“No.”

She turned. His beautiful brown eyes locked with hers, filled
with concern...and love. He blinked and turned back to the windshield. The road
ahead blurred through her tears.

“I should ring my boss. He should know...” Her voice cracked.
“Goddamn it. He’s going to kick my ass into next week. How could I be so bloody
blind?” She slipped her hand from Jay’s and swiped her fingers under her eyes.
“Bennett has changed my entire view of mankind. And it was pretty low to begin
with.”

“Don’t lump the rest of the human race into the same pot as
Bennett. What he did...is still doing, is evil. Pure evil. It takes a different
kind of person to not only commit murder but to appeal to a small town community
for help, to lead a team...”

Cat turned. Jay’s jaw clenched and unclenched and his knuckles
shone white as he gripped the steering wheel. They had to do something—and do it
fast. With both of them feeling not only stupid but used and insulted, the
natural knee-jerk reaction would be for them to head back to the station and
confront Bennett in front of his entire team. Whip back the blackened curtain he
hid behind and let his staff kick the filthy, lying, murdering crap out of
him.

She froze. She wasn’t thinking straight. “What if Kyle
lied?”

“What?”

She turned. “What if this accusation toward Bennett is a
smokescreen? What if Kyle killed Sarah? Or one of his runners? Do you believe
he’s telling the truth?”

He glanced at her. “Don’t you?”

Doubt and unwelcome uncertainty whirled in her mind. “I do, but
know I shouldn’t. Not yet.”

“Then we need to prove it one way or another.”

Cat squeezed her eyes shut. She had to think, and think fast.
“If Bennett killed Sarah, someone else must know. Kyle Jordon doesn’t strike me
as the type of person who would keep something as damning as that about a cop to
himself.” She hated having to ask Jay more about the drug community but saw no
alternative. “Jay?”

He frowned. “What?”

“Who is Kyle’s second in command? Who does he trust? We need
another witness.”

He huffed out a laugh. “I really am the oracle as far as the
Templeton drug scene goes, aren’t I?”

She touched his thigh. “We need to do this. For Sarah.”

He nodded. “I know who he is. I’ll go see him. On one
condition. I see him alone. My nerves can’t cope with you being around these
pieces of scum anymore.”

Cat gripped a handle on her brewing frustration. “You can’t
expect—”

“Alone, Cat.”

She slipped her hand from his thigh and slumped back into the
seat. Was it wrong that his keeping her away raised the doubts about him in her
mind once more? She’d kissed him, slept with him, yet...

Self-loathing whispered over her skin. She had to trust him.
She had to.

“Fine. Alone. But you get away from him as soon as you know
anything, good or bad. You get yourself back to me in one piece, okay?”

He turned and met her eyes. “Okay.”

Nothing but determination and sincerity shone in his eyes and
Cat’s heart swelled behind her rib cage. This was Jay. Jay would never hurt
Sarah. Never. She snatched her gaze to the road.

“We have to do this right. If we rush in riding on a hurricane
of emotion and Bennett is guilty, he’ll be forewarned and forearmed. He could
leave or alter evidence that will clear him. We’re dealing with a cop. We can’t
forget that. He could secure an alibi, bribe a false witness...the list goes
on.” Cat drew in a long breath. “In the meantime, we’ll put the wheels in motion
for his arrest, or at least an internal investigation.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

She smiled as inspiration struck. “We’re going to trap him with
the money. I want to make sure it’s iron-clad that he did this. Then, and only
then, will I ring my boss.”

He stared through the windshield, a small smile lifting his
lips. “You’re the boss.”

A strange mixture of pleasure and pain coursed through her as
she watched his profile. They were joined in the knowledge and weight of her
mum’s truth, the same as they were in the burden of his past regret and pain.
Neither of them hid anything from the other anymore and what happened next would
be without lies or deceit.

Guilt at the lack of contact she’d had with her mum or Chris
resurfaced. She’d done the right thing focusing on Sarah and not her mum. She
was doing some good being here instead of constantly fighting a losing battle at
home. She had made more headway in helping Sarah in the past week than she had
helping her mum in seven years.

And it felt good. She was worthy. Her entire life wasn’t an
alcohol-induced mess. If there was a problem...or more of a problem, Chris would
ring her. She had to believe that and do her job.

Jay turned and met her eyes. The love she harbored for seven
years bloomed and burst inside her heart. She loved him so much. He raised her
hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles before putting her hand back
into her lap.

“Tell me what to do, Sergeant, and we’ll do it together.”

Cat smiled. With Jay beside her, she was whole, powerful and
happy; without him, she would be helpless and frustrated all over again. She
didn’t want that. Not anymore. More than that, she wanted to know if their
feelings for each other were real or a fantasy.

Was she capable, strong and sexy because of Jay? Or was she
pretending
for
Jay? There was only one way to find
out. No more running away.

She drew in a shaky breath and pulled her bag from the floor of
the car into her lap. “Okay, so the first thing I need to do is ring Bennett.
I’m supposed to be meeting him at the school tomorrow, so first I’ll check he’s
still going and then I’ll let slip in something about the money and having a
hunch I know where it is.”

“He’ll see through that.”

She frowned. “Are you losing faith in me?”

“No, but I’m not risking losing you. If he suspects for one
minute you’re hiding something from him or worse, you’re onto him, who’s to say
he won’t have his hands around
your
throat next?” He
shook his head, his cheeks darkening. “I won’t risk anything happening to
you.”

She stared at him. So this is what it felt like to have someone
sober enough to care what she did when she walked out the door each morning.
This is what it was to know she had more to live for than work or spending every
spare hour trying to stop a loved one from killing herself.

“I love you, Jay.”

He turned and his gaze softened. “I love you, too, but don’t
think for one minute those eyes of yours are going to break me down on my
decision.”

On impulse, she leaned across and pressed a firm kiss to his
jaw. “I wouldn’t dare.”

He grinned. “Good.”

“But I have to do something. I can’t just wait—”

“Grab my phone from the glove box and ring Marian. See if
they’ve gotten anywhere in finding the money.”

Cat reached forward and took out his BlackBerry, scanning the
address file until she found Marian’s number. “If they’ve had no luck at the
beach, I’ll still meet Bennett at the school tomorrow and find some way not to
stab the man in the eye while acting as though nothing is wrong.”

He shook his head. “I can’t let you be alone with him.”

“Jay, I’ll be fine. I’m a trained cop. We’re going to find that
money, and when we do, we’re going to lead Bennett to it like a dog to a
bone.”

Cat dialed Marian’s number. “Hi, Marian. It’s Cat. How did it
go?”

The older woman sighed. “Nothing. We went to three of the six
places you listed before it got too dark to see anything other than our hands in
front of our faces. We had to ship out. The police team left half an hour or so
before we did, looking glum, so I think we can safely assume they’ve stopped
empty handed for the night too.”

Disappointment fell heavy into Cat’s stomach. “Okay. Well,
you’re doing a fantastic job. We wouldn’t have made that much headway if you and
George hadn’t been willing to step in.”

“I’ve got cover for the bakery first thing, so George and I
will make our way back down there tomorrow. Don’t you worry, if that money’s
there, we’ll find it.”

Unease stole into Cat’s conscience. She had thought Marian and
George at the beach was the best way forward, but risking them being there a
second time didn’t feel right. Her intuition was telling her to keep them away
from the beach. “Get some sleep and let me worry about tomorrow. Jay and I will
take the risk and go ourselves in the morning.”

“Oh, no, you’re not. What about this person watching you? You
said—”

Cat closed her eyes. “I know what I said, but the phone calls
have stopped. Maybe he’s run out of ammunition, moved on to something else more
interesting. Who knows what these people want? Sarah’s death hasn’t been
mentioned in the press for a couple of days. Whoever called me most likely
wasn’t her killer, just someone who gets a kick out of violence in the
newspapers. I don’t want you in harm’s way again, Marian.” Cat opened her eyes.
“I shouldn’t have asked you in the first place.”

Silence.

“Marian?”

“Okay, okay. You just be careful. Both of you.”

Cat smiled softly. “We will.”

“And give Jay a kiss from me.”

Cat rolled her eyes. The insinuation that Marian thought Cat
would be kissing Jay at some point that night was clear. “Night, Marian.”

“Night, lovely.”

The line went dead and Cat hung up. She stared at the phone
lost in thought.

“Nothing?” Jay’s voice filtered her mind.

She turned. “Nothing.”

“Right. Well, we’ll head back to the cabin. Get a good night’s
sleep and start again at first light tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

He squeezed her hand. “It’s going to be all right, Cat.”

She nodded, unable to find the words to say she agreed. They
were still not there. They didn’t have the money. They didn’t know for sure
Bennett killed Sarah. Worst of all, she still didn’t know for sure Jay was
innocent
.