The Wrong Side of Dead (11 page)

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Alexa raised an eyebrow. “Bad, it is.”

Jess shrugged. “Chatting over old times won’t get us very far. And a trip down memory lane would only give me nightmares. Why are you here?”

She prided herself on being able to roll with the hefty punches that life doled out, but Alexa’s appearance had really taken her by surprise.

“I heard about your friend Seth Harper and I…” the woman hesitated. “I came to help.”

Jess narrowed her eyes, content to let the silence build between them. If she’d been the one in trouble, she might have refused the woman’s help, preferring to go it alone. But this was about Harper.

“You flew here—from wherever—to help Harper? Gee, I didn’t know you two were so close.” She matched Alexa’s stance with arms crossed. “You don’t strike me as the charitable type. At least, not without something in it for you. What’s your agenda?”

“I saved your life. Don’t I get the benefit of a doubt?” Alexa walked toward her.

Jess couldn’t see any ulterior motive for Alexa wanting to help Seth, but she also found it hard to trust the woman blindly. And just because she couldn’t connect the dots, that didn’t mean the connection wasn’t there.

“Saving my life earns you a Hallmark card. Send me your address.” She cocked her head, deciding to shift gears. “Are you tailing me, or did you find this address on your own?”

With old habits hard to break, Jess was careful not to mention Burke’s name, in case Alexa was fishing for information she didn’t already have. Jess knew she was being paranoid, but by not answering her questions, Alexa was playing it cagey, too.

“Look, I can see why you’d be leery of my interest, but this isn’t about you and me. It’s about your friend.” Alexa laid it on thick, filling her voice with compassion.

She knew Jessie would be a tough sell, but she needed to break down the bounty hunter’s barriers if she was going to recruit her for Garrett. Sure, she had an agenda, but what Jessie didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt her…for now.

“And in the interest of full disclosure, the guy who lives here is named Jason Burke. He’s the boyfriend to the murder victim. My employer would like to help your friend Harper, so I’m on loan.”

“And what business would that be? I remember you saying something before about working for an alliance. I figured a group of rich vigilantes,” Jessie speculated. “Who’s your employer?”

“I can’t exactly say…just yet.”

“So much for full disclosure.”

The bounty hunter tried to walk by her, but she reached out a hand. Knowing what she did of the woman, she suspected the straight-up truth would be the only way to go, but she’d have to tread a thin line to give what she could.

“My boss is Garrett Wheeler. He’d like to meet you, but in the meantime, he’s authorized me to look into Seth’s case.”

“For what reason? He doesn’t know Seth. And why does he want to meet me?”

Alexa knew Jessie wouldn’t give an inch without more of the truth, the sanitized version of it.

“Truth is, he figures that if he can help Seth, you might be grateful enough to at least listen to what he has to say. He’s interested in hiring you, to work with…me. With us.”

Jessie chuckled under her breath and turned to face her. The evening shadows closed in, fringed by the dim glow of streetlights in front of Burke’s apartment building.

“I’m not sure I even like you. What makes you think we can work together?” The bounty hunter didn’t pull her punches. Yet despite their differences, Alexa admired Jessie and her head-on approach to trouble. Garrett had seen potential in recruiting the bounty hunter, and so did she.

“Because we want the same thing.” She locked her gaze on Jessie. “You’ve been going it alone, picking your battles as a one-woman wrecking crew. But what if we could offer you the resources and the leads to make a real difference? Would that interest you?”

Alexa had to smile. She’d never seen the bounty hunter speechless. The woman had truly heard what she had to say and thought about it before opening her mouth. It was a good start.

“Look, all you have to do is listen to what Garrett has to say, then make up your mind. I can arrange a meeting when you’re ready. And whatever you decide goes. But for now, let’s talk to the boyfriend together. You don’t know much about Burke, and having backup can’t hurt. I’d like to help. And with the resources Garrett has, you won’t regret letting us in on Harper’s case. What do you say?”

After a long, strained moment, the bounty hunter said, “I’m not committing to anything, no matter how much you help Harper. This is my case. I call the shots. But for Harper’s sake, let’s get moving. We’re burning moonlight.”

Jessie hadn’t turned her down cold. Alexa took this as a good sign. Shoulder to shoulder, they headed for Burke’s place, neither of them in the mood to tolerate a man who used his fists on a woman to settle an argument.

“Who says opportunity don’t come knockin’?”

Jason Burke sucked in his gut and threw his chest out when he saw two women at his door—like that was all he needed to improve his looks. Dressed in an old pair of gray sweats and green flip-flops, the guy had a slick, bald head buffed to a high sheen and his grin showed stained teeth. He had tattoos on his arms and chest. A regular piece of work.

With enough piercings to set off a metal detector, he looked like a beefy bag of testosterone with pull tabs. Rings and studs adorned his nose, an eyebrow, and both ears. And through his wife-beater tee, Jess caught the faint impression of nipple rings.
No way he did those sober
. She shuddered.

“Yeah, and I have to admit. I feel like I’ve been slapped upside the head with the lucky stick myself. We saw your name and apartment number on your mailbox. You’re Jason Burke, right?” When he nodded, it took everything Jess had to force a smile. She’d never been good at flirting, but her companion had no trouble slipping into character.

“Hi, my name is Hilary and this is Chelsea,” Alexa jumped in, shaking hands with Burke.

Jess shot her a glance and carried on.

“We were interested in renting in the building and wanted to talk to someone who lived here. Can we come in?”

“Uh, sure.” With a goofy grin, Burke stepped back to let them in, acting as if he’d scored a major prize. “Come in. Sit. Can I get you two a beer?”

“Not right now. Maybe later,” she said.

Burke liked the sound of “later.” And by the look on his face, he was ready to party. He rushed to his ratty brown sofa, picked up a stash of old newspapers, and shoved aside an overloaded ashtray on a smudged glass coffee table littered with dirty dishes and empty beer bottles. Jess was thankful the man smoked. The smell of old cigarettes covered up something worse.

“What did you say your names were?” he asked, hauling dishes and bottles to the kitchen as they sat.

“I’m Ashley.” Jess pointed to Alexa. “And she’s Mary Kate.”

“Hey there.” Alexa grinned and waved a hand, looking…
blond
. “Love what you’ve done to the place. Very…lived in.” Before he replied, she asked, “You got any music? Let’s crank some tunes. Do you think your neighbors would mind?”

“Hell, I don’t care. I always play my music loud.” He dumped what he had in his hands. Dishes clattered into the sink as he raced to his stereo system. “You want music, sweet cheeks? It’s comin’ right up.”

As Burke moved, Jess noticed his body art. He had the tattoo of a coiled snake on one bicep and a tribal band of thorns on the other. The bartender at Dirty Monty’s had told her that the mystery guy who dragged Harper from the bar had a tattoo on his arm. Although he hadn’t gotten a good look at it, he described it as black and curved, maybe a letter or snake.

From a distance both Burke’s tattoos, the tribal band and the snake, could pass for black and curved—at least enough to get her interest. But if Harper’s case went to trial, she’d need more than just the bartender’s vague recollection of a tattoo to keep Seth out of the gray-bar hotel for the rest of his life. Busting Burke’s I-PASS alibi would make a solid case for reasonable doubt, especially if that choice tidbit was coupled with Harper’s bloodwork testing positive for the date-rape drug. CPD and the DA’s Office would have to investigate Burke as a suspect.

For the first time since she’d learned about Seth’s trouble, Jess was hopeful.

“So how long have you lived here?”

Over a beer, they talked loud enough to be heard above the blaring music, a strange mix of metal and rap. And Burke interrupted the conversation to jerk his head and bite his lower lip in time with the beat.

His idea of sexy. Her idea of a self-inflicted wound.

There were times she fought to keep from laughing, but she didn’t dare look at Alexa. And if the jerk launched into his version of air guitar, she’d cut to the chase and pull her Colt Python—a clear-cut case of self-defense.

“We noticed these apartments are close to the bus line. It’s one of the reasons we were lookin’ here.” She wove her lie. “Sharing a car hasn’t been too bad since we moved to town. Neither of us has a job yet, but when that changes, it’s gonna be tough.”

“I might be able to help you with that…if you moved here, that is.” He winked. “What kind of work do you two do?”

Burke was circling the bait. She needed a hook, but didn’t want to appear too eager.

“Thelma here is a real good dancer.” Jess smiled at Alexa. “She does this routine with spinning rhinestone pasties that always gets good tips.”

Alexa grinned back.

“And Louise is just being modest…again. No one works a pole like she does.”

“You
both
are exotic dancers? Damn, that’s hot!” The look on Burke’s face told it all.

He thought he’d won the sex-fantasy lotto. The guy undressed them with his eyes, probably imagining girl-on-girl action. Hell, the jerk was so balled up in testosterone and his own agenda, he hadn’t noticed they’d changed their names three times since they arrived.

“Yeah, we like it. The money’s decent.” Alexa took a pull of her beer, giving him a visual aid, then asked with perfect timing, “What were you saying about helping us out if we moved here?”

It took Burke a long moment to recall what he’d said.

“Oh, yeah…right.” A bead of sweat trickled down from his temple. The air was stale and muggy, but Burke had his internal furnace working overtime. He took a swig of beer to cool off. “For gas money plus change, I loan out my car, mainly to friends and people in the building. But with you two, maybe we could work out a…trade.”

“Wow, that’s very generous of you, Jason.” She turned to Alexa, and said, “He’s sure making it easy for us.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.” The blonde returned her smile. “So what now?”

Good question. And from the look in Alexa’s eyes, Jess knew she was on the same page.

With a little legwork, the cops could run down Burke’s friends and others in the apartment building to see who might have used his car on the night Mandy was killed. At least she had enough to tip off Sam. In her mind, there was no need to continue questioning him on the car. If he were guilty, it would only give him a heads-up that CPD hadn’t bought his story on the I-PASS.

“I’m thinking I’d like to have a little one-on-one time with our new friend,” she told Alexa.

She knew the woman understood her meaning, but Burke remained entrenched in his delusional male fantasies. All that remained were questions about Mandy, and Jess was relieved. That meant she could drop playing nice. He’d need incentive to talk about his murdered ex-girlfriend, especially if they wanted to get at the truth. And taking the gloves off with a guy like Burke fit into her comfort zone of dealing with sleaze-balls. No pretense required.

“If you don’t have a stomach for this, hang outside in the hall.” Jess stood, her gaze fixed on Alexa. “Be my eyes and ears?”

The tall blonde got to her feet.

“You don’t know me very well.” Alexa shifted her glare to Burke. “I want in on this.”

“What? What’s happening?” he asked.

His goofy grin had returned. And the man’s eyes were bugging from his shiny bald head, shifting between Jess and Alexa.

“Ladies, there’s plenty of Burke to go around. You don’t have to fight. Why not all three of us?” He shrugged, acting like threesomes happened to him all the time.

Yeah, right! In your dreams, dude!
Like all they needed to get the party going was picking a safe word.

“I could go for that.” Alexa nodded. “Why not?”

“Oh, wow. Cool.” Burke looked like he was about to wet himself.

But she busted his mood by drawing her Colt Python—the muzzle aimed between his eyes—and said, “Let’s skip the foreplay.”

“Hey, what the hell is this?” he blustered.

“I’ve got Flexicuffs on my belt in a dispenser. Use ’em.” Jess ignored Burke and took charge, directing her comment to Alexa. “That radiator should work.”

Before Burke made a fuss, Jess said, “There’s a reason we wanted the music up loud, Jason. Think about it. And don’t make me shoot you.”

Alexa got to work and cuffed him to the radiator. She used the plastic restraints Jess carried with her for multiple arrests. With his hands tied to opposite ends, he sat with hunched shoulders and his butt on metal. For good measure, Alexa bound his ankles, too.

They’d have his undivided attention now.

“What’s this all about? It ain’t right, you comin’ in here like this.”

“We wanna hear what you’ve got to say about Mandy,” Jess told him.

“Mandy? How do you know her?” Staring into the Colt Python, Burke didn’t wait for an answer. “Hey, I got an alibi. I wasn’t anywhere near that motel. The cops know all about it.”

“Yeah, that’s what we hear, but humor us. She ever live here with you?”

Jess holstered her weapon, and Alexa backed off, giving her room to “work.”

“Yeah, but she moved out a month ago. We had a fight.”

“I find that hard to believe. An easygoing guy like you? What was the fight about?”

“Money. It was always about money.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“I saw her a few days before she was killed. She tried to make me feel sorry for her, but I’d had enough of her act. That scrawny bitch used men to get what she wanted.” He sneered. “All she cared about was cash to feed her habit. And she didn’t give a rat’s ass what she had to do to get it neither. She was playin’ that asshole, the guy who killed her. I seen him with her. Who knows what she did to piss
him
off?”

“Try again, asshole. ’Cause that damned tune ain’t gonna play with us.” Jess stepped closer. And when he flashed another arrogant smirk, she reached for a shiny gold ring that pierced his eyebrow and gave it a sharp twist.

“Damn it, bitch!” he spat.

Burke had squirmed and pulled his head back. Now the ring dangled loose, nearly ripping through his skin. Blood trickled down his cheek, mixing with sweat.

“Oops. You shouldn’t have moved, slick.”

“You better hope I don’t get loose,” he threatened.

“Actually, I hope you do.” She fixed her eyes on him. “In fact, I’m counting on it.”

To make her point, Jess retrieved a knife from her boot. Dim light from a nearby lamp reflected off the blade. And his eyes grew wide.

“Hey, you don’t need that. What do you want to know?”

“The truth, Jason. We just want the truth.” After he settled down, she asked, “Besides hooking, did Mandy have other ways to earn coin? And don’t bother to lie ’cause I’ll know it.”

When Burke didn’t speak fast enough, Jess reached for another pull tab.

“Okay, okay. Just lay off the metal.” He jerked his head, trying to stay clear of her hand. “Right before our fight, Mandy came into some dough.”

“I thought you said the fight was over money, not having enough.”

“It was more like, she lived under my roof, and I wanted my share.” He shook his head. “I never actually saw her stash, but I always knew when she was holding out on me. I figured she scored big bucks off a guy. When I asked her about it, she didn’t have much to say. We fought. She left. End of story. She packed her stuff and took off when I was at work.”

“So you were wanting a piece of
her
action. Real nice, slick. You have any ideas on how she got the money?”

“Blackmail, lady. That little bitch was blackmailing someone. At least, that’s what I figured out after I asked around, but no one could tell me nuthin’ for sure.”

“Any ideas who she was bleeding?”

“The guy who killed her, that’s who. He looked like he had deep pockets. Real used to money, you know what I mean?”

“But you don’t know this for a fact.”

He shook his head. “No, but I had a bad feeling about that kid from the first time I saw him. He didn’t look right. I always thought he was obsessed with Mandy for some reason, the way he kept coming around. I thought she put an end to that, but I guess not. Not if they were at a motel when he whacked her.”

Even a jerk like Jason Burke could damage Harper’s chances in court. He’d seen Seth with Mandy and could testify that Seth had been obsessed with her. Jess clenched her jaw. And Burke’s story had a ring of despicable truth since the bastard hadn’t tried to hide the fact he wanted to cut in on her action, whatever it was.

And if Mandy had put the squeeze on someone for money, Burke asking around might have called attention to what she’d done and put a target on her back. Plus the girl’s drug habit had been eating her alive. Jess had seen it more than once in her line of work. And common sense would be the first to go when it came to the choices that the strung-out girl had made to feed her nasty habit.

Mandy had put herself in the line of fire—and she’d dragged Harper with her. Knowing Seth, he would have done it again and again if it meant he had a shot at saving her. And being the son of Detective Max Jenkins, her boy genius had a strong measure of the hero gene in his DNA. She’d seen it in Harper before.

“All I know is, it kept her in crank for a while,” Burke kept talking. “Then one day, she came to me, acting real scared.”

“When was this?”

“I don’t remember. I was a little wasted at the time.”

“What was she scared of?”

“I don’t know. But coming to me, she had to be desperate,” he admitted. “She wanted to move back and crash here, but I had enough of that bitch, and I told her so.”

“Real compassionate of you, big man.” Jess pressed the blade to his cheek. Having learned his lesson about moving, Burke stiffened and held his breath. A white crease on his skin filled with blood, tiny beads of red. “Go on.”

“Damn it! I swear, that’s all I know. You gotta believe me.”

“Yeah, like you believed Mandy when she came to you for help?”

She looked at Alexa.

“Cut him loose…and step aside.”

Until now, Alexa’s expression had been unreadable. But by the look on her face, her companion clearly had an issue at letting Burke go without giving them a head start. Yet to her credit, the woman never said a word. Jess handed her the knife and Alexa freed the man.