“Yes, Detective Coleman.”
He kept hurrying. Didn’t stop until they were in the elevator. When someone else tried to join them, Cedric flashed his badge. “Totally full. Try the next one.” He shoved a button on the control panel. The doors started to slide closed.
Joel kept his hands loose at his sides. As soon as they doors closed fully… “I know you heard me. I killed the wrong man. I want to go to the station and make a full confession so that I—”
“So that you can what—clear your conscience? Waste my time?”
Joel blinked. “Excuse me?”
“I read the reports. I’ve read them a whole lot since you walked into Chloe’s life. You think I didn’t get that she had an angle with you? Like Marie says, that woman is always pulling in strays. Thinks she can fix the world. She can’t. Some people can’t be fixed.”
“I’m one of those people?” The words came out as a question.
“How the fuck do I know?”
The doors opened. Cedric continued his hurried walk, but he jerked his hand to indicate that Joel needed to speed up and keep pace.
Joel followed, mostly because he was confused as all hell. He’d just confessed to a cop so…
Cedric walked outside. Moved away from the main doors. Looked around to seemingly make sure that no one was close, then he nodded, apparently satisfied before he faced off with Joel. “Did Sam Morrow come at you with a shovel?”
“Yes, but—”
“I’m not looking for exposition here. I want a yes or no. I’ll ask questions. You’ll answer.”
The sun beat down on Joel. Even at this time of the year, the New Orleans heat had sweat slickening his palms. “You seem pissy.”
“You have no idea.”
“Oh, I have an idea. My morning hasn’t been so great.” His fingers clenched and released.
“That’s why I’m here. Your friendly neighborhood cop here to save the day.”
Joel frowned at him. “Are you mocking me right now?”
“Did Sam Morrow come at you with a shovel?”
“Yes,” Joel fired.
“Did the two of you fight?”
“Yes, I—”
“Was there dirt all over him because he’d just buried you alive?”
Joel’s heart lurched in his chest. “Yes.” Softer.
“A man who’d just buried you alive swung a shovel at you. He fought you. Were you supposed to hold his hand and say please and friggin’ thank you?”
Joel blinked. “I-I killed him.”
“And you were cleared. Self-defense. I read the files. Over and over. I get that you’ve got some extreme guilt going on, but listen to me, and listen well.” Intensity burned in Cedric’s eyes. “I’ve seen a lot of bad shit in my time. Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Was Sam Morrow the man who tortured you? I don’t know.”
“Chloe said—”
“Chloe doesn’t have evidence. She has her hunches and her ideas. I know. I grilled her when she called me.”
Chloe had called Cedric? How had she sounded? Was she—
“She wanted to make sure you didn’t do something stupid,” Cedric continued grimly. “Like say, run to the nearest cop and confess you were a killer. You know, some stupid shit like that.”
Chapter Ten
Joel’s brows shot up at Cedric’s comments. Taken aback, he could only shake his head. “Not the response I was expecting from a cop.”
“You were already cleared in Sam Morrow’s murder. The DA didn’t file charges back then.”
“The DA didn’t know—”
“Fact one. The perp buried you. Even if he didn’t slice you to hell and back, he buried you.”
Joel stiffened.
“You can argue—quite successfully, I’d say—that by burying you, he was trying to kill you.”
Not if he didn’t bury me deeply enough. That’s what Chloe thinks. That I was supposed to get out—
“Fact two. He came at you with the shovel. If you hadn’t defended yourself, do you believe he would have let you walk away?”
No. The answer was immediate. Joel could still see the guy’s eyes. The rage. The fear. The determination that said he wouldn’t stop.
So I couldn’t stop.
“Self-defense isn’t murder. I’ve been in this business a long time. No DA will try you. It would be a PR nightmare, first of all, to try a victim that way. And even if some fool did put you in court—which would never happen—you’d just get off. The evidence to convict isn’t there. So how about you save us some drama time, and you stop trying to get your ass arrested just because you feel guilty.”
Joel swallowed. “Are you finished?”
“I don’t know.” Cedric cocked his head. “Are you done being a dumbass?”
Joel’s eyes narrowed.
Cedric hauled a hand over his face. “I get that nightmare messed with your head, but falling on your sword? Trying to get yourself locked away, what does that do?”
“It protects the people I might hurt.” A stark and true answer. It protects Chloe. Wasn’t that what it came down to? Protecting her? Isn’t that why he’d told her to stay away? Because he was afraid of what he might do…to her.
Afraid that Gordo had been right. Afraid that deep down…a monster waited.
“Who the hell are you planning to hurt?” Cedric demanded.
Joel opened his mouth. Stopped.
“If you and Chloe know who took you, then that is the kind of information you need to tell me. You don’t get to go off all half-cocked on your own just because you want some sort of payback.”
A chill skated down his spine. “What did you say?”
“It’s not an eye-for-an-eye world. My mama always told me that you go that route, and we all go blind. You don’t get to hunt him down. You don’t get to have payback, so if that’s what you’re thinking…stop.”
Chloe had offered him payback. The very first time she’d tried to pull him onto a case. Now he wondered, had she been offering him revenge all along? “She doesn’t know who it is.” Was he saying that to convince himself or Cedric?
“Knowing her, she will.” Cedric huffed out a rough breath. “Great. Now I have to watch out for that, too. Wait…” He surged closer to Joel. “Are the deaths happening now related to the man who attacked you? Is that why you’re skulking around the vic’s hospital room?”
“I wasn’t skulking. I was checking on a patient.”
“But you’re not a doctor anymore, remember?” A deliberate dig. “Wouldn’t think a cold-blooded killer would care how someone was faring.”
Yeah. All right. He got what Cedric was saying. “I understand what you’re doing.”
“Good. Then I don’t need to waste more time.” He glanced around the parking lot. Pointed. “So how about you hop on your motorcycle and go find Chloe? Because I have to tell you, I honestly feel better when you are near her. Of the two of you, at least you’re the one more likely to go to the cops…you know, case in point and all that.”