Lynn tapped her pen against the side of the table. They were in an interrogation room. Lynn on one side of the table. Rose on the other. A silent War stood with his back pressed to the wall on the left. Rose didn’t look at him. Not then. She was too busy trying to keep herself in control.
“You were tied to two murders, Rose. You knew the cops wanted to see you. You knew I wanted to see you.”
Rose leaned forward. “I also knew that I had a killer on my trail. Someone who wanted me dead. I thought if I could find him first, then I could stop him from killing someone else.”
“Hunting killers isn’t your job,” Lynn informed her crisply. “It’s mine.”
“Yes, well…” Rose offered her a brittle smile. “When I came to you before, you and your partner didn’t seem so interested in doing your job. Where is Neal, by the way? Shouldn’t he be skulking around and telling me that I’m in his way?”
“He took an early retirement. Now I’m in charge of the investigation, and I can assure you, things will be handled differently.”
Rose straightened in her chair. Neal was gone? That was good news. He’d always given her a hard time.
“You’re lucky that your boyfriend kept us in the loop.” Lynn pointed toward a silent War.
Once more, Rose didn’t look his way. “He’s not my boyfriend. He’s the PI who was hired to find me.”
“Oh, is that what he is?” Lynn’s eyebrows arched. “I see.”
Why did this matter?
“Because of his intel, we were able to get to that motel off 61. I had a crew do a search there, but they didn’t turn up much evidence we could use.”
Back up. War had sent the cops to the motel? He’d been in contact with the cops even then?
“War assured me that you were being protected, and he told me he saw your attacker. He vouched for you being the victim, not the perp we were after. Though it would have been much more helpful to interview you at the time. Getting the facts about the attack directly from a vic is the way we normally operate. Instead, I had to get the details from War while you were, ah, resting, I believe you said it was?” Her stare cut to War.
He’d called the detective while Rose had passed out in his bed. Lovely to know.
Lynn’s attention shifted back to Rose. “We were also able to catch your friend Billy before he ducked out of town. He told us about the visitor he had—the man who tried to kill him. Billy is talking plenty because he knows those warrants we have for him can make his stay with us very long.”
Rose didn’t let her expression alter. When she’d thought War had been talking to Odin, he’d been calling the cops. Talking to them right in front of her face. And she’d just blindly trusted him.
Her eyes closed. “How long are you going to hold Billy?”
“The DA is talking to him. Billy has quite a bit of information that will be useful to the PD. You know him, he always has stories to tell. I’m sure we will come to some sort of arrangement.”
Yes, Billy did have plenty of stories. He knew where lots of bodies were buried.
Rose rubbed the nape of her neck. Knots twisted back there, and a dull ache pounded in her head.
“That’s quite the bruise on your wrist,” Lynn noted. “Want to tell me how you came to get it?”
She stared at her hand. She’d forgotten about it. “War cuffed me in the bathroom at the motel.” Her words were hollow. “He didn’t want me to run. He wanted to turn me over to the cops.” And he did. Wasn’t that why she was sitting at that table? So much for her forty-eight hours. “He left the motel room, and that’s when the guy in the morph mask came in from the connecting room.” She’d been in the station for hours answering questions, so she’d already told the cops this info. Woodenly, she went through the attack one more time. “I never saw his face because of the mask. He was tall, strong, about six foot—”
“Dylan’s size.”
“Yes.” She exhaled. “He didn’t say a word. I was too busy trying to stay alive to notice any other details about him. War came back inside, chased him off, and…then War took me home.”
“Home?”
“His house. Where he called you and the two of you did whatever it is that you were doing.” Her nostrils flared. “Are you going to be arresting Dylan?”
“We don’t have enough evidence to do that.”
She’d been afraid that would be Lynn’s response.
“He gave us permission to search his house after the discovery of the mask, the phones, and the photos. We didn’t find anything that would tie Dylan to the murders.”
“You have the mask! It’s the same mask—”
“That is sold in every novelty shop and costume shop in the world. My nephew has a mask just like it. Wore it last Halloween. Dylan having the mask doesn’t prove anything.”
Might not prove it, but it made him look guilty as hell in Rose’s mind.
“What about the phones?” War asked.
The sound of his voice had Rose’s shoulders stiffening.
Lynn’s mouth tightened. “As far as we can tell, those phones have never been activated. We are looking at Rose’s calls and seeing if we can track them, but it’s not like we have any proof of what the perp said to her in those conversations.”
Fury flashed in her. “I told you what he said. When I came to the station before Barbara died, I told you and your partner. I told you he was giving me clues, but you didn’t believe me. You thought I was just some desperate reporter who was hungry for a story. You wouldn’t listen to me.” Her hands slapped on the table. “Barbara is dead. I wanted to help her. I wanted to save her. I couldn’t. Then he turned his attention to me. I wasn’t going to run to you and put someone else at risk. As long as I stayed out there, I knew he would search for me.”
“And just how did you know that?” Lynn asked.
“Because that’s what he told me.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I’ve been here forever.” The day had been an endless blur of answering questions. “I want to go home.”
“I told you, we can’t arrest Dylan. I’m holding him as long as I can, but in a matter of hours, he’ll be free, too. Going home won’t be the smartest choice for you, not unless you have protection.”
“She has protection,” War said grimly.
Her head whipped toward him. As she’d feared, looking at him hurt. Her control splintered so hard she was sure that she heard the crack. Pain knifed through her heart. Why the hell had she trusted him?
“I will be with her.” He stared straight into Rose’s eyes. “She has me.”
No, she didn’t. She’d never had him.
“That will work,” Lynn said, like everything had been all decided and tied up with a pretty, red bow. “You can keep reporting to me, and I’ll—”
Rose shot to her feet. The legs of her chair scraped over the floor. “I’m going back to my job. To my life. If it’s Dylan, then I’ll do what I planned all along—I’ll find enough proof to nail him to the wall.” She stormed for the door.