Confess (The Blue Line Series Book 1) (26 page)

He’d never forgive himself. Ever.

“Who’s the girl?” His aunt’s voice rose in pitch.

“What makes you think this is about a girl?” He rubbed the back of his neck. Had he really become that transparent?

She laughed lightly. “I meant the girl on the T.V. They said she’d been affiliated with the Wray murders, but I get the feeling that’s not who you’re talking about. Did someone finally tame Mitch Kilpatrick?”

“She’s the police chief’s daughter, and she’s in a lot of trouble.”

“Sounds like your type.” A silent pause. “Are you going to be able to help her get out of that trouble?”

Mitch didn’t answer. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do now to save Lacy or her father.

“You’ve always had a hard time understanding we’re all responsible for the choices we make.” His aunt sounded somber. “I know you still blame yourself for Sadie, but I’m the one who let you both play unattended at the river. I’d heard the police reports on the news. I knew all about Richard Wray and-”

“You don’t have to do this for me.” He couldn’t bear to hear the sadness coating her voice.

“Yes I do. I don’t want the guilt of ruining your life by putting you in charge that day. I put you both in danger Mitch, but I’ve dealt with my mistake. It will always be there, but I’m able to push past it enough to enjoy my life. She was my little girl. I left her alone. I should have been there to protect her, but I wasn’t. My mistake, you hear me. Not yours. Sadie wouldn’t want you to punish yourself. She’d want us to be happy. She loved you.”

“It’s not that easy. This girl, she’s one of Wray’s victims. She escaped before Sadie was taken, but her kidnapping wasn’t reported. ” He waited for that news to sink in.

His aunt sighed heavily. “Then you may be one of the few who understands what she’s dealing with.”

“Don’t expect rain just because it stormed yesterday.” His uncle’s booming voice cut into the line, delivering one of his creative answers to all of life’s issues. “Sadie is no one’s burden to bear. Don’t make that her legacy. She’s in heaven shining down on us all, and the best we can do is live the life we’ve got, and keep the good memories of her alive.”

“Hi, Uncle Pete. Didn’t know you were listening.”

“And they made you a detective?” His uncle chuckled, and the receiver clicked.

“Pete’s taking me out tonight to get our minds off...” She trailed off, but Mitch could finish the sentence. Reliving Sadie’s abduction and death with the recent news coverage had to be doing a number on them both.

Mitch said good-bye and tucked his phone in his back pocket.

Lacy would be at the station now, giving her statement to Deluna, probably in front of her father.

His stomach rolled at the next thought. She’d seemed so strong when she left for the station, like the weight of the world rode her shoulders, but she’d been able to keep her head held high.

Maybe that was why he’d been able to unload his secret about Sadie. The dejected look on her face when he opened the car door after he’d dumped his story on her. The silent ride to the hospital.

She’d gone to face her kidnapper to help him solve a case, and he shut her out for it. Assholes didn’t come much bigger than him.

He pulled out his phone and punched in Deluna’s number. “Have you started her statement yet?”

“No. Still waiting on the chief to arrive.”

“Good. Stall as long as you can. I’ll be there in thirty to explain.”

“What are you going to do?”

“What I should have done from the start. Don’t let Lacy out of your sight, and for the love of God, don’t let her talk.”

“Ten-four.”

Mitch hung up and dialed Bishop.

“Don’t let the brass know you’re calling me before you report into the office. I don’t need my ass handed to me over you again.”

“Then you’re not going to like what I have to say.”

Bishop grunted into the phone. “I’m sure I won’t, but you called me because you need my help, so what the hell is it this time?”

“I’ve got an idea for how to handle the Wray-Helms case, but I’m going to need to pull all the favors owed to me in Nashville.”

“What’s your plan?”

Mitch motioned the taxi driver to pull to the shoulder, and he stepped out of the car. “Helms wanted to avenge his father, the reason he researched the killings in the first place. He knew something didn’t fit.”

“Go on.”

“What if there was a way to have his father take the fall for Wray’s murder?”

“He’s a killer. How are you going to convince him to accuse his father of murder?”

“It’s a long shot, but giving his father credit would make him a hero. He would have died an honorable death over the guilt of killing a man, even if he was a murderer.”

Bishop cleared his throat. “You think he’ll go for it?”

“There’s no telling, but it’s the only shot we have to keep Chief Andrews from going to trial for murder.”

“If this backfires, you know your ass could end up in jail for obstruction.”

He’d already made up his mind. Mitch grabbed the door handle and directed the cabbie back to the department. “It’s a risk worth taking.”

Bishop followed with silence before answering. “She better be worth it.”

His heart thumped hard against his ribcage. “She’s the only one who is.”

***

Mitch paid the cabbie and met Deluna at the front door of the department.

“Lacy doing all right?”

Deluna nodded stiffly. “Well as can be expected. Detective O’Neal’s holding her in the interrogation room and waiting on my word to start.”

“Good. And the chief?” Mitch opened the front door and stepped inside behind Deluna.

“Watching his daughter through the two-way mirror. You’ll have Helms all to yourself. He’s in the holding cell in the back of the booking room. No one should bother you.”

“Thanks.” Mitch brushed past the officer, not wanting to wait another second to get Lacy out of the hot seat.

He stormed down the hallway and busted through the booking room door, ignoring the stares of uniformed men.

Deluna came up behind and unlocked the cell. “The chief’s insisting we question Lacy now to get it over with. I can buy you ten minutes, tops.”

“Five’s all I need.” He nodded at Deluna, dismissing him, entered the small cement blocked room, and shut the door behind him.

Helms popped his head up from where he’d been laying down on the cot. “What the hell do you want?”

“We need to talk.”

Helms copped a grin. “Without my legal representation?”

It went against every fucking fiber of his being to make a deal with a killer. Mitch balled his fists and released them again. “I have a deal for you.”

Helms laughed. One beat and dry. “A deal? What could you possibly have that’s worth my time?”

“Your father’s reputation?”

He had Helms’ interest. “What about it?”

“I called in a few favors with my contacts in Nashville. They’re willing to lighten your charges if you agree to add one bit of information to your official statement.”

“I’m listening.”

“Your father killed Wray.”

Helms scowled. “You want me to cover for the chief to save your girl?”

“Your father died a coward. Claiming he killed himself over guilt from taking out Wray would give him enough motivation to make his suicide understandable.”

“He’ll be a killer.”

“He’ll be a hero.”

Helms paused. “What insurance do I have you’ll follow through after I lie in my statement?”

Mitch pulled a paper and pen from his pocket and wrote down a number. “You’ve got one call before they question you. You’re going to use it to call detective Bishop in Nashville. He’ll insure you my deal is standing.”

Mitch knocked on the door to signal the officer on the other side.

Helms nodded. “Must be nice to have Nashville at your back.”

Mitch turned back. “I wouldn’t know. Don’t fuck this up. Call Bishop and follow his instructions.”

Mitch caught up with Deluna in the hall. “Helms is ready for his phone call.”

“What about Lacy?”

“Make sure the chief sits in on Helms’ confession and has a chance to talk to Lacy before you take her written statement. I’d bet once Helms talks, you won’t need Lacy anymore.”

“You’re not staying?” Deluna called to his retreating back.

Mitch eyed the interrogation room door as he passed. Behind that door, Lacy was awaiting her fate without him. “I’m needed back in Nashville.”

“She’s going to be pissed you left without saying goodbye.”

Mitch passed the room and pushed through the front door. “Pissed but off the hook.”

Now he just had to get to Nashville before the shit-storm hit and the window of opportunity for damage control passed.

Lacy pulled her hand away from the display of top shelf liquor behind the main bar at Charlie’s. Forgetting about the healing rope burns circling her wrists, she heard the gasp of a female customer the second she went for a bottle of Don Julio.

Connie, tending the other side of the crowded bar, grabbed the bottle and finished pouring shorts for the three out of town bachelorette party guests.

“I’ve got this, Lace. Take a break,” Connie spoke over one shoulder as she filled beer mugs two at a time from the tap.

A break wouldn’t help. The second she stopped moving her hands, her brain went right back to the one picture she didn’t want to remember. Mitch, standing behind the patrol car at the hospital. Not saying good-bye.

“He still hasn’t called?” Connie passed off the last mug to a regular and turned her back to the Saturday night crowd.

Lacy shook her head. “Haven’t heard from him since the hospital.” It wasn’t the complete truth. She’d heard his voice from the lobby at the station right before Deluna busted in the interrogation room and called off the meeting. She’d sat in the hard, molded plastic chair, visualizing Mitch rushing that same door, scooping her up against his solid chest and marching her out the front door, cursing anyone stupid enough to get in his way.

Instead, she’d waited for Deluna to speak with him outside the closed door and return. She’d pictured Mitch watching from the other side of the two-way mirror, but by the time Deluna finished sending the rest of the officers home, Mitch had gone. Headed back to Nashville to finish his side of the case her father told her.

Now the waiting game began. What would Nashville do about her father?

“Phones work both ways.” Connie snapped her out of the thought.

“Not when he doesn’t answer his.” He’d gotten what he needed to solve the case and a little exoneration of his own guilt from her. Everything he needed to move on and more. Besides, they’d agreed. No strings, just uncomplicated and uncommitted sex. He’d delivered exactly what he’d promised with a big fat plate of saving her life and a side of catching her abductor. She’d just have to be a big girl and accept that.

“So you haven’t talked to him at all since he left?”

“Not once,” Lacy answered.

Connie filled a high ball with ice, poured it half full with Maker’s Mark and sat it on the bar in front of Lacy.

“What’s this for? You know I don’t drink on the job.”

But Connie’s eyes were focused on someone out in the crowd. “Something tells me you’re going to need this in a minute. Drink up.”

Lacy followed her gaze out into the sea of cowboy hats to the one bare headed brunette in a black racers jacket and Aviators hanging from the collar of his polo.

Mitch.

He weaved his way through the crowd and claimed the stool across from her. The familiar smell of leather and spicy male soap made her breathing speed. She cursed herself for being so trained and attuned to anyone to let them have that effect on her. Especially someone who could so easily walk away.

“Drink?” Connie cut in when Lacy didn’t offer.

His eyes never left Lacy’s “Whatever’s on tap.”

Lacy’s vision blurred, blocking out everything around her but Mitch and the aching thump of her heart against her ribs.

“I called you,” she finally blurted, hating the accusatory tone of her words. Hated how helpless and hurt they made her sound. But what did she have to lose? She’d given herself to the man across the bar in more ways than one, and he’d left her.

She watched him labor over a long sip before he answered. “I promised the department I wouldn’t have contact with you while they completed the investigation. That was part of our deal.”

“Then you know Helms admitted his father killed Wray. Dad got off with an obstruction charge and is on administrative leave until details can be verified.”

“I know.” His eyes sparkled in the dim lights.

Lacy swallowed hard. “Deluna tells me I have you to thank for that.”

“Your father didn’t deserve to serve time for killing that trash.”

Lacy grasped her drink and downed it in two long, choking chugs. The burning didn’t despite the stabbing pain in her chest at his emotionless expression.

Connie moved to refill the glass, but Lacy took the bottle, this time filling the tumbler to the top and letting the liquid slide down her throat in one, smooth swallow.

Mitch reached across the bar and slid the empty glass away from her. “That’s not what I came here to see tonight.”

“Really?” Lacy wiped her moist lips along the back of her shirtsleeve. “What did you come here for, Detective Kilpatrick? My undying gratitude for saving my father? I’m assuming since you’re talking to me now, the investigation is over. Will they let my dad leave on his own, or will there be a ‘torches and pitchforks’ style overthrowing of the department?”

He reached for her arm and emotion finally filled his eyes. “Your dad’s not losing his job. He was protecting his daughter. It took some persuading, but the department finally saw things my way. They won’t even have a formal investigation. Three weeks of leave to appease the public, and he’ll be back like nothing happened.”

“How’d you pull that off?” The sarcastic snap in her voice made her skin prickle.

Mitch released her arm. “I gave the homicide chief the one thing he’s wanted from me for years.”