Deadly Consequences (10 page)

“I frickin’ knew it all along.” Lombardo slammed his first into a locker, holding up the picture with two fingers. “Come take a look.”

Rafe took the picture and squinted at it. “What’s this supposed to be?”

“Our frickin’ big break. Let’s get the hell out of here. We got work to do.”

She’d left two uniforms guarding the teenagers. Sam raced towards the lagoon. One of them stood a few feet from a patrol van with his back turned towards it. There was no sign of the other officer.

“Where’s your partner?” Sam demanded

The officer’s face flushed bright red. “He’s off having a smoke.”

“And the teenagers?” she asked.

“They’re in the unit, like you told us.”

“Uh-uh.” She jerked her thumb towards the vehicle. “And who’s guarding the unit?”

“My…” his words trailed off, realizing he’d let his partner leave the van unattended

“Get the boys out here, and you’d better hope like hell none of them try to run,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am. Right away.”

Sam slapped her hands on her waist, seething with anger. Nothing was going right tonight.

Alec jogged up behind her. “What the hell, Sam? Why did you go tearing off by yourself? Let me help.”

“Not now, Alec.” She shook him off, shouting to the officer. “Keep ‘em there, up against the van.” Sam stalked towards the teens, wearing a grim expression.

“Looky here, its lady badass.” The scrawny kid named Manny made kissing sounds. “Whatcha want now, lady cop? You come lookin’ for a real man?”

“Shut up,” she spat.

The kid feinted to the left, looking past her. “Yo, check it out, man. She bring a pretty boy wit her dis time. No wonder she cum lookin for us, yo. She be wantin’ to see what a real man look like.”

Alec flew out from behind her, and slammed the kid against the van, pressing his forearm into the teen’s throat. “Show some respect when you talk to her, you prick.” Alec leaned in close, breathing into Manny’s ear. “You disrespect her one more time and I’ll break every god damn bone in your motherfuckin; body. You got that,
man
?”

Manny’s eyes bugged out of his head. “It’s cool, man, it’s cool.

“It’s all right, Alec, I got this.” Sam pushed herself between them, poking her finger hard into Manny’s chest. “Me and these boys, we got some business to discuss.”

“Yeah?” Alec said, increasing the pressure on Manny’s throat. “That’s too bad. I’m in the mood to take out some trash.”

“Hate to spoil your fun, but I got plans for these punks. Guy up in Joliet named Bubba Joe is hard up for a new bitch. I’m thinking any one of these three will do.”

Alec dropped his arm from the teen’s throat. Manny puffed out his chest and sneered, turning to his buddies. “Check this, Barbie and Ken don’t know how to play the game, yo.” He swung around to face Sam. “Don’t you and pretty boy watch no TV? “

“Yeah?” Sam grabbed his chin, staring into his eyes. “Tell, me, Manny, how are we supposed to do it?”

Manny snorted with laughter, making a lewd gesture. “If neither of you know how to
do it
by now, there ain’t no hope for either of you.”

Alec grabbed him by the hair. “Answer her damn question, you little fucker, before I make you eat your balls.”

“Ever hear of good cop, bad cop,” Manny spat on the ground, letting out a nervous laugh. “That’s how you supposed to play, but I don’t see no good cops here.”

“You know something, Manny? This isn’t TV. This is how we play in real life.” Sam sneered.

Alec smiled. “Looks like you’re up a creek, Manny.”

Sam tilted her head toward Alec. “Well, he’s not too smart. All I wanted to do was ask one question. I think I’ll ask his pals instead. Maybe they’re smarter than this dumb shit.”

“What’s the question?” Manny snickered. “I got all kinds of answers.”

“It’s real simple, and I already know the answer, so it’d be good idea for you to get it right the first time. Which one of you is Junior Sanchez’s cousin?”

She saw a flicker of doubt in his eyes. The two other boys exchanged glances and backed up a step. Manny’s brow knotted, his face twisting into a frown. “What’s Junior got to do with anything?”

Sam nodded. “So you know Junior?”

“Yeah, I know him,” Manny said. “What of it?”

“He’s your cousin.” She watched his face, waiting for his answer.

Manny licked his lips, craning his neck to look at his friends. They ignored him, staring down at the ground. After a long moment, he hitched up his tuxedo pants, eyes narrowing. “Yeah, he’s my cousin, so what?”

Sam pulled out her cuffs and nodded at Alec. She heard a shout, and turned her head in time to see Lombardo plowing through the trees. Rafe trotted alongside him, Lombardo huffed and puffed running over the grass, his face an alarming shade of cherry red.

“Sam,” he grunted, swiping a veil of perspiration from his eyes. “Don’t cut these fuckers loose. I got them on all counts.”

She dangled the cuffs in her hand. “I’m not cutting them loose. We’re bringing them in.”

“Like hell.” Lombardo’s color deepened to burgundy. “We made a deal, remember? We work together, but if the punks were guilty, me and Rafe get the collar.”

“I never actually agreed, Lombardo. We were interrupted by Thorpe,” she said.

“A deal’s a deal in my book.” His eyes shot daggers at her. “Besides, I got the proof to nail them.”

Sam lowered the cuffs. As long as Manny didn’t walk, she didn’t care who got the collar. “What kind of proof?”

Lombardo foraged in his jacket pocket for the evidence bags. “I got these off the scenes.” He handed her the bags containing the garters. “These assholes just had their frickin’ prom.”

Sam turned the bags over in her hand. “Where did you find these?”

“They were turned over with the dirt when they dug up the legs.” Lombardo boasted, “I got something else too.”

Sam passed the bags to Alec. He glanced at them and looked at Lombardo. “You were holding out on us. First thing you should have done was turn the evidence over to Sam.”

Alec was right, but she held up a hand. “What else do you have?”

“This.” He passed her the picture of Miguel Sanchez and his family. Manny stood to the left, right beside Miguel’s son. “Ties it all up in a nice little package. The dickwad offed his own god damn relative just so he could do the women.”

Sam worked her tongue over the inside of her cheek, mulling over the evidence. “When were you planning on sharing this with the rest of us?” she demanded.

“When I had enough to put them away.” Lombardo said.

“Really?” She knew damn well he was lying and wanted him to admit it. While the rest of them were chasing their tails, Lombardo was building a stockpile of evidence, desperate for the collar. It was her case, damn it, and he shouldn’t have withheld vital information. “Because from where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like you planned to share it at all. You ran down here to make an arrest. You have a phone and a radio, but you didn’t bother to call me and you didn’t bother to call Alec. Is this your idea of a truce? It sure doesn’t look like one to me.”

Lombardo knew he was outnumbered. Sam was pissed. Alec and Rafe glared daggers at him. He backpedaled to save his own ass. “I should’ve called you when I found the picture, when I knew I had enough.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Damn right you should have.” She closed her eyes and took a breath, trying to still her angry heartbeat. Until Thorpe cut her conversation with Lombardo short, she’d been about to agree to his stupid deal, mainly, because she thought he was wrong. “Tomorrow or the next day, you and I are going to sit down and have a nice, long conversation, but let me warn you right now, you ever pull any shit like this again, or stick your nose into one of my cases, I am going straight to the lieutenant and filing a complaint against you. I’m tired of your bullshit, your condescending attitude, and your interference. Next time you hit below the belt, I hit back, and it’s going to hurt you a hell of a lot more than it will hurt me.”

Sam’s eyes locked on his as she handed him back the photo. “Make the damn arrest.”

Lombardo hesitated. Alec and Rafe, two men he admired and respected, looked at him with disgust. “Sam…”

She shook her head. “Do it. Now.”

Lombardo shrugged, brushing past Alec. Manny stiffened. He’d been watching from a distance, probably thinking he’d gotten a reprieve. Lombardo jammed the kid against the van, twisting Manny’s arms behind his back so he could cuff him.

“You’re under arrest for the murder of Miguel Sanchez and the mutilation of two women.”

Manny blinked rapidly, his face turning bright red. “You sayin’ somebody killed my uncle?” he shrieked, fighting the cuffs. “Uncle Miguel is dead? That’s fuckin’ bullshit, you lyin’ bitch. What the fuck you tryin’ to pull? Miguel ain’t dead. You hear me? He ain’t dead.”

Manny twisted his head to look at Sam. “I didn’t kill nobody,” Manny screamed. “Lady cop, you gotta listen to me. I didn’t kill
no one. I’d never lay a hand on family. I didn’t do it, I fuckin’ didn’t do it.”

Sam turned, walking away from Manny’s protests of innocence. She didn’t want to hear his voice, or see his swarthy face as he was loaded into the van.

She breathed a sigh of relief. It was done.

Like most killers, Manny’s belief that he was invincible tripped him up. She wasn’t certain yet that he was a textbook narcissist. Time would tell, but he fit the other criteria of the profile, sadistic and controlling.

She heard dogs in the distance; the canine unit had finally arrived. The dogs would help them recover the women’s remains if Manny buried them somewhere in the zoo. She could feel the temperature start to rise. Sam brushed the bangs off her forehead, lifting her face towards the slight breeze. The adrenaline rush she felt during the confrontation with Manny and Lombardo vanished, leaving her shaky. She walked along the edge of the lagoon, watching the first streaks of dawn burst through the night sky, painting the horizon brilliant shades of pink and orange. Morning dew glistened on the leaves of swaying tree branches trees, and tickled her feet through her open toes shoes.

They’d closed the case and a new day was starting. Daylight would make the disheartening job of searching for graves easier as would the canines. She rubbed her arms, wondering why she felt so uneasy.

It bothered her that they didn’t have a motive. Sam knew she should let it go; Manny’s case was now in the hands of the D.A., but it felt like she was missing an important piece of the puzzle. Maybe she expected too much. People killed, bad things happened. For all they knew the heinous acts might have been part of a gang initiation. Or maybe Manny was just that twisted, and worked his way up from harming small animals to inflicting his madness on women.

Sam caught sight of Alec heading her way. She kept walking, wishing he would go away. Their earlier conversation still rang in her ears and she wasn’t in the mood to deal with him right now.

“Hey,” Alec slowed to a stroll beside her. “What were you thinking, giving the bust to Lombardo?”

“Either I’m forging a truce or I just made a deal with the devil.” She gave him a half-hearted smile, weary to her core. Sam counted on her decision being a win-win. Lombardo got his collar and scored a victory, but it came with a price. She put him on notice, letting him know that she wouldn’t tolerate his behavior any longer, and he’d lost the respect of his colleagues. With any luck, the case would generate enough of the press Lombardo craved, and he’d retire, leaving her in peace.