Deceitful Moon (15 page)

Sophie and Alex came close and hugged her. Manny watched fresh moist
ure
cover her eyes with each embrace. He wondered how many tears she had left. How many
anyone
would have
left
.

Louise reached for his hand and squeezed. He hugged her. His wife’s perfume shook his senses, and he couldn’t ignore the merciless pang of guilt that stabbed him with an almost physical force. Chloe Franson. She lingered in his thoughts just a little too long, longer than any infatuation had the right to do. But those eyes could take him to cloud nine if he let them.

More guilt. How could he be thinking of
Chloe
when Gavin was in such
r
ough shape and while he held
the most wonderful woman in the world? He pushed thoughts of Chloe away. He
wanted them to stay gone
.
Sometimes wanting and getting were great enemies.

“So
,
Argyle
’
s in jail?”
asked
Louise.

“Yeah. We got lucky. I’ll tell you about it later.”

She nodded.

The ICU
doctor
came from Gavin’s room
and
walked straight to Stella. “He seems to have stabilized after that last incident.”

“Incident?” quizzed Manny.

The doctor looked at Stella.

“It’s okay. There are no secrets here.”

“
Al
l
right
. His heart has stopped twice in the last three hours. Not long, but enough to make me consider, if he makes it, well
. . .
” She shifted her feet and continued. “Combined with the huge blood loss, those two episodes may have caused oxygen deprivation to his brain. I’m sorry. Only time will tell.”

Manny felt his body grow a
number
.

“That’s not all. Once the bullet stopped rattling off his ribs, it ended up lodged close
to
his aorta. Way too close.
S
urgery would be
risky
,
although
I’ve seen worse
situations
turn
out just fine
. The key is to get in early. It could conceivably move closer and make the surgery more risky.”

The doctor
smiled her best reassuring smile. Bedside manner wasn’t completely dead.

“I know. Lots of ifs and maybes. But it’s all we have for now. Let me suggest you keep churning out those prayers. They never hurt.” She touched Stella’s arm and left.

“I’m going to go see him,” said Manny.

“He’d like that,” whispered Stella.

Gavin looked frail, pale, and vulnerable
, l
ike a
newborn
in an incubator. The machines hooked to
the police chief
did little to enhance
Manny’s
state of mind.
T
ears welled up, then crawled down his face. The last thing his friend would ever want was to be helpless. It didn’t fit.

Manny smiled one of those half smiles born from memories that grief couldn’t
eliminate entirely.

Gavin
loved westerns and
was a big John Wayne fan. Going out
in a blaze of glory, amid a hail of bullets,
like the Duke in one of his movies
,
would suit him more. Not
wired up
in the
damned
ICU of a hospital. He laid a hand on Gavin’s arm and prayed that his boss would get to
see another ending
.

Chapter
-26

“I’ll stay with her
. Y
ou three can’t help Gavin, or anyone else, sitting around here,” reasoned Louise.

“I don’t know
,
” Manny hesitated, rubbing his face with both hands
,
“
if
I can concentrate on
anything
right now.”

“I think she’s right,” agreed Stella. “We’ll let you know if anything changes. Besides, you know he’d take a hunk out of your collective asses if he thought you were sitting around feeling sorry for each other
and him
. He’d want you
to be
out looking for the bastard who did this.”

Sophie rubbed her
backside
. “Y
ep. Been on the end of that one
.”

A tiny smile tugged at the corner of Stella’s mouth. She put her hands on Manny’s shoulders. Her firm grip was warm, reassuring. “Manny. You’ve always been amazingly good at separating the job from your emotions.
What do they call that? Compartmentalizing?
It’s what makes you who you are
, t
he best.” She looked away from him. “That’s why Argyle’s behind bars. I need you to go
to
work, okay?”

Damn. How could anyone say no to that?

“
Al
l
right. We
’
ll do it for both of you
.
B
ut you have to keep me posted.
”

“I will,
”
said Stella.

He
kissed
Louise and said he’d see her for dinner, hugged Stella again
,
and let Sophie and Alex escort him to the elevator.

Once in the car, Alex moved into CSI
-
mode quickly. “Where do you want to start?”

“Gavin’s office. We need to see what we can find.” He ran his hand through his hair. “If there’s anything
to
find.”

“
Buzzy
said Alex’s folks gave it the once over and found nothing. No shell casing. No unusual prints. Just hits from people that had reasons to be in Gavin’s office
,
”
said Sophie.

“Were you on that list?” asked Manny.

“Yes. I
. . .
Oh
,
I get it. You mean because I was in there getting my butt reamed?”

“Just asking.”

He
r
eyes narrowed
,
and she zoned in on Manny. “I think I remember you taking a trip in there a time or two.”

“Me?” Mock surprise billow
ed
across his face.

“Whatever. Hey
, m
aybe they dusted for prints on his Nat King Cole CD collection. If they did, we’ll finally know who’s been taking them
.
”

He shrugged. “They’re always returned, right?”

“Yeah, but he always got pissy when one
went
missing.”

Alex cleared his throat. “Anyway. My people
also
didn’t think the hair and fibers would help
either
. But
we
won’t know until it’s all processed. I’m betting the particulate forensics will probably be a dead
-
end.
There was so much traffic in his office that it’s just not going to be a good source of evidence.
”

“Manny. Did you see how the man tried to change the subject?” Sophie gave Alex the evil eye. “It’s you
, i
sn’t it? You’re a closet Nat King Cole groupie. Admit it.”

“Don’t be goofy. Nat King Cole? Come on. A man like me?”

“We’ll find out soon enough. Then your ass will be grass
,
and the Chief will be the lawn mower
.
”
She chewed her lip and grew somber. “I hope.”

“Me too,” said Alex
s
oftly.

“We need to focus, okay? We just need to do our jobs and let the doctors do theirs,” Manny pointed out.

“You’re the boss, and you’re right
. It’s not that easy for some of us,
” agreed Sophie.

“You’re right, but it beats the hell out of sitting on the sidelines. Stella’s right.”

“Works for me,” said Alex.

“Sophie and I will go to the office. We need to see why the security cameras weren’t working and go over everything again.
Any v
isitors, people he put away who had the biggest hard
-
on for Gavin
. A
nything or anyone we can think of for a motive that fits this thing.”

“We’re not going to get a ballistics match unless the docs think they can get that bullet out of Gavin. Might not anyway,” said Sophie.

Alex removed his glasses and wiped them on his shirt. “We’ve been pretty focused on Argyle and Gavin
, b
ut we need to face some facts about our other problem.”

Manny nodded. “Three murders in three days. That would mean that Lansing has a serial killer
, a
pparently knocking off convicted rapists and sex offenders.”

“
Buzzy
confirmed that all three were recently, like in the last week, released from prison. And these days, it’s easy to track when these guys are let loose. Especially through OTIS
[
Offender Tracking Information System
]
,” added Sophie. “
S
he was still researching the third victim. He wasn’t in the Sexual Offender database. He was released after serving time for a couple of white
-
collar crimes
, but
she’s still digging.”

“Let’s hope she finds a connection. If not, that means
the victims
are random ex-cons and that makes it worse.”
Manny
cocked his head
,
knitt
ing
his brow.
“The thing is
,
this killer has come storming out of the gate. I mean two in one night is serious dedication
, particularly
in different parts of town. Usually it takes awhile to ramp it up like this. This seems to be pure rage. “Something, some stressor, got them going.”

“Victim?” asked Alex.

“Not necessarily. It could be the spouse, son, or dad that has snapped because of something that happened to a loved one.” The
glower
on Manny’s face grew deeper. “If it is a female victim, we have a real problem. She’ll stay at it. Women serial killers don’t do it for the gratification of some sexual release
,
but mostly kill for revenge.”

“Well, the first victim’s crotch didn’t look so good. That looks like overkill to me,” observed Sophie.

“I need to get to both crime scenes
,
and then examine the bodies to verify
things are
what
they look
like.” Alex let out a breath and rolled down his window. The morning was already heating up. “I never thought I’d say this, but maybe we could use some help.”

“FBI help? Josh and his crew?” asked Manny. “Do you think we need them?”

“The budget cuts weren’t kind to us
,
and we’re down a few people. Plus, we have Gavin’s situation on our plate
.
I’m just saying.”

“Ooooo. Let me call him,” offered Sophie. “I have his number on speed dial.”

“Does your husband know that?” quizzed Alex.

Sophie grinned. “Hey. It’s just work. Anyway, Randy’s reaping all of the benefits of my fantasy world, comprend
e
?”

“I thought we agreed on this TMI thing
,
” snorted Alex.

“No calls yet. I need to think about it. They’re going to be busy getting everything in order to bring Argyle back to Michigan. I don’t want to mess with that,” replied Manny.

“Fair enough. While you two are checking out the building
,
I’m going to get my gear and see what I can see
,
”
Alex said.
“By the way, why do you think Mike wasn’t at the hospital? He
is
Gavin’s only kid
.
”

“I noticed that too. They’ve not been getting along, and honestly, Mike has flat
-
out been acting strange
the last few weeks
,” answered Manny.
“I don’t blame him, though.”

“Still, it’s his dad
,
”
said Alex.

“I’m sure we’ll see him soon. They were pretty close before Lexy died
,
” said Manny.