In Too Deep (20 page)

Patricia smiled at her and threw her arm around her shoulder. “Follow my lead.”

They made their way through the crowd to the front entrance, where Tyson confronted them.

“Blade, where are you going?” His voice was deep and booming.

“Home,” Patricia said, turning to nuzzle Blade’s neck.

“Your shift’s not over.” He pinned Blade with a look.

“Yeah, well it is now.” Patricia placed her finger on Blade’s chin and tilted it toward hers. “Right, sweetie?” Blade smiled at her and turned back to Tyson. “Right.” She wrapped her arm around Patricia’s waist and they walked around him and out the door.

Once outside, Blade tried to pull away, but Patricia held her tightly. “Keep your arm around me until we get in the car.”

Blade complied and they walked, wrapped around each other, until they reached Patricia’s Blazer. “You realize that you probably just cost me my job,” Blade said angrily as she climbed up into the truck.

“You’re better off.” Patricia started the truck and drove out of the parking lot.

“Fuck you, you fucking pig.” Blade breathed angrily. “You don’t know how bad I need that money. You had no right. This has got to be kidnapping or something.”

Patricia drove, completely unaffected by the harsh words. She’d heard far worse over the years. “I know you need the money for art school and I know you keep that a secret. I guess art school wouldn’t do much for your tough-girl act.” She kept her eyes straight ahead as she delivered the words calmly.

Blade jerked around in her seat and stared at Patricia, her mouth agape. “Who the hell are you and what gave you the right?”

Patricia slowed the truck as they approached a red light. “I told you, my name is Patricia and I have every right to find out everything about you. You work at La Femme, don’t you?” She turned to face her defiant passenger. “Well, as you may know, we are investigating the club’s owner, Elizabeth Adams, for murder.”

Blade continued to sit in silence.

“That gives us every right to find out all we can about her, her club, and her employees.”

“But why me? This has nothing to do with me,” Blade declared, her voice higher pitched than the meaner, deeper-sounding voice from before.

Patricia started to drive once again as the light turned green. “Because you might have some information that we need. Information about Kristen Reece, our other suspect.”

“I don’t know anything. I already told you people that.”

“And because your father is a cop back in Minnesota and because he is expecting you to fully cooperate with us.”

Patricia heard Blade suck in a panicked breath of air. “You can’t do this!” She tried to jerk on the door handle to open the door.

“Relax, it’s locked. And if you try to run again, I’ll arrest you right here and now for possession of narcotics.”

Blade looked at her with her hand held over the lock, mentally contemplating her decision.

“How much E do you have on you right now, Tracy? How much GHB, poppers?” Patricia pulled into a corner convenience store and put the truck in park.

The use of Blade’s real name had seemed to drain any remaining color from her face. She let her hands fall from the door and into her lap.

“All I’m asking is that you just tell me what you know. What you may have seen or heard. Anything you know may help us.”

“And then you’ll let me go?”

“As long as you haven’t done anything criminal.” Patricia noted how young and frail the nineteen-year-old suddenly looked.

“What about the drug charges?” Her eyes were large and liquid as she fought back tears.

“If you cooperate, there will be no drug charges.”

Blade nodded, and Patricia climbed down out of her Blazer.

“Where are you going?” Blade asked, obviously afraid now.

“To get you some cigarettes. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.”

“But I really don’t know anything,” Blade pleaded.

“That you know of.” Patricia started to push the door closed.

“How do you know I won’t run?”

“Because your name isn’t Blade and you really aren’t tough and scary. Your name is Tracy Walsh and you’re scared shitless.”

Patricia shut the door and walked into the convenience store to buy the girl some cigarettes and herself a large fountain drink. She had no idea what the girl knew, if anything at all, but she knew that by taking her, she would make Liz sweat a little more. She would question every last soul in the club thoroughly if she had to. And she knew that this kid in her car, this Blade, was basically a good kid who was possibly in way over her head.

With her purchases, Patricia climbed back into the truck and they drove in silence to the station. Blade stared aimlessly out the window, her hands clasped nervously in her lap. Every once in a while Patricia saw her wipe a tear from her cheek. For a young woman who had never been in trouble with the law, the current situation must be pretty frightful.

They came to a stop in front of the station and Patricia led the way inside, weaving through hallways and desks until they reached the homicide division. She thought about questioning Blade in one of their interrogation rooms so she would be able to smoke, but when she turned and saw her pale and drawn face she decided the tiny room was out of the question.

“Have a seat,” Patricia offered as she sat down at Stewart’s desk and set down her drink and cigarettes. She knew he wouldn’t mind if Blade smoked.

Blade sat down slowly in the chair across from the desk. Patricia slid the pack of clove cigarettes and a lighter across the desk, and Blade eyed them and took the pack tentatively.

“Are those any good?” Patricia asked as she rose to retrieve her files from her desk, along with a small tape recorder that she immediately turned on.

“They’re all right.” Blade opened the pack of Djarums with trembling hands and placed one in her mouth. “How did you know what I smoke?”

“I know a lot about you, Tracy.” Patricia returned to sit down across from the tough girl wannabe.

“It scares me…that you know so much.” Blade lit the dark cigarette and sucked in an appreciative drag. Her shoulders instantly relaxed as the smoke entered her lungs.

“Do you mind if I tape record our session?”

Blade shrugged.

“You have to verbally say yes or no.”

“It’s okay,” she replied softly.

“Let’s talk about other things that scare you. Does your boss scare you? Elizabeth Adams?”

Blade shrugged her shoulders and took another drag of the sweet-smelling clove. She wiped her free hand on her white T-shirt, which read, “Take me for a ride.”

“Have you ever spoken to Ms. Adams?” Patricia knew the girl wasn’t Liz’s type and it was possible that the two had never spoken, that Blade could have been hired and supervised solely by Kristen Reece.

“Once or twice.” Her brown eyes were shifty, looking around the desk and avoiding Patricia altogether.

“What did you talk about?”

Blade shrugged her shoulders once again. Obviously she had no intention of talking to a cop about her boss, even under duress.

Patricia looked into the large brown eyes across from hers. “Are you afraid to talk to me for fear of losing your job?’

Blade laughed a little at the question. “Nah, man. I figure I already lost my job the second I left with you.”

“Then why so afraid?”

She took another drag, sucking on the cigarette like it was providing her the courage to talk. “All this…murder and everything. I didn’t know any of this. I thought she just hated cops like everyone else.”

“You didn’t know she was being investigated for murder?”

“No.”

Patricia sighed and pushed some photographs across the table for Blade to view. “This is why we are asking questions, Tracy. Look at the photographs. These men all had families, people who loved them. And they all had one thing in common.” She waited for Blade to look back at her before she continued. “They gave Elizabeth Adams trouble and she threatened the lives of all of them.”

Blade allowed her eyes to look back at the photos. “What’s wrong with them, why do they look like—”

“That’s what happens when a body sits out in the desert sun. It cooks.”

Blade covered her mouth and averted her eyes. “Put them away, please.”

Patricia scooped up the pictures and returned them to their files. “Let’s talk about Kristen Reece. How well do you know her?”

“Pretty well, I guess.”

“Do you know where she is right now?”

Blade shook her head. “Nah, she hasn’t been in to work.”

“Have you heard anything about her, maybe from the other girls?”

Blade hesitated. “Someone said that she took off the other night after fighting with Liz.”

“They were fighting?”

“Yeah, that night you guys came and questioned all of us. Kris was pissed off and I saw her storm up to Liz’s room and that was the last time I saw her. And then one of the other girls saw her leave after that, all pissed off. She said they’d been arguing.”

“You don’t know what they were arguing about?”

Blade stubbed out her clove in the glass ashtray on the desk. “I just figured they were arguing like they always do.”

“How so?”

“You know, like lovers. They were always bitching at each other.”

“Tracy, this is important. Have you ever seen someone else talking to Kris and Liz? Hanging out with them?”

She thought for a moment. “Nah, no one.”

“Did Kris have a girlfriend?”

“No. She was always hung up on Liz. She had one-night stands and stuff, but no one serious.”

Patricia gave an understanding nod. “Have you ever been to Kris’s apartment?”

“Huh-uh. What’s going on with Kris?” Blade fingered her silver skull ring, twisting it around and around her finger.

“She’s missing, Tracy. And we think she’s tied to these murders.”

“Kris? I don’t know, man. I can’t imagine her doing that to those guys.”

Patricia turned off the tape recorder. Rubbing her temples, she glanced at the vulnerable nineteen-year-old sitting so pale and scared in the chair across from her. The only thing the girl had done was to convince her even more that Adams was involved in the disappearance of Kristen Reece.

Her cell phone rang and vibrated from its place on her belt. She plucked it out of its carrier and flipped it open. “Henderson.”

“Yeah, it’s Stewart,” he wheezed out in an excited tone. “We need you over at Reece’s apartment.”

“Why, what’s up?” She wasn’t quite sure if she was finished with Blade or not.

“We found a fucking gold mine, that’s what’s up!”

“What?” She plugged her free ear with her finger, wanting and needing to hear him better.

“Behind one of her air vents, we found it all. The knife, the tranquilizer, the goddamned smoking gun!”

Patricia felt her blood heat up and pump violently through her body, carrying massive amounts of adrenaline with it. “I’ll be right there.” She flipped her phone closed and clipped it back to her belt.

“Can I go now?” Blade asked, having heard Patricia’s end of the conversation.

“Yeah, you can go. I’ll drive you home.”

Erin clawed her way out of a deep sleep to the sound of the doorbell ringing. She lay perfectly still, hoping that whoever it was would go away. But when the ringing of the doorbell gave way to knocking and then pounding, she threw back the covers and slid a robe over her nude body.

“Okay, okay!” She unlocked the door and jerked it open. The bright sunlight blinded her and she had to shield her eyes before she could make out the figure standing at her door.

“You still sleeping?” Patricia made her way into the house, leaving a slow-moving Erin to shut the door behind her.

“Was, yeah.” She followed Patricia into the living room, rubbing her eyes and face, trying to stir up her slumbering blood.

“Sorry to wake you, but we need to talk.”

“No problem.” Erin made her way to the kitchen. “O.J?” she asked as she removed the carton from the fridge.

“No, thanks,” Patricia said, anxiety on her face.

Erin poured herself a glass and walked back over to the couch to sit next to the other detective. “I already know it’s serious. Otherwise you wouldn’t have risked coming yourself.”

She took a sip of juice and studied her colleague, noting how tired and worn out she looked, darkness shadowing her eyes. Her hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, allowing some unruly strands to fall around her face. Her jeans and polo shirt were covered in dust, and Erin gathered from her hiking boots that she had been out in the desert.

“I made sure you were clear before I came. You know I would never put you at risk.”

Erin nodded. “So, what’s up?”

“As you know, we went after Reece to arrest her on Monday and we found her place in disarray and covered in blood.”