The Heart of A Killer

Twelve

Dante stared at the gun in her hands, then lifted his gaze to hers, no fear in his eyes. “You gonna shoot me?”

She lowered the gun, shoved it back in the pocket of the chair where she always kept one of the spares. “Just trying to prove to you that I do have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

“Noted. Feel better now?”

Despite her utter fury, her lips lifted. As a matter of fact, she did feel better. And maybe Dante had something to do with that. He’d deliberately baited her, no doubt to shock her out of her feel-sorry-for-herself mood. There was nothing she hated more than having a panic attack. Having one and Dante finding her in the midst of one, with the bonus of delusions? The worst thing that could ever happen to her.

Instead of coddling her, though, he’d pissed her off, which had made her so angry she’d come after him like a bull.

Which had been exactly what she needed. Now she felt stronger. More capable.

So, yes, she did feel better. And damn him, he knew she would.

“Thanks.”

He smiled. “You’re welcome.”

He held his hand out for her and this time she took it, letting him haul her up to stand. “How did you know what to do?”

“I’ve done my share of time in Iraq and Afghanistan and other unmentionable places. I spent some up-close-and-personal time with people who have PTSD, and know how to deal with it. It has a lot of different faces. Some people you have to hug. Some you have to slap around a little.”

She went into the kitchen and grabbed fresh sodas, handed one to him. “Yeah. Coddling me wouldn’t have made me feel better.”

“I know that much about you, Anna.”

She pulled her legs up on the sofa and wrapped her arms around them. “And yet I don’t know a damn thing about you, Dante. So tell me.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Why the army?”

He took a gulp of soda, then set it on the table next to him. “I wanted to be all I could be.”

She snorted. “No, seriously. Why the military?”

“I was a month away from turning eighteen. I knew college wasn’t in the cards for me. I just wasn’t ready for it back then. But I knew I needed order and discipline in my life, so the military seemed right for me. I had all this pent-up energy and aggression and I needed an outlet, some training. I talked it over with George and he told me to choose whatever I wanted. I chose army.”

She studied him and Dante knew he’d have to choose each lie carefully. The military part was easy, because that was the truth. But how he got there-that was all lies. It wasn’t George who’d gotten him there-it had been her father, and it hadn’t been his choice to leave.

That he wouldn’t tell her. She didn’t have to know why her dad had wanted him out of town after that night.

More lies.

“And I guess you must have liked military life if you’re still in it.”

He slanted a smile her way. “It’s a lifestyle. I got used to it.”

“So you don’t like it?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You’re not saying much of anything. You didn’t say you like it or don’t like it. You’re very noncommittal.”

“And you’re a very good detective.”

She laughed. “It’s my job to probe, to get beyond the surface to the truth.”

He’d have to be careful what he said around her. “I do like it. At first it was regimented. I had no freedom. It was a lot like being a foster kid, always having someone tell you what to do. It sucked. But after a few years, I had more and more responsibility, and more and more authority. The further up the food chain you go, the more you get.”

“What do you do for them?”

“Black ops are special assignments. I sometimes work with a team, sometimes alone. It depends on what they need me to do.”

“Do you like the work?”

Did he? He never thought about it. It was just what he did. “It pays the bills.”

“Dante, seriously.”

“I don’t know, Anna. It’s just what I do. I’m used to it. It’s part of me.”

“And what is it that you do?”

“I can’t tell you specifically about the operations I’ve done. They’re classified.”

She wrinkled her nose and studied him. “So you go in and do the dirty work, the hard missions that no one else can do.”

“Something like that.”

“Does it involve a lot of killing?”

“Sometimes.” No point in lying anymore.

“Hence the rewards.”

“Yeah.”

“So now that you’re off the grid, I imagine you can do almost whatever you want.”

His eyes took on a devilish sparkle. “It has its perks.”

He knew she didn’t trust him. He didn’t blame her.

“Like assuming false identities, Mr. FBI Agent?”

“That’ll help with the case. I’ll be able to pull strings you can’t. Get faster results on DNA.”

She leaned back against the sofa and twirled the soda can around between her hands. “What DNA? So far we haven’t found a single piece of useful trace.”

“Jeff’s bedroom was a mess. Surely your techs will be able to scrape up something from there.”

“True. It sure as hell was messier than the alley, which looked as if it had been scoured by a cleaning service. Whoever grabbed Jeff didn’t take the time to clean up his place before dragging him out of there. There was a definite struggle in there. I’m hopeful we can pull some DNA, prints, blood or fibers-something out of there that’ll give us a lead, because so far we’ve found nothing in the alley from either murder.”

“Something will come up.”

She yawned. “It has to.”

Her eyes drifted closed and he let the silence stretch between them, hoping she’d fall asleep.

It didn’t take long. Five minutes, maybe, and she was out, the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest telling him she was asleep.

He scooped her up and she woke, her eyes wide and alert.

“I’m taking you to bed.”

She arched a brow. “I don’t recall inviting you.”

He laughed. “I’m dumping you in your bed. Then I’m going to my own bed to sleep.”

She laid her head on his shoulder. “Now I’m insulted.”

He rolled his eyes. “There’s just no pleasing you, is there?”

“Yeah, I’m tough like that.”

After he deposited her on her bed, she grabbed the blanket and pulled it over herself.

“Thank you, Dante,” she murmured.

“You’re welcome.” He closed the door to her room and headed toward his own, leaving it open so he could hear anything that might not sound right. As he sat on the edge of the bed he took a deep breath and released it, hoping it would relieve the tightness in his chest.

Maybe he’d bought into Anna’s tough act, because seeing her down on the floor of her bathroom tonight had just about knocked him out.

She wasn’t a superhero. She was vulnerable, and she had a lot more demons to fight than just the bad guys out there.

His short vacation was about to get longer.

Anna heard the buzzing, knew it was her phone, but wanted more than anything to ignore it.

Phone meant work or bad news. She’d had all the bad news she could handle. She was full up.

And she’d had nightmare-free sleep. Couldn’t she just continue with that?

The buzzing intensified.

“Well, hell.” She reached out from under the covers and grabbed her phone, read the display and punched the button. “Yeah.”

It was Roman. “You sound like you’re asleep.”

“I was. What’s up?”

“I did some research into the companies in the buildings backing the alley. The north-side building has a key-card entry system that logs who goes in and out and when. There were three people there last night during the time period of the murder.”

She sat up in bed, swept her hair out of her face and blinked several times to force her eyes open. “And the south-side building?”

“Security guard signs people in and out. He said no one was in the building last night, so it’s just those three on the north side.”

“Okay. Got names?”

“Yup. Figured you’d want to do interviews.”

“You figured right. What time?”

“About eleven?”

The clock said she had an hour. “I’ll meet you there.”

She threw on clothes and decided against making coffee, figuring she’d hit a drive-through on her way to meet Roman. That way she wouldn’t wake Dante.

She crept down the hall, saw him sleeping facedown on the bed, his gun peeking out from under his pillow.

She closed his door. As she tiptoed out of the house, she felt a twinge of guilt for not waking him.

He didn’t have to do everything with her, and he needed the sleep as much as she did, especially after dealing with her meltdown last night.

At least that’s what she told herself. The reality of it was, he was already too close to her and she needed the break.

She’d fill him in on the interviews later.

She climbed into her car and headed into town, zooming into a drive-through for some much-needed caffeine. Roman was waiting for her in the lobby of the bank building.

“Where’s Dante?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Not joining us on this one. I’ll catch him up to speed later on.”

“Okay. So there’s a law firm that takes up the entire third floor. Two associates were working last night ’til about two in the morning.”

She walked alongside Roman toward the elevator. “Third floor would give them a good view. Who else?”

“Some corporate jock, head of a marketing firm on the fifth floor. He was here until past midnight. His offices only front the north side of the building, though.”

She nodded. “Okay. We’ll talk to the corporate jock just in case, but I doubt he’ll be of any use. I’m primarily interested in the attorneys. Are they clocked in now?”

“Yeah. I checked at the front desk when I got here.”

She lifted her phone. It was almost eleven-thirty. Damn, she really had gotten some sleep.

Dante had also called her. Twice. She hadn’t answered, instead sent him a text that she was running down some leads and she’d get back with him later.

Roth, Llewelyn and Macy was a typical law firm. All expensive wood paneling and quirky architecture as the elevator doors opened. Fresh flowers flanked the reception desk, along with the attractive young blonde sitting behind it.

“May I help you?” she asked.

Anna flashed her badge. “I need to see Margaret Atkinson and Larry Stevens.”

She lifted her nose a couple inches in the air. “Do you have an appointment?”

“No,” she said.

“Then may I ask what this is regarding?”

“No, you may not. But you can pick up your phone and tell them this is police business and they can hustle their asses out here, or we can do this down at the station.”

The girl’s eyes widened. “One moment, please.”

It didn’t take long to get a response. But instead of the two associates she got an older guy with slightly graying hair and a very expensive suit.

“I’m Roger Macy, one of the senior partners of this firm. Can I help you?”

“Detective Anna Pallino of the St. Louis Police Department. We’re investigating a murder that occurred in the alley last night. We understand two of your associates were working late last night and would like to speak to them to ascertain if they saw anything.”

“Ah, yes. We heard about the murder in the alley behind this building. Two of them so far, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Was it someone who worked in this building?”

“No, sir. The victims are unrelated to the tenants here.”

“All right. Let me gather my associates in the conference room. Do you mind if I’m present for the questioning?”

“Not at all.”

Lawyers. Anna looked to Roman, who shrugged.

They were led to the conference room and instructed to wait. The room was stark white, no pictures on the walls. It had a long, smooth cherry table and a ton of comfortable chairs, a credenza on either side and a stellar view of the alley through the wide windows.

“Good view of the Dumpster,” Anna said.

“Not sure what you could see in the dark.” Roman pressed his nose to the glass.

Anna looked over his shoulder. “Doubtful someone would be looking out that way. But maybe they heard something and looked down. Plus, there’s a light over the Dumpster area. We’ll see.”

They turned when the door opened. Macy came in with a man and a woman, both in their late twenties, good-looking. Both looked nervous, though the guy pressed his hand to the small of the woman’s back as if to comfort her.

Hmm.

She was pretty, with long, dark blond hair pulled up in a sleek ponytail. She wore a pencil skirt and a nondescript white silk blouse. He was in a gray suit, impeccably tailored.

Macy introduced them both.

“Have a seat. This isn’t an interrogation,” Anna said. “We know you were both working late last night, and a murder occurred outside in the alley behind this building.”

Margaret Atkinson nodded. “We heard the sirens while we were working, then saw it on the news this morning.”

“Yes. We were wondering which offices you were working in.”

“Here in the conference room,” Larry said. “We’re working on the same case. Trial’s coming up, so we’re reviewing depositions and witness lists and preparing pretrial motions.”

“Did you at any time have cause to look out the window here?”

Margaret looked at Larry, then shook her head. “No, we pretty much stayed at the table the entire time.”

“We have a deadline,” Larry added after watching Margaret while she spoke. “We didn’t leave the conference room.”

“It was a late night and we had a lot of paperwork to do,” Margaret said.

“You didn’t hear anything unusual outside?” Anna asked.

“No. We were wrapped up in…the case,” Margaret said, her nervous gaze darting to Larry. “We didn’t hear a thing. Until the sirens, of course.”

Larry offered a serious look. “We’re very focused. A bomb could go off and we wouldn’t have heard it. We didn’t leave our chairs, until as Margaret said, we heard the police arrive.”

“We went downstairs then to see what was going on,” Margaret said, “but they wouldn’t let us pass because they already had the police tape up.”

“At that point we figured we should get out of everyone’s way, plus we had to be here early this morning, so we wrapped things up and headed out,” Larry added.

“What time was that?” Anna asked.

“Around two,” Larry said.

Anna remained silent, wondering if either would add anything.

Larry looked from Margaret to their boss. “We have the paperwork prepared if you’d like to check it all over.”

Macy waved his hand. “Unnecessary.”

“How long were you in this room?” Anna asked. “Hours.”

“Most of the night,” Margaret said, her gaze once again flitting to Larry before coming back to Anna and Roman. “From the time the office closed until we left. We ordered takeout to be delivered. I think…Larry, you have the receipts for that?”

“I do.”

“Motions had to be filed this morning,” Margaret said. “So we stayed and worked through the night until we were finished.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Detectives,” Mr. Macy said, “I’m sure you can tell my associates didn’t see or hear anything.”

They were getting nowhere. Anna pulled her card. “Please do your best to try to remember everything from last night. Even the smallest detail could be of use. An unusual sound, anything that seemed out of the ordinary or may have caught your attention, even if it was for only a few seconds. If you got up to glance out the window and you saw anything that springs to mind, give me a call.”

“They certainly will, Detective,” Macy said, sliding her card across the table and slipping it into his coat pocket.

She thanked them and they left the office.

As soon as they hit the elevator and the door closed, Anna turned to Roman.

“Working on briefs, my ass. Maybe she was in his briefs.”

“Agreed,” Roman said. “The only thing they saw in that conference room was each other. The killer could have hung a body outside the window and they wouldn’t have noticed.”

Anna wrinkled her nose. Crude, but accurate as far as the witnesses. “Yeah, pretty useless. The two of them were skirting glances back and forth like crazy. I think they were more afraid of the boss finding out they’d been boinking all night instead of working.”

The corporate dude on the other floor was a bust, too. His office fronted the street instead of the alley. He’d only worked until about eleven, had parked on the street side and he hadn’t seen or heard a thing.

Useless. They were due for a break, and soon.