Kate frowned. Youd need more, she decided.
Who are you, Freud?
That snapped her spine straight again. Youd see death in your line of work nearly every day, I would imagine. But you dont run aboutwhat did you call it?cold-cocking suspects all the time. Or do you?
Tell you what, youre better with these crunchy things than you are with analysis.
Her stomach rolled again at the bite in his tone. You dont like me.
Do you like me?
Not particularly.
Well, she was honest, he thought. He almost grinned. But shed done it again. Words like particularly didnt belong in general conversation. Then Raphael heard himself answer her and he felt a dull inner pang even as his words hit the room.
We were bringing Miller out of the van, he said, for his arraignment. Id taken him in the first place, so I wanted to be part of the detail. He knew all about me through his spree, during the whole investigation. He made it his business to know who was closing in on him. So he turned around just as he was being led through the courthouse doors. He looked at me, and he said
Miller had said what Raphael hadnt yet told anyone.
Raphael hadnt made excuses for his behavior that day. What hed done, hed done. And hed taken the fall. He clamped his mouth shut.
This had all the melodrama of an excellent story, Kate thought. He said what? she breathed.
Dont tell me, Montiel drawled. Youre heavy into cop shows.
Kate blinked. How had he guessed? She almost denied it, but what would be the point? Books, mostly. Theres a certain element of escapism there.
Element? Damn it, cant you just talk?
I am talking!
No. Youre giving a lesson in vocabulary! And he didnt know why it bothered him so much. Maybe it was just his overall mood. But he doubted it.
I was just asking a question. She sniffed.
Raphael found himself answering heragain. He told me that Anna was the best of the lot. He told me how she screamed. Damn it, he picked her because she was associated with me!
There was a stretch of silence in the kitchen, drawn out enough to thin the air. Kates heart hurtled over a beat. Anna Lombardo? One of Millers victims, she remembered. Maybe the last. And then Kate understood. She cleared her throat carefully. You knew Anna.
Yeah. He took a knife from a drawer and cut into the steak. I knew Anna. Wed been seeing each other.
You loved her. It was, she thought, a heartbreaking story.
But Montiel laughed in a raw sound before he chewed and swallowed. Not yet.
I dont understand.
Id only met her two weeks before she died. But maybe it could have been something, he thought. Theyd never know. Miller had strangled her with piano wire.
Montiel.
The voice came from the kitchen door. They both turned sharply, almost guiltily, as though theyd been caught in the act of something they shouldnt have been doing. It was that man, Kate realized. Plattsmier. And the other one, Fox. Both stepped into the kitchen. Kate watched the three of them confer near the doorway.
Something was happening.
There was a lot of gesturing. Then something changed in Montiels expression. His jaw hardened. His eyes went thin, but just before they did, Kate saw them shine like glass.
He turned to her. Clean up your stuff, Betty Crocker. Youve got five minutes, then Im taking you home.
Kate came off the stool. I dont need a ride.
Good. Because youre not getting one.
Her heart was hammering almost as hard as it had done when shed found the body. The air in the kitchen felt suddenly humid and heavy, and it made it hard for her to breathe again. Then I dont understand what youre implying.
Im implying that Ill follow you in my own vehicle.
To where?
To your home. We just covered that.
But its not necessary.
It is if Im going with you. Im not leaving my Explorer here. And it looks as though youve got yourself one damned overqualified baby-sitter.
With that, he threw the fork he had been holding into
the sink. It bounced right out again with the force of his strength. Impossibly, it landed prongs-down in a single scallion.
Kate closed her eyes briefly. It was that kind of a night.
Chapter 2
Then she looked around quickly to make sure no oneheaven forbid, Montielhad seen her. She was alone.
Everything went out of her. Kate leaned weakly against her panel van. What had happened here tonight? And why was it necessary for that cop to follow her home? Kate could not remember a plot shed ever read that had involved the authorities baby-sitting a witness, unless that witness had turned States evidence. But she didnt have any evidence to turn.
Suddenly, her heart nosedived into her stomach. Was she actually a suspect? Did they think she had killed that man?
She needed a lawyer.
Okay, Betty Crocker, lead the way.
Kate came away from the van quickly as Montiel left the kitchen door and came into the alley. She tucked the wine bottle behind her. Do I need a lawyer?
What for? He jiggled the handle of her panel van. Unlock this thing.
Absolutely not.
He turned back to her slowly. There was a streetlight on a nearby corner. It flung mild light into the alley, just enough that she could see something tic at his jaw.