"Carlotta, this isn't your fault."
Carlotta Wren turned her head to look at Detective Jack
Terry, who was dividing his attention between her and
Atlanta's evening rush-hour traffic. They were heading
north to Buckhead so Jack could drop her off at Peter
Ashford's home. She was still reeling from watching her
good friend Cooper Craft be arrested as The Charmed Killer,
a monster who had murdered nine women, leaving a charm in
the mouths of his victims as his signature. There was only
one problem: Coop wasn't a serial killer.
"I know it isn't my fault." Carlotta dabbed at her wet eyes
with the handkerchief Jack had given her. "Because it's
your fault, Jack."
He frowned. "Mine? How do you figure that?"
"You tipped off the GBI that Coop was coming to see me at
Neiman's." Carlotta worked at the store as a sales
associate, although lately not up to her potential,
considering all theβ¦diversions of her life. Missing
fugitive parents. A delinquent brother dodging loan sharks.
Serving as an on-again, off-again body mover for the county
morgue. "Insinuating" herself into police investigations
(according to Jack's partner, Detective Maria Marquez).
Jack's mouth tightened. "It was better for Coop to be taken
into custody sooner rather than later, and in a public
place. At least no one was hurt."
"Jack, you can't possibly believe that Coop committed those
horrific crimes."
He slammed on the brake to keep from rear-ending the car in
front of him. "Damn traffic. Where the hell are all these
people going?"
The way Jack deflected her question made her wonder if he
thought the GBI had arrested the wrong man. "Jack, answer
me."
His jaw hardened. "It doesn't matter what I believe. I'm
not on the case, remember? But trust me, the GBI wouldn't
have made an arrest without evidence."
"What kind of evidence?"
"I don't have specifics."
"DNA?" she prodded. "The Chief Medical Examiner told me
that the state crime lab was supposed to return DNA
evidence any day."
Jack frowned. "Why would Bruce Abrams be talking to you
about the case?"
"Because he knows Michael and I are⦠connected." Michael
Lane, her former coworker, was on the run after committing
some pretty heinous acts himself, including trying to kill
Carlotta and, after escaping from a hospital mental ward,
stalking her. Until Coop's arrest, Michael had been the
primary suspect for The Charmed Killer.
And Michael was still out there somewhere.
"Plus," she continued, "I played the sympathy card by
telling Bruce my father's name had popped up on a list of
potential suspects, thanks to your crackerjack profiler,
Detective Marquez." She gave Jack a wry smile. "I'm sure
she's behind Coop being fingered as The Charmed Killer."
"Regardless of the outcome, Maria is just doing her job."
"Do you know, she actually warned me about the men I let
into my life? I thought she was talking about you."
He gave a rueful laugh. "Not bad advice, considering who
you're living with."
"You were happy when I took Peter up on his offer to stay
with him until things settle down."
"I wouldn't use the word 'happy.' I thought you'd be safe
with him. But that was before Ashford bought you that
stupid tricycle."
"It was a scooter, Jack. And it was a thoughtful gesture
considering I didn't have transportation. Now I'm back in
the same spot. I don't suppose you've found the person who
planted the explosive under my Monte Carlo?"
He frowned. "No."
"Do you still think it was Michael?"
"Maybe."
"Who else could it have been?"
Jack shifted in his seat. "Coop."
Carlotta's eyes went wide. "Coop? Jack, that's crazy. Coop
would never do something like that. Why would he want to
hurt me?"
"When your car blew up in the mall parking lot, you told me
the only places it had been parked earlier that day was in
your garage at the townhouse and at Coop's place when you
allegedly paid him aβ" Jack took his hands off the wheel to
draw quotation marks in the air "βvisit. I can't ignore the
fact that Coop had a window of opportunity to plant the
device."
"When I allegedly paid Coop a visit?" Carlotta shook her
head. "Jack, if you want to know if I slept with Coop, or
with Peter for that matter, why don't you just ask me?"
"Because, as you so often remind me, it's none of my
business." Then he nodded to her lap. "What's that you're
holding?"
She glanced down at the mangled piece of paper, feeling
sick all over again. Just before his arrest, Coop had
brought her the results of the drug test she'd asked him to
conduct on a sample of Wesley's hair. The report stated
that her brother tested positive for opiate/Oxycodone,
confirming her worst fears. When she'd confronted Wesley
about stolen refills of a painkiller and a single tablet of
generic OxyContin she'd found on his bathroom floor, he'd
told her he'd only taken the drugs temporarily to alleviate
the pain he'd experienced from when one of his loan sharks,
The Carver, had cut part of his name into Wes's arm.
But the drug test indicated a more pervasive problemβ¦
didn't it? Coop had said over the phone that he wanted to
explain the test results to her in person. But before he'd
gotten the chance, the GBI had descended and arrested him.
"It's nothing," she murmured, pushing the paper into her
purse. If Wesley was caught taking drugs, his probation
would be revoked. All this time, she'd been worried about
keeping her brother out of jail, and now, inconceivably,
Coop was in lockup. "What's going to happen to Coop?"
Jack sighed. "He'll be arraigned within a few days."
"Do you think he'll get bail?"
"That depends on how good his attorney is, the mood of the
judge, and the D.A."
"Kelvin Lucas?"
"Right. Since this is the biggest case Fulton County has
seen in a while and since one of Lucas's A.DA.'s was
murdered, I'm sure he'll handle this case himself."
She touched her throbbing forehead. "I can't believe this
is happening. The idea of Coop being The Charmed Killer is
ludicrous."
Jack clenched his jaw. "Right now, jail is the best place
for him to get sobered up and dried out."
The vision of Coop in a cold, empty cell made her lungs
squeeze. He must be feeling dazed and utterly confused. And
so alone.
Jack leaned on the car horn, which was ridiculous
considering traffic was at a standstill. "This is
bullshit." He reached under the seat and pulled out a siren
to set on the dashboard, then switched on the blue light.
Begrudgingly, the cars ahead of him eased over to the
shoulder to allow him to pass.
"Are you taking advantage of your position as a law
enforcement officer to get around traffic?"
"You bet your sweet ass I am."
He pulled ahead, slowed at a red light, then proceeded
through when the coast was clear.
"You're only making it worse for everyone else."
"Yeah, well, I'm not feeling too generous today."
Carlotta observed Jack under her lashes. His rugged
features and big body were rarely at ease, but a muscle
worked in his jaw, and his grip on the steering wheel was
more fierce than necessary. Despite the fact that he'd
given Coop up to the GBI, Jack, too, was disturbed about
the arrest. But was he disturbed because he'd been duped by
someone he considered a friend of sorts, or because he
believed Coop was innocent?
But if Jack thought Coop was innocent, why would he give
him up? Because he couldn't resist being part of an
investigation he'd been dismissed from?
She knew the detective well enough to know that he wouldn't
tell her what was going on in that thick head of his, not
if he thought she might go off on her own tangent. She'd
have to finesse information out of him.
"Coop's fall from grace a few years ago is going to hurt
him, isn't it?"
Jack nodded. "He was drunk when he stopped at the scene of
an accident and declared a woman dead when she wasn't.
Frankly, Coop was lucky he was only stripped of his title
as Coroner and had his license to practice medicine
suspended. The woman barely survived. If she'd died because
of Coop's negligence, he would've been looking at serious
time. It doesn't take a psychiatrist to see how something
like that could mess with a person's head."
"But he seemed to be dealing with everything okay,"
Carlotta said. "I didn't know him when it happened, but
Coop seemed at peace with working for his uncle at the
funeral home, and moving bodies for the morgue."
Jack shrugged. "Things change."
"Not without a reason," she insisted.
"Everyone has a breaking point," Jack said. "It doesn't
have to be a major incident."
She was tempted to let Jack in on what her brother, Wesley,
had told her about following Coop to a neurologist's
office, and their concern that Coop was sick. But their
suspicions were mere conjecture, and Jack had already
betrayed her confidence by informing the GBI when she'd
called to let him know that Coop, who had been missing for
a day, was on his way to see her at Neiman's. She wouldn't
be so forthcoming with information the next time.
Jack took a call on his phone and from the one-sided
conversation, she gathered he was talking to his partner,
Maria, who needed a ride somewhere.
"I'll be there as soon as I can," he said, and Carlotta
thought she detected a note of intimacy in his voice.
The GBI had kept Maria on The Charmed Killer case, but had
removed Jack, partly because of his association with
Carlotta, who had been indirectly connected to some of the
victimsβeither as a body mover on the crime scene, or a
passing acquaintance. And the last body had been a speed
bump for her scooter. She hated that Jack had to maintain
his distance from the investigation just because she'd been
implicated in the crimes. Now that an arrest in the case
had been made, she assumed Jack and his gorgeous partner
would be reunited.
Not that she cared if Jack and Marvelous Maria were
sleeping together. Okay, maybe she cared a little. Carlotta
and Jack had rolled around a few times, but Jack was his
own man. And she was supposed to be giving her relationship
with Peter a fair chance. She and Jack had agreed to stop
falling into bed with each other, yet their lives still
intersected enough to keep the temptation...
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