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  “I’ve only got just over a week left, and then I’m out of here.”

  “Then you’ll have to come see me next week. I’ll talk to the chief about letting you continue on the case.”

  “Wait, he wanted to pull me off?” It didn’t make any sense. O’Connor was the one wanting him to stay on as detective.

  “No, he hoped it didn’t come to that, and so I’m going to recommend you stay on.” She gave him a reassuring smile and jotted down another note.

  “Well, good for me.” He couldn’t get away no matter what he did. He stormed out and left the building and went toward the street. Instead of going back to work, he headed straight toward the parking lot to his car.

  Chapter 19

  Jake

  After the visit with Dr. Meadows, Jake couldn’t wait to get away from the station. It was in his best interest to put a little space between him and Chief O’Connor because he knew the next time he saw him, he wouldn’t have anything nice to say to him.

  To think that he was suicidal? Really? Jake still couldn’t believe it, and while he knew the man was just trying to be helpful, he clearly didn’t know Jake at all.

  After having admitted what had happened with his father and why he had become a detective in the first place, he felt sick to his stomach. He was a product of his upbringing, but that only meant he was a survivor. When his father was finally caught and convicted, Jake went to live with foster parents, one house and then another, until he graduated and could be on his own. In all that time, not once had he ever thought about offing himself. Not when his father had burned him with cigarettes or slapped the piss out of him. He took it all in stride until the day Detective Freddy Monroe came to make it all go away, including his father.

  He found himself turning into the small lot outside Blue’s Pub and took the first parking space that he found. He needed to drown his memories in something, and hopefully, a little bourbon would calm his nerves. If not, he’d try a lot.

  He went inside and held his breath, hoping that he wouldn’t run into the last hookup he’d had. He still didn’t remember her name.

  He walked to the bar and asked the bartender for a glass of bourbon. He thought about the trip to the infamous Dr. Meadow’s office and how the guys had all been right about how smoking hot she was.

  Seductive? Check. She had natural come-and-fuck-me eyes. But where had his mind been?

  Oh, right. On his partner, Jo, who probably would slap him across the face if she knew what kind of thought he’d had about the two of them. He was enough of a mess that he didn’t need to drag her down with him.

  Never. Gonna. Happen.

  He downed his drink and asked for another, knowing he’d only down the next.

  “Hey, take it easy, or I’ll cut you off early,” said the bartender as he poured him another glass. Logan had been a cop once, but now that he tended bar in the local cop hot spot, he was a real buzzkill.

  Jake stared through him and took another long pull from his glass.

  “How’s that case going? If this is any indication, it’s not looking good.” Logan wiped the bar and then tossed the rag over his shoulder.

  Jake looked into his glass. “It’s going fine,” he said. “I’m here for a personal matter.”

  “Yeah, I heard you’re leaving soon. Word started getting around after your replacement showed. Talk about a hot piece of ass. I’m sure the boys will be lining up to get a piece of that one.”

  “She’s all right. If you like the bookish type. She’s also clumsy and a bit of a know-it-all.” All of those things, he found attractive in Jo’s special way.

  “She sounds like a train wreck,” said Logan. “It won’t matter. No one cares what’s going on above the tits. But what am I saying, man? You get to stare at them all day.”

  Not looking was difficult in her colorful blouses. She had always worn a matching bra somehow, and he wondered how big her closet was to accommodate that shoe collection of hers. He’d never seen her in the same pair twice.

  Jake downed what was left of his drink. “Give me another one.”

  “Come on, man. Slow it down, okay? I don’t want to have to call someone to haul your ass out of here.”

  “Fine,” said Jake as Logan refilled his glass. He waited until he was done and snatched it from the bar. “Besides, I’m going to need a whole lot more of this if I have to sit and listen to you babble on about my partner without punching you in the teeth.” His acidic tone was gruff, and Logan’s eyes widened.

  “Sorry, man. I just thought since she was replacing you, that you’d have sour grapes. Most would.”

  “Most are not me. And she’s not pushing me out. I’ve had my mind made up for a while. Besides, she’s a nice girl.”

  Logan’s attention went to the door. “Speak of the devil.”

  Jake grumbled. He knew she was behind him, and he didn’t want to face her.

  “There you are,” she said. “I was passing by to go and find you. I figured you’d be at the diner.”

  “I go there when I’m hungry, but I come here when I’m thirsty.” He held up his glass.

  “Ah, I see. That’s a pretty serious drink you’ve got there.”

  “Yeah, it’s my third. I’ve been here a few minutes.”

  “How are you doing?” asked Logan as Jo approached. “Can I get you something?”

  “I’ll have a beer, thanks.” She sat on the barstool beside him and then moved one over to leave a little space between them. “So, what are we drinking for?”

  Jake let out a sigh. He didn’t want to tell her about the stupid shrink, and he certainly didn’t want Logan to hear him. “Have you ever played pool?” He gestured to the open table across the room.

  “Not when I’m supposed to be at work. We still had a couple of hours left. You keep taking off like this, and I’m going to develop a complex.” She got to her feet and waved him on. “Come on. I’ll rack, you break.”

  She beat him to the table, and he was moving kind of slowly from the amount of liquor he’d downed. He wasn’t drunk, but he was well on his way.

  She grabbed the rack and put the balls in it. Then she moved them around, color-coding them like she knew what she was doing. “So, what happened today? You didn’t end up here over nothing.”

  “O’Connor sent me to a shrink. Because the Hangman left that letter, he thinks that I’m suffering with my issues. He thinks that’s why I’ve made this hasty decision to leave, which wasn’t hasty at all. I’ve been a cop for twenty years. My pension is earned, and I’m out of here before I’m forty. I want to find a new career somewhere. It’s all planned out. But no, O’Connor can’t let it go. He thinks if I get help, I’ll stay.” He lined up his cue then took the break, sinking two balls.

  “Maybe he’s just concerned,” she said, watching the balls as they sank into the pockets. “Which are you? Big ones or little ones?”

  “Oh, great, and now you’re on his side too. Just what I fucking needed.” He looked across the table and considered his options. “Big ones.” He sank the next striped ball, and the cue ball went right in behind it.

  “My turn,” she said before grabbing the ball from the pocket and bringing it behind the line to make her next shot, which went well. “I’m not on his side, Jake. I just think he means well.”

  “I think he’s trying to make my life hell. All I wanted was a nice couple of weeks for my last days, and now this case is here, and shit is getting messy fast.”

  “What else did the shrink say?” She took another shot, this time walking the ball back across the table where it barely kissed the next to drop in the side pocket.

  “That was luck,” he said.

  She looked up with an offended expression. “I beg your pardon. I know what I’m doing. But we can call shots if you want.” She walked around the table. “Left corner pocket.” She put the ball right where she said.

  “So, you do play pool.” He had to admit he was impressed with her game. “You kno
w she had the nerve to say I could have PTSD?” He slammed his stick into his next ball and jumped it off the table. “Shit.”

  “Hey,” called Logan. “No jump shots. Keeps the balls on the table.”

  They both glanced over to Logan and then each other. “Sorry,” called Jo. “Accident.” She turned and gave Jake a look.

  “Don’t apologize to him. He’s an asshole.” He wasn’t about to tell her why. “But there’s no way this woman knows what she’s talking about. I’m nothing like Scratch, and he’s got PTSD.”

  She put her stick down, and he realized she’d already run the table on him. “You don’t have to be like Scratch, Jake. There are a lot of normal functioning people with it. But that makes me curious as to why she’d think you’d have it. Did something happen on the job? She isn’t talking about the recent case, is she?”

  Jake knew if there was one person in the world who probably wouldn’t judge him about his past, it was Jo. But he just couldn’t bring himself to say anything about it. “I don’t know,” he said. “She mentioned the stress and how it could be affecting my life. My sleep and eating. It’s not that I don’t eat. It’s just that I don’t like being around people. I guess you could say I have trust issues, but that’s not the same.”

  “Well, it couldn’t hurt to have a shrink in your back pocket. You know, if you ever needed anyone to talk to? Or you could talk to me.” She was sweet to offer, and that made him smile. “I know I’m not as tall and beautiful as Dr. Meadows, but I’ve got ears.” She leaned across the table, and Jake couldn’t think of anything but how much he preferred her company to the doctor’s.

  He made a face and shook his head. “She’s a busy body. Not my style, and who knows? Maybe I’ll take you up on that sometime. When I’m not being a hard ass.” That had been her words, not his.

  “I didn’t agree with the Hangman on that one. He got it wrong. You’re really a big softie.” She stared into his eyes for a moment until the bells on the door jingled, announcing more patrons.

  “You know she said she wants me to come back next week? I told her that I was leaving the force, and she even spilled the beans that the chief wasn’t sure I’d be able to continue on the case.”

  “Really? So, if you had been in bad shape, he would have pulled you and left me with no training? Dick move.”

  “He is a dick at times. I still can’t believe he pulled me off track like that.”

  “Look, just go and see if you can’t get whatever is eating you up inside off of your chest before you go. You’ll feel better.”

  “I’m doing it under protest.” He walked over to where he left his bourbon and downed the rest of it. “We have work to do.”

  “Oh, no you don’t. You already blew a huge hole in this day, and besides, you’re drunk. Tanner can wait, and I’ll drive you home.”

  “I guess you’re right. But I’m not leaving my car here.” He tossed her the keys. “Try and keep it on the road.”

  Chapter 20

  Jake

  After giving up on beating Jo to work, Jake finally did. He unlocked his door and found his office empty and his chair waiting. He walked over and plopped down in it, knowing it could possibly be the last time he sat there. Not because he was leaving soon, but because Jo had made her pretty little ass comfortable in it.

  He kicked back, putting his hands over his head and closing his eyes, wishing he could go back to sleep and the rest of the world would fade away. First stop on his retirement tour? The beach. He needed to find a coast somewhere, anywhere there was white sand and pretty waves, and he was going to let the salt air fill his lungs and the wind blow through his hair. Naked. If he found the right beach.

  But that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, so he opened his eyes and looked up to the whiteboard to see the blanks had been filled in. EXTORTION.

  Chills went down his back, and he had to wonder if Jo had written it the day before. She had been working on it when he left for his appointment, but she hadn’t mentioned it when she met him at the bar. Maybe she wanted it to be a surprise? Something about it was a bit different. The letters were bold, and the writing didn’t match Jo’s.

  He thought of how she’d driven them out to the diner to pick up something for his dinner the day before. Then she’d taken him home. He’d wanted to invite her in to eat with him, but she took her food and called an Uber back to her car after leaving him on his doorstep.

  If that wasn’t a clear I’m not interested in getting to know your life, he didn’t know what was.

  He heard laughter in the hallway, both male and female, and when he looked over at the door, he saw Jo and Sam smiling like young lovers. For some reason, he was annoyed by their happiness.

  “Wow! Someone beat me in today.” She gave Sam a nudge. “I usually beat him, but I had to Uber in. Car trouble.”

  “You two seem cheery and chummy.” He wondered what was going on between them and if Jo had any clue how Sam had been looking at her. That smile on his face was more than just a goofy grin. He was just like the rest of the department of Neanderthals, ready to make his move whenever he could.

  “He was just telling me about his date with Dannie last night. She caught her menu on fire.”

  A date with Dannie? Maybe I’m overreacting. He gave a sideward look then smiled and faked a laugh with them. “That’s crazy. So, when’s the next one?”

  Sam smiled like a sly dog. “I asked her out this weekend. She said yes. She’s really taking what happened to Hayden hard, so I’m keeping her company.”

  “That’s nice.”

  Jo’s eyes lit, and her mouth popped open. “You solved the word?” She walked over to the board. “Gosh, it’s no wonder why Hayden didn’t guess it. No one ever guesses an X at first.”

  Jake froze. “You’re kidding, right?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “You did this,” he said. “Yesterday?”

  “No, I didn’t. The only thing I did was look into some of Hayden’s arrest files.”

  “You mean you didn’t write that?” Jake waited for another shake of her head. She was adamant that she didn’t do it. He glanced at Sam.

  “Don’t look at me. I don’t come in here when you’re gone.” He gave a shrug.

  “No one does,” said Jake. “It’s locked, and that’s why this is strange.” He tried to think of all the people who might have a reason to come into his office for something but came up short.

  “The janitor has a key,” Jo reminded him. “Maybe he was in here vacuuming the floors and saw it.”

  Jake looked down to the floor to see some white flecks of dust. There was no telling what Jo had dragged into the office to do that. Powdered donuts? Makeup? He ignored it. “This floor hasn’t been vacuumed. Besides, the cleaning crew doesn’t do that sort of thing but once every month anyway. It’s not time for it again.” Jake was used to their schedule and tried to make sure he didn’t leave any cords dragging the floor since the janitor last sucked his phone charger into the vacuum.

  “So, if none of us did it, then who could have come in here?” Jo held up her hands.

  Sam’s attention turned down the hall. “Sorry, guys,” he said with a shit-eating grin. “I really hope you figure it out, but Dannie is here, and I have to get to work soon.” He gave Jo a wink and walked away.

  Jo smiled over her shoulder but didn’t really pay him much mind. “Could it have been O’Connor?”

  “He doesn’t usually do this sort of thing. He’s too busy.” Jake wondered how someone might get in. He looked to the floor where the white dust sprinkled the carpet. “What would you do if you were locked inside this room and couldn’t use the door to get out?”

  Jo looked around the room and immediately went to the window. “This doesn’t open, so I’d have to break it, but since it’s not broken, we’d have to assume it is just like the door which is unusable.”

  Jake nodded. “So, what’s left?” He
already knew, but he wanted to see what she guessed.

  Jo didn’t disappoint. She looked up. “The ceiling. He found a way in somehow.”

  “Bingo!” He walked over and pointed to the dust. “See this? I thought it was just another one of your messes, but this is actually from the tiles up there. They lift up, and there’s more than enough room to crawl around if you’re careful.” He pointed at the ceiling where one of the tiles had a worn edge. “I bet he went in through the bathroom or a supply closet and then came in here to snoop and left the word for us.”

  “Who? The Hangman? You really think he would take a chance like that to help us out?”

  “He could have. Who else would go through the trouble? I think he leaves these clues, not for kicks but to spell out what these assholes are guilty of and why he killed them.”

  Jo’s eyes suddenly widened as if she’d had a new thought. “I looked at Hayden’s files, thinking if I saw a pattern, I might be able to figure out what made him a target and if the rumors of his drug habits were true. And now it makes sense. Extortion.” She spoke the word softly. “The thing I saw most was his arrest record dropped considerably, especially where drug busts were concerned. You’d think we didn’t have a drug problem in this city when you looked at his records.”

  “Then it was just like Scratch said. He was shaking down drug offenders, keeping the drugs.”

  “And then what?” Jo looked as if she already knew the answer to that, but Jake decided to finish her thought.

  “Selling them, most likely. He couldn’t have taken them all, or he couldn’t have functioned. And what would a cop want with a bunch of drugs lying around when he could sell them and makes some money?”

  “There has to be someone out there who knows what he was doing. Maybe that would lead us to more information about the Hangman.”