Killer Heat

Shauna smiled despite herself. 'Like he wants to apologize, this detective?'

There was no need to tell her that Mike didn't view it quite that way.

'He wants to explain what's going on to your father,' I said. 'Would you mind sitting with me on the steps for a couple of minutes, till they're done? Let me get out of the rain?'

She sniffed her fingers again and then sat down beside me.

'How old are you, Shauna?'

'Nineteen. What's the difference?'

'What do you do?'

'I'm gonna be a sophomore at college. Going back next week, after Labor Day, if my father lets me with all this going on.'

'Have you spent much time at Ruffles?' I asked.

'My father won't hear of it. I'd catch hell for it, 'cause of my age. The boys do it all right, but somehow it's different with my sisters and me.'

I got it. Let everybody else's kids get loaded. Take their money and send them out into the night with any guy who'll pay the tab. But keep your own child out of harm's way.

'Are you and Kiernan close?'

'Sure we are. We're all close.'

'I want you to tell him something, Shauna. I want you to-'

'I don't know where he is. None of us do.'

'He's got a cell phone, hasn't he? Or you can tell Frank Shea to get a message to him.'

She stared straight ahead, listening to me but not making any promises.

'He didn't kill those girls, Shauna. I know that and Detective Chapman knows that. We weren't sure about it on Saturday night, but we're certain now,' I said. 'You've got to tell him that before he does something foolish.'

'Like what?'

Desperate people, Mike liked to remind me, did desperate things. 'Like go to Ireland, where you've got family, instead of resolving these things with the police. Like hurt himself, even accidentally.'

Shauna closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

'When I asked you if you've spent any time at Ruffles, you told me your father doesn't let you go there. That's not exactly an answer to my question, is it?' I asked. 'You've been there, haven't you?'

She looked away from me. 'Do you know the guys who work there?'

She wouldn't even meet me halfway. 'Charlie. You know Charlie, don't you?'

'Yeah.' There was a slight inflection in her voice, as though she was surprised I knew the bartender's name.

'How about Troy?'

No answer.

'Have you met a guy named Troy, Shauna? He's one of the bouncers.'

'That's how much you know. You cops think you know everything about Kiernan 'cause you went to Ruffles once. It's such a joke. There's nobody called Troy, okay?'

'He'd be new. Started this summer, maybe the end of July or the beginning of this month.'

'You can tell my father I've been to Ruffles, okay? I don't care what he does to me. It can't get any worse than this. But I'm telling you I was at the bar last week, with my brother Danny and my friend Erin,' Shauna said, pointing down the street. 'There isn't any Troy. I'd know if there was.'

'Did you see the picture of Kiernan in the paper this morning?' I said reluctantly, knowing the perp walk image would revive her hostility.

'Did I see it? Hello? I mean everyone we know saw it.'

'There's a man standing behind Kiernan, over the shoulder of one of the detectives. He was working the door on Saturday night,' I said. 'He's in his forties, a tall black man with a thick scar on the side of his neck, and tattoos-tattoos with initials all up and down his arms.'

Shauna was dripping with sarcasm now, pleased to show that she knew more than Mike and I did. 'Why? The detective wants to apologize to him, too? For thinking he's Troy somebody or other? Well, he's not Troy. There is no Troy at Ruffles. His name is Wilson.'

'Wilson.' I thought of the body we had discovered tonight. Wilson Rasheed. 'You've met him?'

'That's who my friends had to ask for to get in. I mean, I've seen him there the last couple of weeks. It's not like he's my buddy. Wilson and Hank. They're the guys on the door. You ask for them, you show them one of Kiernan's cards, and you get in.'

'Wilson-that's his first name or last?'

'Now why would I know that? Just Wilson is all anybody called him.'

A perfect alias to adopt, whether Troy's father was dead or alive when he first borrowed the name. Wilson was unlikely to come down from his cabin any time soon, had no way to be contacted by authorities while he was holed up, and had no criminal record if anyone were to do a name check.

'Tomorrow morning, Shauna, there'll be pictures of Wilson in the newspaper. Only his real name is Troy Rasheed, and he's the guy we're looking for. We just came from the place his father lives-his name was Wilson- and he's been killed, too.'

The girl was listening now, looking at my face.

'You can wait till the morning and read it in the newspapers or check it out online, or you can believe what I'm telling you and try to call Frank Shea-or Kiernan-right now. We need Kiernan's help. We need any little bit of information he has about Troy-the complete name he was using, where he said he was living, whether he had access to a car of any kind, all-'

'What's in it for my brother?'

'I'm handling one of the murder cases. I can work a deal on the problems he's facing about Ruffles. I can probably-'

'Probably? Well, that really sucks. You expect Kiernan to help you and maybe you're going to do something for him? Maybe?'

'It's not entirely up to me, Shauna. There's a judge, of course,' I said, and there was also the fact that I couldn't get a handle on why Kiernan Dylan had admitted cleaning out Amber Bristol's apartment. There'd be no guarantees until he explained that fact to us.

We both started at the sound of a door slamming. Mike was walking along the hydrangea-lined path toward the car, and from within the house I could hear Jimmy Dylan shouting. 'Shauna? You upstairs already?'

'In a minute, Dad.'

She got to her feet and I did, too. I took a card from the pocket of my pants and handed it to her. 'Don't wait until morning, I'm begging you. Kiernan's best chance to help himself is in the next few hours, before everybody sees Troy's picture.'

Shauna took the card with my cell number as well as my office phone and read my name aloud. 'Alexandra Cooper.'

'There's no reason for Kiernan to be protecting this guy. Troy's killed at least four people these last few weeks, including his own father. He's in too much of a frenzy to stop himself. It's likely to be someone just like you he'll hurt-a young woman with her whole life ahead of her.'

'Now you're blaming Kiernan for protecting a man he hardly knows?' she said, stuck on my first sentence, turning toward the back door of the house. 'That's so stupid.'

'Kiernan told us about my victim, Shauna. Connected himself to her after she disappeared. If he's been covering something up for Troy Rasheed, it'll go better for him if he explains that to us sooner rather than later.'

'You don't get it, Alexandra, do you?' Shauna Dylan said, pulling at the handle on the screen door as she burst into tears again. 'You don't get why my whole family is broken up.'

'I understand how painful it must be, how-'

'You understand nothing,' Shauna said, letting the door close behind her and turning out the overhead light on the porch. 'Kiernan thinks it's my father who killed that whore. Accused him of it when he came home from court yesterday. It's our own father he's been trying to protect.