Samurai swords extending from the tips of her fingers. A stirring in his groin prompted him to follow the line of her arm to the neckline of a dangerously low-cut black dress. Sleeveless and tight. She had the full-bodied figure no longer popular among today's anorexic women. He enjoyed the lushness of her body as she edged even closer to him.
'Buy you a drink, mister?' Her throaty voice slurred the words. This was not her first drink.
Suddenly a surge of sanity ripped through him, and with it, fury. A common whore! She sought to drag him into the iniquities of her flesh. She wanted him to grab her and do all kinds of dirty things to her in the back seat of a car, in an alley, even on the floor in front of these strangers. Disgusting, vile creature!
The bulge in his trousers expanded.
The Avenger blinked furiously. He must leave before he did something foolish. He'd come too far in his journey to fall into a woman's trap. He tossed several bills on the counter and slid off the barstool.
'Hey, whass wrong?' The overhead lighting caught the woman's features and cast them in a greenish hue, made her blonde hair brassy and her face mannequin plastic.
Without answering, he hurried toward the door, out into the cool night, and around the corner where he'd parked the sports car. As he fumbled with the unlock button on his remote, he sensed her behind him. He turned. She tottered in impossibly high heels, her skimpy black dress hiked up to her thighs, a stupid grin on her face.
'Hey, baby, come on. I just wanna have a good time.' She reached him and ran her talons down the sleeve of his jacket. 'I know how to have a real good time. Wha' cha say?'
He took her capture of him as another sign and herded her into the McLaren.
Jack had the federal agents checking on Latin experts in northern California, starting with the universities. Jesus, how many could there be? Too many, he thought. He'd like to get Ted Burrows alone for five minutes, just five. He ran both hands through the hair at his temples and linked his fingers behind his head as he leaned back in the extra office chair in Slater's office.
'We're not gonna get anything else out of Burrows,' Slater declared with finality.
'Maybe not, but there was something in the little prick's eyes. If he wrote those notes,' Jack eyed Slater as he fiddled with his computer keyboard, 'he didn't write them in a vacuum. He knows the person he wrote them for.'
Slater logged off the computer and turned around. 'But he may not know why he wrote them. Or what they mean.'
Jack ran with the idea. 'On the other hand, if he did know what the notes were being used for, he could be charged with accessory to murder. Hell, even murder one. Would your district attorney go for that?'
Slater winced. 'Charlie Barrington isn't a risk-taker. He wants to be sure he can win the case before he files charges. Wouldn't want to ruin his conviction rate.' He smirked. 'He'd rather pass the case off to the feds – to you.'
Jack blew out a disgusted breath, pissed as hell that Burrows might stand between them and a madman. 'I won't settle for a pawn in the killer's game. I want the DLK himself.'
Slater squinted off into the distance and spoke slowly. 'Burrows knows he's going to go down on multiple assault charges. Why would he hold back on the notes?'
'Unless he doesn't know anything about the murders,' Jack mused slowly.
'It's been all over the news,' Slater argued. 'How could he not know anything?'
'Oh, he knows about the murders,' Jack explained, sitting straighter in his chair, 'but we didn't release the information about the notes to the press. If Ted wrote them for someone else, he probably has no idea what he's done or what deep shit he's in.'
Slater relaxed and smiled. 'You thinking we could make little Teddy piss his pants?'
Jack swiped his hand over his jaw and walked to the window where he could see his reflection staring back at him. He badly needed a shave. And a nice hot shower. He thought of Olivia, hidden away and sleeping safely, and put the image aside before turning back to Slater. 'Let's get Burrows back in here. See what we can sweat out of him.'
'Without his lawyer?'
Jack kept his expression inscrutable, hoping that Slater wouldn't argue civil rights crap. 'A lawyer always complicates the situation.'
After a moment, holding Jack's eyes in a neutral stare, Slater nodded. 'True. And we don't really care about tainting the evidence against Burrows because we've got him solid for assault.' He paused and lifted an eyebrow. 'Unless you think he's good for the murders too?'
'Nah, he's not that clever, no matter what his opinion of himself is.'
Jack thought of the pretty blonde still in the hospital since they'd rescued her from Burrows' house. And the redhead from his vision whom they'd likely never find. 'What about the girl?'
'She's awake now and singing like a sweet little bird about Ted's kinky sex practices.'
'Let's go for it,' Jack said. Hell, whatever information they squeezed out of Burrows wouldn't alter the assault convictions. But he might lead them to the person he wrote the notes for. 'A little pressure would go a long way with Burrows, don't you think?'
Slater rose from his chair and reached for his shoulder holster. 'Hell yes.'
Jack smiled and the twisting of his lips felt feral. 'If we threaten him, he'll cave like a piece of wet cardboard.'
Less than thirty minutes after Jack and Slater decided to re-interview Ted Burrows, he entered the interrogation room dressed in an orange jumpsuit and flanked by two deputies. He shuffled into the room like a broken puppet, uncertainty supplanting his former cockiness. Jack almost felt sorry for him. Until he recalled the calloused way he'd used half a dozen women, filming them in their most vulnerable positions and likely getting off on watching those tapes over and over.
He pulled out a chair and eyed Burrows with disgust. 'Have a seat, Ted.' Jack turned on the recorder and took the chair opposite him while Slater stood behind him. They agreed that Jack would spearhead the interrogation.
'For the record, Ted, we reiterate that you have waived your right to have an attorney present during this interview.' Jack paused. 'Is that correct?'
'Asshole wasn't doing me any good,' Ted mumbled.
Jack decided to play good cop, at least initially. 'Would you please speak up?' He turned the recorder in Ted's direction. 'Is that an affirmative response?'
'Yeah.'
'Please state your name for the record,' Jack went on, 'and make a statement to the fact that you've waived the right to counsel for the duration of this questioning unless you stipulate otherwise.'
After Burrows made the requisite acknowledgments into the recorder, Jack began. 'We're here to help you, Ted.'
'Sure you are.' Burrows slouched lower in the chair, likely trying to summon sarcasm but instead sounding pathetic.
'There's a problem, though,' Jack continued as if Ted hadn't spoken. 'We're pretty sure you know something about the person who killed Keisha Johnson.'
He checked for a reaction, but Ted slumped forward against the table, all fight gone out of him. 'Do you understand what I'm saying?'
'Yeah.'
Jack tossed a look at Slater, now leaning against the south wall and shaking his head in disgust. Jack tried again. 'Keisha was your girlfriend, isn't that correct?'
Surprise flitted across Ted's face. 'How'd you know that?' Under Jack's steely stare, he lowered his eyes and mumbled. 'Yeah, all right. So what?'
