Instead, she saw the police dog leap the distance between him and the advancing murderer. Just as he was trained, he took Walker to the ground, where the man lay groaning but alive for the police officers to take into custody.
Faye knew she should be glad that he was alive, but when she thought about the things he’d done, she wasn’t so sure. As the police converged, the vengeful part of her hoped that they tased him, at the very least.
A heavy hand fell on her shoulder, and Linton said, “Thank you. So much. Thank you for saving my girl.”
He gently but insistently took Kali from Faye, set her on the ground, and knelt to wrap both big arms around the child.
“I’m sorry—so, so sorry. I can’t stand to see you hurt or scared. I never meant to hurt your mama and I’m so sorry I did. We all paid a big price for what I did. Maybe could you let me be your daddy again?”
Kali didn’t answer Linton but she didn’t struggle in his embrace. She just laid her forehead on his broad shoulder and cried.
Chapter Forty-eight
It took a while for Joe to ditch Faye, but he managed it. She probably thought it was weird that he wanted to ditch her, now that they were reunited after spending most of the summer apart, but he was a man on a mission. Something needed to be said, and he planned to say it.
He’d thought about this conversation all summer, while he was at home on Joyeuse Island with the kids and she was here in Memphis working. He was thinking of it now, as he stood in the reception area of the police department, waiting to be shown back to Detective McDaniel’s office.
“I came to say thank you,” he said as he settled himself into McDaniel’s guest chair.
“For what? Phyllis Windom did more from her wheelchair in Schenectady than I did. She and your wife had identified Walt Walker as the killer before I was willing to even consider their serial killer scenario.”
“I already thanked Phyllis Windom. And Faye. I’m here to thank you.”
“But for what?” McDaniel asked again. “You’re the one who saved my life. I hope I thanked you properly at the time. I think I did, but stopping a man’s heart messes with his brain, too. I lost my car keys in my own house three times this morning.”
“You thanked me, but there was no need. I was glad to do it.”
“Nevertheless, I owe you. And I owe your wife. Without the two of you, Kali Stone might be dead and there might still be a serial killer on the loose.”
“That’s the other reason I came to say thank you. For him.”
“Huh,” McDaniel said, taking off his reading glasses and laying them on the desk. “For putting him away? Like I said, your wife had more to do with that than I did.”
“The way I see it, it took the both of you, but yeah. I want to thank you personally for that. But I also want to say thank you to the Memphis police who left him alive to pay the price for the things he did.”
“There’s no way he can pay that price. Even if he gets the death penalty, he’ll only die once.”
“Yeah, but the people who had him at gunpoint that day? They left him alive to face the death penalty, and they take their cues from you. Nobody would have blinked if those people had shot a serial killer who was charging them with a deadly weapon. Maybe, while he’s sitting in jail and waiting for justice, he’ll tell us about the all the other women he killed. Maybe their families will have some peace. Please tell those officers thank you for me.”
“It will be my pleasure.”
“I know it eased Faye’s mind that they didn’t kill him.”
At this, McDaniel’s mouth actually dropped open. “After she saw what he did to Frida? After he kidnapped that adorable little girl she loves so much? After she fought him off in a freakin’ grave? There’s no part of her that wants him dead?”
“I’m pretty sure every part of her wants him dead. It’s just that watching those officers do everything they could do to keep him alive restored her faith in the law, at least somewhat. You watch the news, so you know that black men don’t always come out alive in situations like that.”
“I do, and it breaks my heart.”
“I can tell that about you, and that’s why I came here today. You do know that you scared her about to death that first day?”
“Huh?” McDaniel said again.
“She said you were short with her. Asked her a bunch of questions over and over. Faye really believed you suspected her of attacking the woman she’d just saved, just because she wasn’t white.”
McDaniel closed his eyes and blew out a long breath. “That breaks my heart, too, but I do watch the news. I understand why she felt that way, but I’m not like that. Most people in this city don’t look like me. If I can’t set that aside and do my job, then I need to go home.”
At that, Joe leaned forward and rested his elbows on his long thighs. “Don’t go home. The world needs people like you.”
McDaniel laughed.
“I wasn’t joking.”
“I know. I’m just laughing because your wife thought I was acting like a doofus because I don’t know how to talk to black people. Want to know the real reason I bungled the job of questioning her?”
“Sure thing.”
“I don’t know how to talk to pretty women.”
Chapter Forty-nine
Faye hated good-byes, and she was very good at avoiding them.
No, that wasn’t true. She successfully said good-bye all the time. On most warm mornings, she said good-bye to Joe when he hopped in his john boat to
