Mo tried not to glance past Thomas for the exit. She didn’t want to estimate about how far she might get before he caught her. She could feel the letter opener digging into the flesh at her back. All her excuses as to why she’d picked it up, she knew it hadn’t been impulsive. It had been instinct. She was a born cop. She calculated how many seconds it would take to reach for it under her jacket and shirt, get her fingers around the handle and pull it. Too long.
She told herself that she had a better chance reasoning with Thomas. But when she met her brother-in-law’s gaze, all hope of talking him down fled. He planned to end this up here on this roof tonight.
Chapter Nineteen
Brick sped into downtown Billings, the rim rocks around it glowing in the lights from the city. He turned off the lights and siren a few blocks before the building where Thomas worked. He didn’t want him to know he was coming. Mo had told him that it was where Thomas had said he had the papers and key locked in his desk drawer. She was meeting him there to pick them up.
He told himself that there was no cause for alarm. That Mo would have gotten the papers and already left. But he’d tried her phone a half-dozen times. Each time it had gone straight to voice mail. Each time, he’d left a more urgent message. Each time, she hadn’t called back.
In his gut, he knew. Mo had realized that her brother-in-law was the killer. As he pulled up in front of the building, he saw Mo’s car parked on the almost empty street and felt his heart drop. Mo was in there with a killer.
The front door opened onto a small entry. He ran to the elevator and the information sign next to it. The pharmaceutical company was on the top floor. In the elevator he pushed the button again and again until the doors finally closed and he felt the lift begin to climb.
His heart was pounding. He tried to tell himself that she could take care of herself. If she saw it coming. But the fact that she was still here, that she hadn’t called, that she wasn’t taking any calls told him she was in trouble.
The elevator finally came to a stop, the door sliding open. Brick rushed off only to find a deserted office full of cubicles behind a wall of glass. He tried the door. Locked. He looked around, frantic to get inside. He could see a light on deep inside but saw no one.
Spying a fire extinguisher at the end of the hall, he pulled his weapon and using the butt end, smashed the cover and lifted the fire extinguisher out. Moving to the glass door into the office, he swung the heavy fire extinguisher and let it go, shielding his eyes as the glass shattered.
He shoved his way through the shattered glass, felt a shard bite into his arm and catch on his long-sleeved shirt. But he ignored the pain as he rushed in toward the only area that was lit.
“Mo!” he called as he ran, his pistol he’d taken from the patrol car drawn. “Mo!” His voice echoed through the emptiness, sounding hollow. He knew before he reached the last set of cubicles that Thomas and Mo weren’t here.
But a suit jacket lay over the back of a chair nearest the exit. Brick stepped to the desk and saw Mo’s cell phone sitting beside the computer. She was here and hadn’t gone far. Where was Thomas? Brick picked up the scent of cigarette smoke from the jacket and looked toward the exit. A hardcore smoker couldn’t go long without one, which meant there was no way he went all the way down to the ground floor every time he took a break.
He ran toward the exit door and shoved it open to a set of stairs that led up. Taking them, he followed the scent of cigarette smoke as if it were a bread crumb trail.
As he burst out the door onto the roof, he didn’t see anyone. But he heard the murmur of voices. His instincts had him closing the door quietly behind him as he moved toward the sound, his weapon drawn.
MO NEVER THOUGHT she’d find herself on a rooftop fourteen floors above the city with a killer. What made it more surreal was that she knew this man. She’d loved Thomas like a brother.
“I knew you would figure it out if you kept at it long enough,” Thomas said, his gaze locked on her. “Tricia used to say that you were like a dog with a bone when you got something into your head. How could I forget that you’re a cop, through and through? Her ashes, huh?”
“When did you realize that I knew?” Mo asked as Thomas lit another cigarette, never taking his eyes off her.
“You forget. You and I go way back, Maureen. I met you even before I met your sister. I know you. What I don’t understand is why you would come here alone tonight to meet me, knowing what I’m capable of doing.” He started as if it finally hit him. “You didn’t know.”
She felt the fine hairs stand up on the back of her neck. “You’re not a killer.”
His laugh sounded full of glass shards. “I wouldn’t have thought so not all that long ago, but now...” His expression soured. “But maybe you haven’t noticed, I’ve changed.”
She shook her head. “You killed Tricia in a fit of passion, I would imagine. Killing me would be in cold blood.”
“It’s not all that much different, I don’t believe. It’s about survival. I
