“You look tired, Dillon,” Lonnie said, grinning, when she walked into his office at seven-thirty the following morning. Al was there, the two of them going over the coroner’s report. “Didn’t you get enough rest last night?”
“My night was fine. Hi, Al.”
Al acknowledged her greeting with a grunt. It took three cups of coffee before Al could carry on a civilized conversation. Apparently, he was still on cup one or two.
“By the way,” Lonnie said. “Special Agent Anderson is across the hall talking to the Chief. He’ll be tied up for a while, so you’ll have to do without him.”
He made a show of scratching his head and looking puzzled.
“You know, it’s a funny thing. He looks a little tired, too. Guess thinking about these cases is keeping everyone up nights.”
He just doesn’t stop, Jen thought. And he won’t be the only one. She knew that their appearance together at Tango’s the night before would guarantee that she and Will would be linked romantically on the department’s gossip grapevine. Nothing had happened, but no one would believe that. She’d made a point of leaving before he did, but cops were suspicious by nature. They’d simply figure the two of them had been trying to disguise a later hookup. She could insist to Lonnie that nothing had happened, but that would only make it worse.
Maybe I should have had some fun, she thought. I’m going to be accused of it anyway.
“Oh, no.” Al groaned. It had apparently just dawned on him what Lonnie was talking about. “Tell me it’s not true, Jen. The FBI? Don’t tell me I’m going to have to keep my can of fed repellent handy just to keep my partner?”
“I’m not telling either of you morons anything,” she said. “It will do your nasty little minds good to wonder what’s really going on. Now, if you children don’t mind, how about telling me what the coroner has to say?”
Lonnie and Al smiled at one another. Al handed her the report.
“Not much more than I learned yesterday when Don and I viewed the autopsy. The hairs match the ones found at the other crime scenes, so we’ve got confirmation that it’s the same guy.”
“As if we had any doubt,” Jen murmured.
“I talked to the hospital this morning,” Lonnie said. “They expect Norton to be released after her doctor makes his rounds. I told them you’d be out.”
“You’ve been busy this morning.”
“I went to bed early—to sleep.”
Al chuckled. Jen glared at both of them.
“One of these days,” she muttered and turned her attention to the report. When she finished reading, she dropped the papers in her lap, feeling sick.
“How she must have suffered.” She felt her eyes sting and blinked hard.
“Yeah.” Lonnie wasn’t smiling anymore.
“We’ve got to get this monster.” The look in Al’s eyes was cold. “Let’s hope when we do find him, he doesn’t want to be taken alive.”
“Don’t let the chief hear you talking like that,” Lonnie said.
Al suggested that the chief do something to himself that was anatomically impossible.
“Damn it, Lonnie, you know as well as I do, we catch this animal, he’s going to get off on an insanity plea. They’ll lock him up in some hospital for a few years, pump him so full of drugs he couldn’t hurt a fly, then claim he’s cured and turn him loose on society again.”
“They got a criminal conviction in Minneapolis,” Jen said. “And Ohio has the death penalty.”
“Yeah, so maybe we get lucky and get a conviction here so he can sit on death row for ten or fifteen years while the taxpayers support him, and he files lawsuits every time a guard looks at him cross-eyed.”
Al shook his head, a disgusted look on his face.
“I feel about this like I’d feel if my dog had rabies. It would be a shame, but I’d take him out. Only I’d feel bad about doing it to my dog.”
“Let’s drop the subject.” Lonnie suddenly sounded like the sergeant he was. “There are certain things I don’t want to hear. Understood?”
He and Al glared at each other for several seconds, and then Al nodded.
“I think I’ll grab another coffee and a roll, then head over to Finley and see if I can catch some of Kaufmann’s neighbors at home.”
He closed the office door hard behind him.
“Lonnie,” Jen started.
“Isn’t it about time you started for the hospital?”
“Yeah, sure.” Jen stood. “I’ll get right on it.”
“Jen,” Lonnie said, his voice softening. “I’m sorry.”
She turned, her hand on the knob.
“It’s just that there are some things it’s better not to talk about. At least not in daylight and not in this building.”
On her way to the garage, she thought about the exchange between Lonnie and Al. Cops always talked big about what they would do to certain types of criminals if they got the chance—cop killers especially. Jen supposed some of them even meant what they said.
There had been times when she’d felt the same way herself, but deep in her heart, she still wanted to believe that the system could work.
No, what Al had suggested was hardly new. But this time Al wasn’t just theorizing about what he might do in a given situation. He’d actually been suggesting it be done. Lonnie had recognized that and been frightened by it.
As Jen turned the key in the ignition, she realized she was a little frightened herself. And relieved. She was frightened of what Al might do if he found the killer first, and relieved that—for the time being at least—she wasn’t partnered with him.
CHAPTER 16
Sandra Norton was sitting up in her hospital bed staring at the television. An early morning talk show was on, but Jen doubted if Sandy was hearing or seeing any of it. She was a cute girl, with short blond hair styled in a wedge cut and a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her blue eyes were red and swollen. Jen identified herself, and Sandy flipped the
