“I don’t know what it does, but it’s in a safe place,” I said. “Still in the evidence room. We can take care of it later. I just wanted you to know.”
“Good. Thanks.”
As we stepped onto the elevator, Dunn said, “I got the room all set for you. We’ll interrogate him in room 411.”
“Actually, no. We won’t interrogate him,” Lien-hua said. “I will.”
“I’ll just sit in the back and observe-”
“I go in alone,” Lien-hua said.
Dunn folded his thick, snake-like arms across his chest. “The deal was, I get to observe.”
“You can do that from behind the two-way mirror. I’m going in alone.”
“Last night you attacked the man,” said Dunn.
“If you’re concerned for his safety, I can assure you he’ll be in fine shape when you send him to the prisoners who, how did you put it, ‘are always thrilled to have new mates to play with.’”
The elevator door opened; she took a step forward. Dunn refused to move aside. I was ready to take action, but Lien-hua stared him down. “Perhaps you misunderstand, Detective. I’m not asking for your permission. I’m asking for your cooperation. If I have it, you can stay and watch. If I don’t, I’ll contact Lieutenant Graysmith and have you transferred from this case. Which will it be?”
He ground his teeth for a moment and then finally relented. “All right. Fine. But I don’t care if you’re an FBI agent or the freakin’ president of the United States, if things go south, I’m coming in there.”
He pounded off to the observation room, and I stayed with Lien-hua for a moment. I wanted to go into the room with her, to stand by her side, to protect her. Maybe I’m old-fashioned that way, but I wanted to slay a dragon for her, even though I knew she could slay dragons as well as anyone. “Are you sure you don’t want anyone in there with you?”
“I’m all right.” A flat fury had taken over her voice. I knew it wasn’t directed at me.
“Is it because of the seven women?”
Lien-hua has a slim, captivating face, but now the muscles in her jaw constricted, bringing an intensity to her that I’d never seen before. “He filmed their deaths.”
“I know.”
“Posted them online.”
“That’s why-”
“I’ll be fine. Really.”
“I just wanted-”
“Enough, Patrick!” She stepped back, her slender arms taut.
“Enough. Please. Sometimes you don’t know when to stop. You push things too far. It builds walls, OK? Don’t do it. Not with me.
I’ll be all right. Now please, excuse me.” Before I could respond she brushed past me, leaving me reeling in the swirl of her words.
I had a sense that I should apologize, but I wasn’t sure I’d done anything wrong. In the span of just a few short hours, I’d managed to make both Tessa and Lien-hua, the two women who matter the most to me, angrily turn their backs on me and walk away.
At last, when I realized I wasn’t going to apologize or even go after her, I headed off to join Detective Dunn in the observation room down the hall.
Tessa didn’t have a compact so she was using the curved reflection of a lamp in the lobby of the Hyatt to touch up her eye shadow.
Riker would be arriving in just a couple minutes, and she wanted to make sure she looked all righ-
“Hey.” Riker stepped into view, startling her. He must have come in one of the side doors rather than the revolving door at the main entrance to the hotel.
She noticed he was wearing jeans and a cotton, button-down untucked shirt. She brushed at a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her eye and put her makeup away. “Hey.”
He smirked and held out a full bottle of antibacterial soap as she stood up. “Will this do ya?”
“I sure hope so.” She accepted it, stuffed it into her satchel. It barely fit.
He watched her and grinned playfully. “So, is the raven ready to fly away?”
“That would be a yes.”
They walked together toward the door. “My bike’s out back.
No valet parking for motorcycles.”
A cycle. How cool was that. “What kind do you have?”
“Honda… Not quite a Harley, but they ride forever.” He opened the door for her. “So, you gotta tell me. That poem by Poe, is that why they call you Raven?”
A white fire fueled by regret and anger and a strange kind of homesickness flared up inside her. “It used to be sort of a nickname.” “Your friends at college give it to you?”
Now a blush whispered across her face. So he really did believe she was over eighteen. He thought she was in college! “Naw. Someone I used to trust.”
He led her to his bike. “Ouch. Had to be a guy. Typical for those losers over at SDSU. That where he went?”
“I go to school in Denver.” It was true, it just wasn’t the whole truth. “I’m just visiting San Diego.”
“That’s cool.” Riker stowed Tessa’s satchel, then climbed onto his bike, and she slid on behind him. “So,” he said. “You ready to ride?”
“I’m ready to ride.” Tessa wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, he fired up the bike, and they peeled away from the curb.
76
Over the years Lien-hua had seen some terrible, unthinkable things.
And she’d always kept her cool, kept her wits about her. But today she wasn’t sure she’d be able to.
Ever since hearing about the DVDs, she’d been thinking about the accident no one in her family ever spoke of.
Bruised innocence.
Stay focused, Lien-hua. Don’t get distracted.
The arrangement would never be the same again.
She paused, leaned against the wall just around the corner from the interrogation room, and tried to pull herself together.
Why couldn’t Pat just stop trying to protect her?
OK. Fine. It was flattering, but it was starting to tip her perspective, cloud her objectivity. She needed to focus and not let her feelings for him distract her.
I don’t need protecting. I can do this on my own.
She took a moment to slide Pat out of her mind and order her thoughts, then walked around the corner and motioned to the two officers stationed outside the interrogation room.
They unlocked the door, and she stepped inside.
I threw open the door to the observation room.
Maybe I was angry at Lien-hua, maybe at Tessa, maybe at myself. I couldn’t tell. I just knew I never should have let myself have feelings for Lien-hua. That was the problem. It made it harder to be objective. Harder to step back and see things clearly.
Detective Dunn was already seated at the table, facing the two-way mirror, musing over a pile of notes and file folders. I wasn’t in any mood to talk to him, so instead, I stared at Creighton Melice through the glass. Lien-hua had just entered the room, and Melice was eyeing her coolly. His obsidian eyes tracking her every step. I could see him, but he couldn’t see me.
Everyone knows the bit with the two-way mirrors-that the big mirror on the wall is really a window for law
