Killing Fear

been kept in jail overnight.

“When was the last time you were at RJ’s?”

“I don’t think I need to answer any more questions, do I? I’ve given you my whereabouts last night, and the woman I was sleeping with.”

Frank suddenly slammed his fist on the table, always the one to play bad cop. “We have a witness who places you at the crime scene at the time Brandi Bell was tortured and killed.”

Glenn didn’t even blink. He showed no reaction to Frank’s temper, and in fact didn’t even look at him, responding instead to Will. “Your witness is mistaken.”

Will knew from Robin that both Bethany and Brandi had had a sexual relationship with Theodore Glenn. “Did you know Brandi Bell outside of her employment?”

“Do you mean did I see her outside of the club?”

Will nodded.

“Yes.”

“Did you have an intimate relationship with her?”

Glenn nodded with a sly smirk. “Yes, I had sex with her.”

Will tried, but knew he failed, to contain his surprise at the admission. Killers with personal ties to the victim often denied it until confronted with solid evidence. Even then, they often continued with the lie or made excuses. “When was the last time you had sex with Ms. Bell?”

“Hmmm, about a month ago. Let’s see. February second. Yes. There was a rerun of that movie Groundhog Day on one of the cable stations. They play it every year now, don’t they? It gets tiresome, but Brandi enjoyed it. We had sex once during the movie, on the floor of her living room. Then afterward, we had a late dinner. Sex on the kitchen table-have you ever done that, William? Sex on the kitchen table?”

Will gritted his teeth. Glenn was toying with him. There was no way he could have seen him and Robin. No way. They had been in his town house. The blinds were closed…

“When was the last time you saw Brandi?” Will asked Glenn.

“Last week. At the club. Friday. I’m there every Friday, and most Wednesdays. Ask Robin. She always makes a point to come by my table and say hello. Now there is a beautiful woman. I’ve often wondered, as I watch her remove her clothes, why such an attractive, smart woman would take the job of a slut?”

Will’s fist hit the steering wheel.

Carina was in the passenger seat. She turned and frowned at him, but said nothing.

He drove directly from Frank’s house-where his former partner had been gunned down sitting at his kitchen table-to The Eighth Sin. He’d had a call from dispatch that Robin McKenna had left a message for him, but when he tried her number no one answered. He called the unit watching her loft and learned the uniform had driven her to the Sin for a meeting.

“I’m sorry, Will.” Carina thought he was thinking about Frank and how his former partner died. But Will had been remembering that first interrogation. Glenn had controlled it from beginning to end. Will took another shot at him later that day, but the damage was done.

Glenn had sabotaged his relationship with Robin. Planted seeds of doubt in his head about her. After Anna’s murder, Will had been too ready to believe that Robin had been the intended victim, that she had slept with Glenn, just like the first three victims. Because it was Glenn’s M.O., and Anna didn’t sleep with men. She was a lesbian.

“I’ll kill him,” Will muttered.

“Stop.”

Will swallowed, pushed Robin from his mind and focused on what Glenn had done to his retired partner.

“You saw the scene. Frank was drunk. Likely passed out. And Glenn walked in and shot him in the face.”

“You don’t know-” Carina began.

“Hell yes I do! It was Glenn. You know it, I know it.”

The cocky bastard was sly as a fox, slippery as a snake. And Theodore Glenn wanted Robin. He’d always wanted Robin. Because she had refused him. Had said no, not interested.

A man like Theodore Glenn would never tolerate rejection.

Yet Will had doubted Robin after Anna was killed. Doubted her because he knew the M.O. The facts. The damn evidence. Glenn had relationships with all the victims. Anna wasn’t supposed to be in the apartment that night-she was supposed to be at her mother’s house in Big Bear. According to Robin, Anna hadn’t told anyone else that she was gay. She feared she’d be fired if anyone knew. So that night, Robin would have been home, alone, if she and Will hadn’t been having sex in the bar.

“Fuck.”

Carina stared at him. “You don’t swear.”

“Leave me alone.”

“Screw that,” she said, angry. “We’re partners. What’s mine is yours and all that crap. At least how it relates to the job. Got it?”

Carina was right. Will had been letting the past get to him. Remembering not only the success of Glenn’s conviction, but their failures-including Frank’s drinking during the stakeout and especially seeing Robin again. When he wasn’t working specifically on Glenn’s escape, he was thinking about her.

“Got it. I’m sorry.”

“You haven’t slept much, I can cut you a little slack. But not forever, pal.”

He pulled into a parallel parking place in front of The Eighth Sin. Robin would automatically have been at the top of Glenn’s target list: She was instrumental in his conviction, and credible to the jury even after his odd cross- examination. Will’s greatest fear was that Glenn would finally kill Robin. Why had she called? It had to be serious if she wanted to talk to him.

“You had something going on with her?” Carina said softly.

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve been partners for over two years, but I’ve known you it seems forever. You’re worried about this Robin McKenna, over and above what you would normally feel for a potential victim.”

“She’s not a victim.”

Carina stared at him without comment.

Will’s body tensed. He couldn’t flat-out lie to Carina, not after everything they’d been through together, the trust they’d built. He reluctantly said, “We were involved for a while. During the investigation. It didn’t work out. That’s my M.O., right?”

“Right,” Carina said, making no move to get out.

“What? You know now, leave it alone.”

“Thing is, I do know you. You’re hung up on her. You don’t act like this. The only time you ever get all funky about a woman is when Wendy comes to town and you agree to go to dinner with her.”

“She’s my ex-wife.”

“Yeah, but you loved her, didn’t you?”

Will shrugged, but it was the truth. Of course he’d loved Wendy. He wouldn’t have married her otherwise. But love wasn’t enough. Not then, with Wendy and wedding vows, and certainly not seven years ago with Robin and their insatiable lust.

“Let’s go inside,” Carina said, getting out of the car.

Damn. Her anger was gone and somehow that made Will even more uncomfortable. His partner was half Cuban, she didn’t just drop things.

Carina was ringing the bell before Will closed his door. “Swanky place. I remember walking the beat down here when I was first a cop, before redevelopment. I’m glad the city cleaned it up.”

Will was proud of what Robin had accomplished. Even though they’d only been together for a few weeks, he knew she’d wanted to own her own business. And she’d done it, in style.

No thanks to him, and without him at her side, but what could he do about that now?

The intercom buzzed. “May I help you?”