“Shhh,” he soothed. “Your tears have no effect on me. They are a complete waste of energy.”

He watched her for a moment longer. Her eyes blinked and spilled more of that pathetic emotion. Finally, he said, “Last chance. Tell me what I want to know so we can end this in a civil manner.”

She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall.

He sighed. “Very well.”

Lewis stood and walked to the back door. He retrieved the container he’d brought with him. He crossed the kitchen and stepped into the adjoining living room. A small sofa and an upholstered chair were perfect targets. He dashed the accelerant over both. Then he moved on to the first of two bedrooms, making a trail, dousing curtains and any other piece of furniture he found. As he made his way back to the kitchen, her grunts and wails grew louder. She understood what he was doing and that she was about to die. She could smell what was coming.

He felt no sympathy.

The bitch should have realized she couldn’t get away with this ridiculous plan.

In the kitchen he pushed a mound of trash and an old blanket no doubt left by a squatter over to where she huddled. He pressed the piles in close to her before picking up his container and dousing the whole lot, including her, with the remainder of the accelerant. He dumped the plastic container onto the pile.

He backed to the door, picked up the newspaper he’d saved for this final step, and took his time wadding page after page into a nice firm ball. She wiggled and tried to scream. Sobbed frantically.

He lit the ball of paper and tossed it onto the pile mounded around her.

Then he walked away.

Another loose end tied up.

48

Thursday, June 14

8:30 a.m.

Birmingham Police Department

First Avenue North

Major Investigations Division

“I know my niece.” Kerri had gone over this with the LT once already. “Amelia wouldn’t do this. Something is wrong. The only way she would drop out of sight is if she was in trouble or she was protecting someone in trouble. Either way, under the circumstances, she could be in danger.”

Brooks raised his hands in a sort of surrender. “I get what you’re saying, Devlin.”

She halted her pacing and faced him. How could he just sit there behind that desk and insist a young girl wasn’t in trouble? How did she make him see this wasn’t the usual ungrateful-teenager scenario?

He would not be happy if he discovered she had taken Amelia’s laptop to the lab. The tech, a friend of hers, had promised to keep it off the books.

“But you know the way these things work. There is no suggestion of foul play. The only thing we know for sure is that she doesn’t want to come home right now.” When she would have interrupted, he held up his hands again. “On top of that, she has recently been in contact with you. Give it twenty-four more hours. If she hasn’t come home, we’ll move forward.”

Fury rolled through her. “She could be dead in twenty-four hours.”

Brooks shook his head. “What do you want me to say to that, Devlin?”

Despite her misgivings about sharing this part, she had no choice at this point. If he tried to take her off the investigation, she would fight him tooth and nail. “Amelia is an intern at York, Hammond & Goldman. Before Abbott’s murder there was some animosity between him and Theo Thompson. York is Thompson’s go-to guy for clearing up issues. We have reason to believe Sela Abbott befriended my niece because of her position at the firm. We’re worried that’s why Amelia has suddenly gone dark on us.”

“You have any evidence of this conspiracy theory?”

She was wasting her time. “Tomorrow morning,” she relented. “We make it official then.”

“Unless she shows up,” he agreed. “We will make it official tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks.” She didn’t feel the least bit thankful, but she forced herself to say the word.

“Speaking of people who’ve been out of pocket, the two of you don’t seem too worried about reporting in with any sort of regularity.”

“You know how these investigations can be,” she reminded him. “They can consume your whole life.”

“Be that as it may,” he cautioned, “you and Falco need to watch yourselves, Devlin. There are people who are definitely watching you. Meanwhile, I’ll pass along this morning’s update to the chief and the mayor.”

“Yes, sir.” Kerri wondered if one of the Thompsons had complained to the chief about her persistence.

You see what they trained you to see.

Cross’s words of warning echoed in her brain.

She hesitated before leaving the LT’s office. “Do you know a detective named Sadie Cross?”

“Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.” Brooks leaned back in his chair and studied her a moment. “Seems an odd question out of the blue. Why do you ask?”

“I heard one of the guys mention her.”

He nodded. “Sadie Cross is one of those detectives no one talks about. Spent a lot of years under deep cover. Her record is like Falco’s: most of it’s redacted. But I do know she went a little crazy and ended up in the psych ward for a time. She’s still around. I think she reviews cold cases.”

“Thanks.” Kerri shrugged. “I was just curious.”

Brooks looked past her to the glass wall that made up the front of his office. “Your partner is out there pacing around like a caged lion. Go on. But in the future, I want to hear about new discoveries while they’re still new.”

“Understood.”

Kerri exited the LT’s office, and Falco hurried over to her. “We have to go.”

“Where are we going?” She had every intention of finding a way to talk to Theo Thompson today—assuming his wife hadn’t killed him. Just because he was running for senator didn’t exempt him from necessary questioning.

“A house over on Thirty-Third Avenue was torched last night. There’s a body.”

Dread blasted her. She wanted to find Sela Abbott alive for a growing number of reasons, one being her niece. “Is it Abbott?”

“Don’t know. The vic’s a crispy critter, Devlin. We’re on the list for calls about any unidentified female vics, so we got a call.”

“Right.” She followed him toward the stairwell. Until this one—the crispy critter, as Falco called it—was identified, it fell into the call-list category. “The victim is a woman, then?”

He shrugged. “The body’s burned too badly to be sure.”

Damn. “Did you learn anything about the property on Whisper Lake Circle?”

“The house was built twenty years ago. A pool was added five years later. A new roof ten years ago. Theo’s old lady’s parents built it. Her mother died four years ago, and it was sold. Then Abbott bought it from the most recent owners, as we know.”

“I want to talk to Theo Thompson.” She lowered her voice when she said the name. “He’s put us off far too long already.”

Falco opened the stairwell door. “I was thinking the same thing. I’m sure his wife has shown him that photo by now.”

Oh yes, she and her new partner were on the same page.

Thirty-Third Avenue West

The house had stood amid a copse of trees with no close neighbors. The Ensley address was low rent for sure. According to the officers and the detective on the scene, Steve Russo, the house was a rental property, but it hadn’t been lived in for months. Which made it ripe for squatters and the homeless. ID’ing the victim in a timely manner might be damned difficult without dental records.

The remnants of the house still smoldered, but the firefighters had been able to get the body out since it had only been a few feet from the back door.

“We’ve walked the area around the driveway and what used to be the house, but we haven’t found anything that might be related to or useful in ID’ing the vic,” Russo said. “We’ve canvassed the few neighbors down the block. Several of the houses you see are vacant. The shipping business down the street doesn’t operate at night and has no video surveillance in the parking area that points in this direction. So there’s no witnesses.” Russo glanced at Kerri. “Maybe this is your missing person. If she was trying to lay low, this is about as low as you can go.”

Kerri watched as the duo from the medical examiner’s office struggled to get the bowed body into the bag. Muscles contracted in the fire, causing a curling of the body. There was no way of visually ID’ing the charred body. “Maybe. We appreciate the call, Russo.”

He gave her a nod, and Kerri headed in Falco’s direction. When she reached him, she suggested, “We should drive around the neighborhood and see if that blue junker Abbott bought is parked around here somewhere.”

“Sure.” He surveyed the ongoing activity around the property. “I’ll call Daniel Abbott and see if he knows what dentist Sela used in the Birmingham area.”

Kerri’s brow furrowed as another thought occurred to her. “A preliminary exam by the ME will tell us if the vic is female. If that’s the case and he could go a step further and determine if this victim was pregnant, that would certainly narrow things down.”

“Maybe the ME can check on that ASAP so we’re not wasting time.”