Sloe Ride (Sinners, #4)

“And don’t let him outside.” Riley tapped Rafe’s knee with his pen. “Ever.”


“I’ll try.” Rafe held up his hands at the cops’ rumbling threats. “What do you expect me to do? Tie him to the bed? I can talk ’til I’m blue in the face, but once he gets something in his head, not a lot can be done to get him to change his mind.”

“That’s the fucking Morgan family motto. Never listen to reason.” The older inspector nodded at the two brothers sitting across of him. “Just do your best. And if you have to, call in reinforcements. I think we need to keep Quinn in lockdown until we can flush this asshole out.”

“’Cause you think someone’s after him?” Rafe processed what Kane’d told him before. “And that puts a target on me?”

“Or just trying to get his attention. Shitty way to ask for a date but classic stalker slash controlling partner. Eliminate everyone close to the victim so they turn towards the abuser.” Kane’s chair ground on the hospital floor as he inched it closer to the table. “Problem is, how long before this guy turns on Quinn? Hell, today might have been that day, and it was just bad fucking luck Mum got hit instead.”

“Bad luck for him,” Browne commented. “No one wearing a badge is going to let this die. You don’t shoot a cop’s wife and get away with it. Might as well have shot your dad through the heart when that asshole pulled the trigger. Hell’s going to look like a vacation spot when he gets taken down. Right now let’s take a look at what we’ve got so we can plug any holes.”

“So far we’ve got two murders and a shooting. Simon K, killed off-site and dumped. We haven’t found the kill site yet. LeAnne W, killed on-site and displayed, arranged, even.” Sanchez ticked a count off his fingers.

“Two different MOs.” The younger Morgan stopped his scribbling. “Or are we counting it as escalation?”

“I’m going with escalation because the dump site got too busy for him. Uniforms canvassed the area, but no one saw anything. I want to go back there and see if any of the early-morning kitchen workers will respond to a memory jog,” Kane suggested. “Long way from Chinatown to the college. Alleyway suggests the dump site was convenient. I’m not convinced he’s local to that area.”

“Yeah, anyone who lives in Chinatown knows that place is hopping at three or so in the morning.” Sanchez found an overhead map of the area and circled the spot again for reference. “Not really accessible on both ends. One badly timed garbage truck, and he’d have been stuck.”

“Could be he’s just gotten a taste of killing with Simon. Then when he got to LeAnne, it became fun,” Browne added. “There’s the truck incident, which might or might not be connected—”

“I’m going to say yes.” Kane shrugged off the skeptical looks he got from his partner and Brownie. “Look, I think it was the first big hey-look-at-me this guy did.”

“Then he followed up with the house. Big display there. So yeah, he wants performance but didn’t get it with Simon,” Riley added. “Question I’ve got there is, why didn’t he move in on Quinn then? After the house? Q said no one approached him.”

“What do you mean?” Rafe frowned, watching the circle of cops nod in agreement to Riley’s speculation.

“Because that’s when someone’d move in close and offer Quinn protection. A place to stay.” Kane grinned at Rafe, his eyes merry with mischief. “Kind of like you did at the house that Sunday.”

“So I’m not a suspect?” He matched Kane’s smirk with one of his own. “Fuck you, Morgan.”

“You’re not smart enough to be a suspect, Andrade,” Kane replied. “’Sides, you’re as Catholic as I am. You’d slit your wrists from guilt if you’d shot Mum. And well, you did go hide behind Da when Quinn was on the warpath.”

“Dude, he was going to pop your heads off of your necks and suck out the marrow from your bones,” Rafe protested. “I’m kind of fond of you and Con. I mean, yeah, Donal lets you guys battle it all out until you get your shit together, but right then and there, you were marked for fucking death, and Quinn was going to be the one swinging the axe.”

“Should have let him kill them. I’d move up in rank quicker.” Riley popped his head up. “At home too.”

“Like Kiki couldn’t take you down,” Kane shot back. “But yeah, the truck and the house—so a part of this.”

“Let’s take apart Quinn’s life. You guys have talked to him, what… twice about who’s around him?” Browne scanned a list, and from what Rafe could see, the paper didn’t have many names on it. “Kid’s got students… associates. We’re going to have to expand the circle to include people he sees on a day-to-day basis. Start poking around into backgrounds. Find out where he goes often, that kind of thing.”

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