“Her name was Jenni Rupert.”
“I’ve never even heard of your wife before. I don’t know that name. I swear.”
“I could understand how a man with your résumé might forget the names of some of his victims.” I put the auger back into the hole. “How many people does a man have to kill before it’s okay to forget a name or two?”
“I don’t know your wife. And I sure as hell didn’t kill her. I swear to God, I’m innocent. You’ve got to believe me.”
I go back to turning the auger. “You know, I’ve always wondered why people say stupid shit like that. You tell me I’ve got to believe you—like it’s proof that you’re not lying. Well, excuse the hell out of me, but I don’t have to believe a God-damned thing you say, seeing that I’m the one with the auger and you’re the one tied up.”
I punch through to the lake and water comes rushing out of the third hole.
I set the auger blade into the fourth starter hole and rest my arm across the top. “You’ve been lying to me ever since you started talking. If you want to start telling me the truth, I’ll listen. But if you’re going to keep going on with this ‘I’m innocent’ crap . . . well, I got holes to drill.”
CHAPTER 20
Minneapolis—Yesterday
In the three years since Niki and I became partners, we’ve shared many a cup of coffee at Eddie’s Soup and Sandwich, a notch in the side of the downtown skyway, a couple blocks from City Hall. Eddie’s had great coffee, and we could walk there in bone-brittle weather without ever having to step foot outside.
I found Niki seated at a corner table with two cups of coffee in front of her. A thirtysomething man in a charcoal suit and rubber covers on his shoes—my guess an attorney on his way back from court, grabbing a cup of joe on his client’s dime—waited at the counter for his order, his back turned to the register, his eyes brushing up and down Niki’s body, tiny, fit, a lock of her hair suspended in front of her eyes, dark and twisty like a jungle vine. No doubt he was judging her, knowing her only with his eyes, appraising her worth by the physical qualities that pressed against the cotton of her blouse and filled the curve of her jeans.
If she noticed the gawker, she didn’t show it. “I saved you a seat,” she said, moving my chair out with her foot.
“You’re so kind.”
The guy in the suit swiveled back to pay for his coffee, apparently yanked out of his daydreams by my presence.
“What took you so long?” she asked, sliding one of the coffees to me.
“Got tied up with a phone call,” I said.
“Good news, I hope?”
“Just the opposite.”
I sipped my coffee and replayed my conversation with Commander Walker. I watched her eyes grow damp as I told her about his cancer. I saw her face sag in despair when I explained how Lieutenant Briggs would be Walker’s likely replacement. I didn’t cushion the blow. She needed to see how grim her future might be, especially if she continued helping me dig into Jenni’s death.
“Briggs? Head of Homicide? That empty-suited, pencil pusher? He doesn’t know the first thing about investigations.”
“He’s been put on this earth for bigger things, Niki. He’s a great man suffering the indignity of having to build his own pedestal. Have a little compassion.”
“He’s a worm who thinks he’s a caterpillar, that’s what he is.”
“Regardless, there’s no denying he’s a wiz at climbing ladders,” I said. “While you and I have our brains soaking in the muck of criminal cases, he’s playing a whole different game. Fuck all that crime-solving crap. It’s a distraction.”
“Screw him,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“You need to take this seriously, Niki. If Walker’s right, Briggs will come after you. You’re a threat to his plan.”
“I’m a threat? How do you figure?”
“You’re smart, well-liked, and would make a great commander. Briggs sees that.”
“I don’t have the seniority to be a commander.”
“Walker thinks you’d give Briggs a run for his money, even with Briggs having his nose smashed up against Chief Murphy’s prostate. He needs to take you out of the running. He’s going to be looking for a reason to muddy your record.”
“Let him come after me. See what happens.”
“Niki, if he was digging through the computer, he saw the Cappers search you did on Jenni. He’ll know I’m back on the case and that you’re helping me. Briggs is an asshole, but he’s not stupid. If he’s looking for a hook to take you out, he may have already found it.”
“I don’t care,” Niki said. “If that’s what it’s going to be like to work under Briggs, then I’d rather he fire me.”
“He can’t fire you if you aren’t doing anything wrong.” I hesitated before I spoke again, bracing myself for the pushback I knew would come. “I want you to quit working on Jenni’s case,” I said. “If Briggs asks, you tell him that you were looking stuff up for me, but I didn’t tell you why.”
Niki didn’t speak; I waited. She just stared at me.
“Niki, this is my problem, not yours. I can’t have—”
“And if this were my problem, would you turn your back?” She spoke in a whisper, but yelled nonetheless. “If I told you to stay out of it, would you?” She raised a finger to my face. “Hell no, you wouldn’t. You’d be right there at my side. God dammit, Max, sometimes you make me so mad I want to . . .”
Her hand went rigid, her index finger curling back to complete a fist. For a second there, I thought she might actually hit me. Then she turned in her chair to face away, crossing one leg over the other. She stayed turned away while she calmed down. I’d never seen her that angry, and I had been the cause of it.
When she turned back to the table, she smiled. “You’re not the boss of me,” she said raising a defiant eyebrow. “I can be just as ornery as you when I want to be, and . . . well, I want to be. So go ahead and give your little orders, say what you got to say, but I’m going to keep working on this case, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. You don’t like it? Take it up with my boss. His name is Lieutenant Emil Briggs.” She cocked her head as if to say—your move.
I had no move, other than to squirm in my seat. “Fine,” I said. “And by fine I mean it’s not fine at all, but I don’t have much of a choice.”
“I thought you’d see it my way.”
“With one caveat,” I said. “Promise me that if Briggs comes after you for this, you tell him that I was keeping you in the dark. You tell him you didn’t know what I was up to.”
“I’ll tell that blowhard that he can go—”