He glanced at the phone. Vanessa’s name lit on the display and he answered.
“We got him. Last night. Coming out of a convenience store.”
Adrenaline surged in his veins. “How cliché.”
Vanessa chuckled. “You’re telling me. You need to get the witness back here pronto. He has a lawyer and if he’s sprung, he’ll be gone. We won’t get a second chance at him.”
“I know you, Van. You’ll find a way to hold him until we get there.”
“I’m not taking chances with this. The other victim is awake, but he doesn’t remember anything about the attack. Get the witness here. Now.”
They had the Vagabond Killer in custody. But the guy Carey was running from was still out there. “We’re going to need cover. I don’t want the media crawling all over our witness.” At the word
witness,
Carey looked up from the bowl she was mixing.
“She needs to do the lineup and I might not be able to keep the hounds off her back completely.”
Reilly stifled an argument. Vanessa knew what she was doing and his concerns for Carey shouldn’t supersede ensuring the Vagabond Killer stayed behind bars. How much of this case fell on Carey’s shoulders? The Vagabond Killer had left DNA evidence at one of the crime scenes, but Vanessa had the burden of proof. She wouldn’t want to risk the killer’s lawyer drumming up reasons for how his client’s DNA ended up at the scene, throwing reasonable doubt over the case. They needed a positive ID. “I’ll get her safely to the lineup if you make sure the lineup stays out of the media.”
He couldn’t have a repeat of the past, couldn’t allow a killer to go free. The Vagabond Killer had to stay behind bars where he belonged. Lives were at stake if he was released on bail.
He and Carey were taking a chance going into the city, possibly getting caught in the media storm. Reporters and photographers would be looking for her. It was a careful balancing act. He wanted justice for the Vagabond Killer’s victims, but he also wanted justice for Carey.
“Reilly, you there?” Vanessa asked.
Realizing he’d been staring at Carey, he looked away. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
“Don’t get distracted. Tell you what. Plan to be somewhere near Denver, but we’ll keep the specifics as last-minute as possible. I’ll go for the middle of the night, 2:00 a.m., for the lineup and text you the location.”
“You think you can get the suspect’s lawyer to agree to that?” Reilly asked.
Vanessa snorted. “I’ve got the mayor and the D.A. desperate to put this guy away. They’ll make sure I get what I need to wrap this up before Christmas.”
If Vanessa said she could pull it off, Reilly wasn’t complaining. “Not a problem. I’ll take care of things on my end.” Reilly snapped closed his phone and turned to the anxious eyes of his mother and Carey. His mother waited for him to speak. Carey drummed her fingers on the counter.
“They caught the Vagabond Killer. They need you in the city for a lineup,” Reilly said. He hated speaking the words, hated knowing they’d scare her.
Carey went still. “I guess there’s no way around this.” At least she was speaking to him again.
“I’m sorry, Carey. We need you. A sketch isn’t as reliable in court as an ID.”
Her shoulders stiffened. “Court? Who said anything about going to court?”
Reilly winced. So much for tact. “You’ll need to testify at some point.” She knew this. She might have been denying it, hoping something would change, but she knew it.
She shook her head and went to the sink. “No. The lineup is it. I can’t stay through a trial. He’ll find me. He’ll kill me.”
Guilt hammered him. This was difficult for her. “We’ll do everything in our power to ensure you’re safe.”
Carey glared at him, her blue eyes impassioned. “Even that might not be enough.”
A slap at his pride. “Have we done something to make you feel unsafe?”
Carey washed her hands and dried them roughly with a paper towel. “You can’t watch me around the clock in Denver like you can here. You can’t follow me around and stay while I’m at work. And no way would I expect that. You have a life of your own. But without you, I don’t feel safe.”
The impact of her words hit him low and hard. She had trusted him and he had shaken that trust with his behavior earlier that morning. “It can be the same as it is now. We’ll find a safe place to live and I’ll watch over you.”
Carey braced her hands on the counter. “For how long? A trial could drag on for months, maybe years. You don’t know who this Vagabond Killer is or how much money he has. He could appeal and add months to the process. In that time, do you really believe you’ll keep the media away from the courthouse? Do you think Mark won’t find me? He’s already looking for me.”
She sucked in her breath, obviously realizing she’d said too much. Jane set her hand on Carey’s back, rubbing it consolingly. Reilly wanted to console her, too, but he also wanted blood. Mark. The man who had terrorized her was named Mark. Fury sizzled in his veins. There had to be thousands of Marks in America, but it was a start. Reilly would find him. Mark would not hurt Carey.
“He won’t find you. We’ll keep you hidden.”
Carey threw up her hands. “How? I’ve tried to hide. I changed my hair, my clothes, my city, my job, my name. I don’t talk to people in my old life. I don’t use credit cards or keep any of the same habits. He’s a criminal with powerful connections. He’ll find me.”
Jane touched Carey’s hair. “You look much different with your hair dark. Most people will have remembered the red from the picture. I’ve gotten in and out of places by dressing and acting a certain way. I saw that picture of you on the news. You’re a new woman now.”
Yes, she was. Last night he’d seen a new side of Carey. Sensual Carey. Amazingly tempting. His body tightened as the memories replayed in his mind.
Carey’s eyes connected with his. Was she remembering last night, too? “You don’t have to do this for me. You don’t owe me anything.”
He never
had
to do anything. He wanted to keep her safe. It was as natural an instinct as breathing. “It’s my job to keep you safe and I take it to heart.”
She leveled him a look. “When this is over, if I live to testify against the Vagabond Killer, I’ll still be in danger.”
Reilly refused to accept that as true. Every instinct told him he could bring this to a close. He could protect her and hunt down Mark. “Let me protect you. Let me do my job and find Mark. You can sleep at night knowing he’ll never hurt you again. Never.”
Jane looked between Reilly and Carey, her lips pressed into a thin line of worry.
Carey stared at the floor. “You don’t know him. He’s not like regular men. He’s not even like the Vagabond Killer. He doesn’t do his own dirty work. He pays someone to do it for him. And he pays well because he wants the best. I don’t stand a chance against the men that work for Mark. And what about you and your family? What if he tries to hurt you?” Worry flooded her face.
Reilly could handle this. Her concern was unneeded, though it did please him that she cared. “He’s not going to do anything to you or anyone else because when I see him, he’s done.”
Carey dragged a hand through her hair, shoving it behind her ears. “You don’t know how powerful he is. You don’t know the kinds of things he’s capable of.”
Reilly set his jaw. “You’re right. But I’ve never run from someone who needed my help. You need my help.”
Carey took a deep breath and let it out. She closed her eyes for a few moments and then opened them. “Let’s get through this lineup. After that, I’ll see what I can do.”
Quiet rage at the man who had hurt her hummed inside him. How sick was Mark that Carey was more afraid of him than a serial killer?
* * *
Reilly could sense Carey’s tension. The long drive to Denver didn’t give her much else to do except think. Think about Mark. Think about the Vagabond Killer case. And unless his instincts were off, think about him and what had happened between them.
He wanted to be honest with her. It might clear the air and make her feel better. “I need to tell you something that I should have told you before.” Before he had slept with her. Before he had let himself get involved that deeply with her.
She seemed surprised that he’d broken the silence that had stretched between them since they’d left his parents’ house. “Sounds ominous, but go ahead.”
It was more difficult to find the words than he’d imagined. “When I was a rookie detective, my partner Lucas made the mistake of getting too close to a victim on a case. He felt bad for her and wanted to make things better.”
Carey didn’t say anything, just watched him from the passenger seat with deep, soulful eyes.
“When it was time for her to testify, the defense twisted Lucas’s relationship into something inappropriate.” Thinking of it made him angry all over again. “They accused him of coaching her with details of the crime and by the time they were done, the jury didn’t believe her testimony. The defendant walked. Not guilty on all counts.”
Carey’s eyes softened with compassion and she reached out and squeezed his upper arm. “Reilly, I’m sorry. That’s awful.”
“Lucas had to resign, and for months the department was under scrutiny by the public and by lawyers. It was a disaster. The worst part was, the guy struck again two weeks later. That time, he made sure the victim didn’t live to testify against him.”
A death for which Reilly felt responsible. If he had seen what Lucas was doing, if he had talked to Lucas before it went too far, there wouldn’t have been a second victim. The criminal would have spent the rest of his days in prison. “I blame myself for not seeing it.”
“You can’t blame yourself for someone else’s actions. I’m sure you did everything you could.”
He could have done more. “I never want that situation to play itself out again. I don’t want the Vagabond Killer or Mark to walk free because of how I feel for you. I want you to have the life you deserve and that means not living in fear.”
Her thumb stroked his arm. “My identification and testimony for either case has nothing to do with you. Anything I saw happened before I met you.”
He wanted to see the difference. How he felt for Carey was unlike his feelings for any other woman. The intensity alone was soul-shaking. “I want to believe that. I want a
jury
to believe that. I want Mark and the Vagabond Killer caught and put away so you’re safe. That’s why we can’t be involved now.”
Her eyes darkened with sadness. “That’s why you said we shouldn’t have slept together.”
At his nod of affirmation, Carey continued. “Even if they catch the Vagabond Killer, charging Mark could take years. And he’ll weasel out of whatever cage you try to put him in. Even in prison, he would find a way to have someone come for me.”
No. Reilly wouldn’t allow that. This time the case was going to play itself out on his terms. They’d catch the Vagabond Killer and Mark and, with Carey’s help, send them to prison for the rest of their miserable lives.
“He’s not going to find you. I’m going to find him and then I’m going to take him down.”
* * *
Carey let his words replay through her mind. Reilly was trying to explain his behavior, which she had found herself at odds with sometimes. His behavior the night before had hurt her. “Have you considered the possibility that if Mark goes down, he’ll take me with him?”
That seemed to startle Reilly. His tone took on a seriousness she’d never heard from him before. “If there is something you’ve done that could come out when we find him, you need to tell me now.”
When she thought back over her life, she could pinpoint a hundred things she’d seen or heard that she’d ignored and shouldn’t have. She would have to tread carefully here, not wanting to bring more trouble her way. “I can list a hundred events that are subject to scrutiny. I was dating a very bad man. Some people would find me guilty by association.”
“I can best protect you if I know everything.”
Carey closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. This was ground over which she hadn’t wanted to tread. “Anything I know is speculation. I can’t prove anything.”
“Then what are you afraid of?” His voice was soft and tender.
“Mark could twist the activities of a saint. He could say I knew what he was doing and that I did nothing.”
“Did you?”
She shook her head, closing her eyes to hold the tears that threatened to spill out and slip down her cheeks. “Not until the end.” Not until her father had died did she question his life. Her life. Their life.
“Then you don’t have a reason to be afraid.”
Reilly only wanted to see the best-case scenario, ending with Mark and the Vagabond Killer being caught and her walking away unscathed. “You don’t know Mark. He’ll pick up on the guilt I feel. How did I not know?” She opened her eyes and tears ran down her cheeks. “I should have guessed. I should have asked questions or paid attention. I was old enough to know something was wrong.”
He reached over and squeezed her hand. “It’s not a crime to know something. You were scared. You did your best. No court will hold you responsible for staying quiet.”
In an ideal world that was true. Her world was corrupt and dirty. “Depends which court. Mark has bribed plenty of law enforcement officers, judges and clerks. What would stop him from buying favorable rulings?”
“He can’t buy me.”
Carey considered that. No, Reilly wouldn’t be bought. He’d resisted the temptation and he wouldn’t sell her out for money. But what if he found out who she was? Would his feelings for her change? Would he stop wanting to protect her?
What about the risk to his family? If their lives were in danger, would Reilly back down? She wouldn’t expect him to put their safety before her. “You have other liabilities.”
He caught her meaning quickly. “If someone went after my family, they are more than capable of taking care of themselves. My dad is pretty laid-back, but if anyone tried to hurt my mom, he’d take them out. No questions asked.”
Carey felt a pang somewhere in her heart. Had her father felt that way about her? He had shielded her from his business and kept her on a tight leash. But where had she ranked in his life? “You’re lucky to have people in your life who care about you that much.”