Authors: Cindy Stark
Her
gaze slid to his rap sheet, and she widened her eyes. He'd been arrested seven
times?
Seven
? She furrowed her brows. She hadn't known about even
one. It wasn't surprising, considering his friends, but...he'd lied to her.
That hurt. He'd said he loved her and then he'd lied. Wow. She'd been naïve.
She
flipped through the pages of charges, surprised again that he'd actually done
time in the county jail. When? She cruised back through her memories. When
he'd said he'd gone to see his Aunt Teresa? It had to be.
Allie
closed the file, no longer wanting to gaze at the face of the boy who had lied
to her and brought such grief into her life. She turned instead to the other
folder, opening the thick file, not at all surprised at what she found there.
The Trasatti family had quite a history of arrests for prostitution,
racketeering and drugs. The index listed them by date, name and crime. Some
carried guilty sentences, but those incarcerated rarely included anyone very
high in the organization. But that's how these families worked, she knew. The
goons did all of the dirty work while the higher-ups reaped the rewards.
"We
have individual files on each member of their organization, but that gives you
the condensed version."
Allie
looked up and blinked. She'd lost herself in her thoughts and had forgotten
she'd been sharing the desk of a particular police sergeant. "They have
quite a history."
He
nodded, and she wondered if he'd been studying her the whole time she'd been
leafing through the files.
"How
did last night go? Did you have a nice time?" His question was innocent
enough, but the reminder of her disastrous evening set her on edge.
"Not
particularly. In fact, other than getting a good look at Tommy Trasatti, I
didn't find anything helpful to my investigation."
"Not
even your kiss with Tyler?"
It
took her a moment to respond. "Did you have me followed?"
Unbelievable. Not to mention embarrassing.
He
shrugged. "I sent you into the middle of two suspected felons. I needed
to make sure you were okay." He held up a hand. "Before you get any
angrier, I had men there undercover anyway, and I asked them to keep an eye on
you."
"Right,"
she replied with as much sarcasm as she could muster. He was obviously more
suspicious of her than she'd thought. "What else did they find out?"
Cates
eyed her. "Just that you and Mr. Tyler seemed awfully friendly. Well,
until you pulled the gun that is."
Allie
shook her head in disbelief. It seemed Cates had an agenda of his own.
"I didn't mean, what did you learn about me. I meant about
Trasatti."
"Oh.
No, he was one of the people who behaved himself last night."
Allie
sat, stunned, no longer sure how to continue the conversation. Cates seemed
quite content to finger his bushy moustache, letting the silent moments pass
before he spoke again.
"It
seems you have a little explaining to do because you really don't seem like the
kind of woman who'd come on to a man she'd barely met." He lifted a
brow. "You gonna tell me about your relationship with Tyler?"
So
there were her choices. She could cough up some information or let him think
she was a loose woman. It was tempting to go with the slut version, but then
her avenue to finding out why the Trasatti family was after her would become a
dead end.
Allie
folded her arms. "Okay, fine. I'll admit I briefly knew Jase Tyler many
years ago. And when I say briefly, I mean brief."
"From
what my guys tell me they witnessed, it sounds like you're still on pretty good
terms." Cates leaned back in his chair and waited for her response.
What
was the best way to get out of this without giving away too much information?
"What do you want me to say? Yes, I knew him. Yes, he kissed me last
night. He had no right to, but he did it anyway, hence the gun." She
tapped her foot on the floor, agitated that she'd allowed herself to be trapped
in a corner.
"Yeah,
my guys did say you didn't seem too thrilled with his advances. They also said
he acted, well to put it in their words, pissed off at you for dancing with
Trasatti."
Jase
had been mad all right. "It's none of Jase's business who I dance with.
You know I was there to get information on Trasatti."
Cates'
chair squeaked as he leaned forward, resting his forearms on his desk. His
blue eyes pierced her with a calculated look. "Look Miss Fox, I know
you're trying very hard not to give away your poker hand, but the cards have
been dealt, the bets placed, and I'm calling your bluff. I haven't worked in
criminal investigations for the last thirty years and not learned how to read
people. You're not here on vacation, and you have more than a vested interest
in this case." He gave her a look that pinned her in her chair as well as
any handcuffs would have. "You gonna give up the jig or what?"
"I
don't know what you're talking about." She licked her lips, trying to
appear calm and unaffected. "I told you—"
He
slammed a palm down on his desk, and she jumped. "I don't like liars,
Miss Fox."
Allie
blinked.
"Do
you want to know what I think?" He raised his brows. "I think you
knew Joey Pagano. I think you know a lot more than you're admitting about what
happened the night he was killed."
She
bit her lip, noticing the way his wrinkles stood out when he narrowed his eyes.
"In
fact—" He lifted his chin. "I think you witnessed the whole
thing."
Allie
gasped. How could he know that?
"And
you just gave yourself away." He didn't sound nearly as triumphant as she
would have thought he might.
She
shifted in her chair, letting her gaze slip to the window beyond his head. The
sun still shone, but it was anything but cheerful in Cates' office.
She
was screwed. He'd backed her into a corner, and she couldn't see any possible
way out. She should have known she wouldn't be able to walk into a police
station and have them hand her information, no questions asked. Hell, she was
a cop herself. Is that why she'd thought she could pull it off? She was not
only arrogant, but cocky, too.
"You
know, Miss Fox—or is it Allie Jordan? If you'd put a little trust in me, we
might solve this case a whole lot quicker."
"How
do you know Allie Jordan?" The question slipped out before she had a
chance to think.
He
chuckled then. "I think I deserve a little more credit than that. I
spent months...
months
investigating Joey's case. You don't think your
name would have come up? Joey's murdered and his girlfriend's missing. That
wouldn't raise a red flag for you?" He opened a drawer and pulled out
another file, sliding it across the desk to her.
Allie
flipped open the manila folder and there she was. Her hair was longer in her
high school photo, but no one would doubt it was her. Her name, her aunt's
name and address, and a few other details were listed on a separate sheet.
A
shiver spilled over her. She'd been damned lucky Trasatti hadn't recognized
her the night before. She swallowed. Or had he, and he'd been playing it
cool?
She
focused on Cates and sighed. "Can I get a cup of coffee?" She
needed a few moments alone to settle her nerves and regain her composure.
"You
ready to talk?"
She
nodded.
Cates
slid back his office chair and stood. "I'll be right back then."
By
the time Cates returned, Allie had managed to not only compose herself, but
she'd also come up with a plan. What was wrong with the old
if-you-can't-beat-them, join-them strategy?
"I
think you're right, Sergeant Cates," Allie said as the overweight officer
returned and handed her a white coffee mug with the Chicago Police emblem on
the side. "I should have trusted you from the first."
He
dropped two packets of sugar on the desk in front of her as he perched on the
edge, smiling like a favored uncle. "Glad to hear it."
She
ignored the sugar, preferring her liquid caffeine straight black. "What
kind of cop am I, if I can't trust the system I work for?" She took a sip
of the hot coffee, and then looked him directly in the eye. "You're
correct. I was Allie Jordan. Six years ago, I watched my future fiancé gunned
down in cold murder."
Cates
nodded and went to sit behind his desk. He pulled out a yellow pad and began
taking notes. "Did you see who shot him?"
Allie
sighed and touched her temples. She shook her head. "Not really. Joey
and I were supposed to meet at the bowling alley. He showed up late, beat up,
swollen lip, bruised eye." She took a deep breath, not wanting to relive
Joey's last moments. "He said we needed to get off the streets, but
wouldn't tell me why. We started toward my house, made it a couple of blocks.
A green sedan drove past—I have no idea what make or model. Someone fired a
couple of shots." She shuddered. "He was dead."
Cates'
clear blue eyes were sharp, focused, and Allie knew he was in
full-interrogation mode. "Why didn't you go to the police?"
"I
was scared. Everyone knows how much power the Trasatti family has."
He
sighed. "True." He stared at his notes, tapping his pen on the paper.
"So, where did you go? How did you manage to disappear so
efficiently?"
This
was the part she didn't want to tell. "A friend helped me."
"Tyler."
She
bit her lip and nodded. She didn't want to drag Jase into the middle of this.
Her intentions were to put this whole fiasco behind her, not re-open old
wounds.
Cates
threw down his pen and leaned back. "I knew he had something to do with
this."
Allie
scooted to the edge of her seat, setting her coffee on the desk. "He
really doesn't. He showed up just after they'd shot Joey. The green sedan had
turned around to come back. Jase pulled up in his car and drove me to
safety."
"How
long had you known Tyler?"
"I
didn't know him. Not before that night."
He
blew out a breath of disbelief. "So, he's like a white knight on a
horse? He rides in to save the damsel in distress? Come on."
The
muscles in her heart tightened. That's exactly what he'd been to her. And
she'd loved him for it. She paused.
She
still loved him for it.
"I
think he was in the right place at the right time."
Cates
snorted. "Doubt that." He scribbled more on his pad. "I'm
going to need to bring him in for questioning again."
Allie
winced. Jase would strangle her. "Can we not? At least not yet?"
She'd beg if she had to. "He didn't have anything to do with the murder.
Let's try to sort through everything else first. Please?"
The
officer studied her. "Fine. Since you've been so cooperative, I'll let
you have it your way, for now." He retrieved a stack of files from his
credenza and plopped them on the desk with a thud. "You can go through
all of these later if you want—it's pretty much everything we have on the
Trasatti family. But if you don't mind, I'll give you the highlights and see
where that takes us."
"Agreed."
Allie eyed the files, a sense of trepidation rolling through her. The folders
in front of her could be her key to eventual freedom, but what would she have
to go through emotionally to get there?
Cates
watched her for a moment, making Allie feel as though she were on trial. Then
he sighed and smoothed his moustache. "I'm still a little hesitant to
trust you, seeing as how we got off on the wrong foot...but my gut tells me
you're going to help me crack this case wide open." He nodded as though he'd
decided. "Here's where we're sitting so far." He opened the top
folder and flipped a few pages. "Three days before Joey was killed, there
was another murder. A politician named Gregory Winslow was found floating in
the Chicago River, a bullet right between his eyes."
She
nodded. Cates had previously mentioned his name, and Allie vaguely remembered
her aunt watching the coverage on the nightly news.
"Mr.
Winslow had promised to clean up the waterfront, crack down on organized
crime—the typical promises." He glanced up at her. "Some people
actually believed he had the wherewithal to do it." He waited for her nod
before he continued.
"We
were able to arrest and convict someone from the Trasatti organization for his
murder. But it wasn't anyone at the top. Some lackey who went by the name of
Buzzer claimed he did it on his own. Said Mr. Winslow owed him some money and
wouldn't pay. It was all a bunch of bullshit.
"Buzzer
sang a whole different tune when the iron bars slammed shut in front of
him." Cates leaned back in his chair and smiled. "He started
claiming the Trasatti family had set him up. He thought they'd pay him well to
take the hit for them, but apparently, it wasn't enough. He said it was really
Franco Trasatti, Tommy's dad, top dog of the mob squad who pulled the
trigger." Cates paused. "He also said Joey had a recording of the
whole thing."