Impact (Suncoast Society #32)(46)

That paled in comparison to the fear that crawled through his gut when he heard the tone of Loren’s voice when she ordered them back to the condo.

Immediately.

The only thing she’d said was that Tilly and Katie were all right, that it wasn’t about them.

From the grim set to Cris’ jaw, he suspected the other man’s mental speculation had immediately jumped to the same conclusion, that it involved Sofia.

That Loren refused to reveal anything else over the phone only further confirmed it, as far as Landry was concerned.

They didn’t discuss it on the way, didn’t bandy possibilities.

They’d find out soon enough, and all he wanted to do was get to Tilly and Katie and hold them and ease himself through his fears, the fear that had hammered and pounded his heart before Loren’s clarification that it wasn’t about them.

But wasn’t it?

Once they were parked, they both ran from the car for the elevator, and then jogged down the hallway to their door. He’d started fitting his key in the lock when it opened.

Loren stood there, looking somber.

And he knew.

The detective and uniformed officer who stood at their arrival also confirmed it, but he knew they had to hear it.

“What’s going on?” Landry asked.

The plainclothes detective stepped forward, hand extended. “Detective Rogers,” he said. “Are you—”

“Landry Renee LaCroux,” he said. “And Cristo Guerrero,” he said, pointing at the man. “Just say it. I think I already know what you’re here to say, but please, just say it.”

Cris and Landry ended up sitting on the couch as the detective went through what happened. Loren hovered to the side, attentive, waiting.

Landry draped an arm over Cris’ shoulders as the man sat there, elbows on his knees, head hanging.

“We were going to help her get her life together,” Cris said. “She was finally ready. She gave us custody of the baby until all this was settled. We were going to move her to Florida with us, put her through school…”

From the way his shoulders shook, Landry knew Cris was crying.

“You’ll find who did this, won’t you?” Landry asked.

“We should, yes,” the detective said. “We’re still going through the surveillance videos. There were several angles, but we should be able to figure it out.”

“I’m going to go check on Tilly,” Loren said, leaving the room.

Landry felt helpless again.

Dammit, how he despised that.

“Where is she now?” Landry asked. “Do we need to identify her?”

“No, sir,” Detective Rogers said. “We have a positive ID on her from one of her tattoos. She’ll be taken for an autopsy and then released to whatever funeral home you choose.”

“We’re going to take her to Florida,” Cris hoarsely said. “I want her cremated, and we’ll take her ashes to Florida. I want her to at least get there one way or another.”

Landry worried about the man. Cris had stalwartly held up under all the stresses of caring for him following his accident and cancer treatments, all while taking over the business again. And while under the heartbreak of having walked away from Tilly, even though Landry hadn’t known that at the time.

This man sounded broken, hollow. In a way Landry had never heard him sound before.

“When can we get her?” Landry asked.

The detective scribbled a phone number and a case number on the back of one of his business cards and handed it to Landry. “They can contact the county morgue at that number to make the arrangements. It’ll be at least a day or so.”

“Thank you.”

“Did they even try to save her?” Cris asked, that same hoarse, hollow tone to his voice. He finally looked up. “Did they even try to keep her alive, or was it easier for them to let her die right there?”

Landry took grim sadistic satisfaction in the discomfort on the detective’s face. “Her injuries were too…extensive. By the time staff and guards were able to get in and control the situation, she was already gone. I’m sorry.”

“I hope her testimony was worth it, detective,” Landry drawled. “I hope it was worth her life. I hope playing her, when she was already willing to cooperate, is worth her daughter now growing up without a mother.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. LaCroux. We never—”

“Was it you who asked the probation officer to revoke her, hmm? Be honest. Ms. Nerzino wasn’t going to revoke her, was she? It was after she contacted you all and you found out there was another witness, you asked for Sofia’s probation to be revoked, didn’t you? You had her brought in so you could, what’s it called, sweat her, right?”

“I—”

“Do not lie to me,” Landry said. “You bloody bastards. She wasn’t just some gang whore. She was a new mother desperate for a new start, a new life. She reached out to us for help. And by doing so, we basically became unwitting accomplices in you getting her killed. She trusted us, because we trusted the system to do right by her, and you failed her.”

“She wasn’t supposed to be in that wing. She was supposed to be in a cell of her own but the orders got messed up somehow and the weekend staff—”