Alone (Detective D.D. Warren, #1)(93)

“D.D., I only met Catherine for one brief moment at that party. I never saw her again until Thursday night.”

“Catherine framed you, Bobby. She fired the gun, she set the stage. If we did have audio, I bet it would be filled with all sorts of venomous things she yelled at Jimmy to keep his anger high, to keep him waving that pistol. After that, it was only a matter of time.”

He didn't protest anymore. He had squeezed his eyes shut. It still didn't stop him from seeing what he didn't want to see. Jimmy Gagnon's head in his sights. His finger, squeezing the trigger.

“I just don't get it, Bobby,” D.D. said quietly. “So maybe she could get you to take out Jimmy. Maybe you even thought it had to be done. But what in the world could she have said to make you turn on Copley? Jesus, Bobby, he was one of our own!”

“What?”

“We both know he was on to you. It was only a matter of time. But still, you could've pled down, Bobby. You're a law enforcement officer with a distinguished career. So you made a mistake. You still had options. You didn't have to do . . . God, Bobby, a knife? I wouldn't have even thought you had it in you.”

“D.D., I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“One more time, Bobby, where are you?”

But he already knew better than to answer. Something had happened to Copley. A knife. Umbrio probably. Except they thought he did it, and if his fellow law enforcement officers thought he did it . . .

You didn't go after an expert-ranked police sniper with a pair of handcuffs.

Jesus Christ, he was in a world of hurt.

“D.D.,” he said urgently. “Listen to me. Saturday morning a man was released from prison. His name is Richard Umbrio. Look him up: you'll find he was the same man who kidnapped and raped Catherine Gagnon twenty-five years ago. You'll also discover that he wasn't due for parole. Judge Gagnon arranged it. He set it up. He's using Umbrio to kill the people close to her.”

“Copley wasn't close to her.”

“I don't know why he killed Copley! Honest to God . . . You said knife. Umbrio used a knife at the Rocco crime scene. Umbrio's the one who killed Tony Rocco, as well as Prudence Walker.”

“Copley wasn't dead, Bobby. He used to be a boxer in college. Did it surprise you how much he put up a fight? Did you think it would get that messy? Well, he still had the last laugh. As he lay in the bathtub, bleeding out, he left us one last clue. He wrote your name, Bobby, in his own blood.”

Shit, Bobby thought.

“Colleen Robinson,” he said quickly, trying to get out as much as he could. “She's a middleman, hired by Judge Gagnon to hire Richard Umbrio. Pull the judge's financial records, track down Robinson. You'll find corroboration of what I'm saying. The judge did it, D.D. He's desperate to cover up evidence of his and Maryanne's incest. Contact Dr. Iorfino, he'll tell you all about it.”

“Turn yourself in, Bobby.”

“I can't.”

“For the last time—”

“If I'm behind bars,” he said simply, “there's no one left to protect Catherine.”

“Goddammit, Bobby—”

He flipped the phone shut. He turned away. Then he was crossing the room, powered by grief and rage. Catherine was still on the phone, face pale, eyes wide.

He grabbed her shoulders and, before he could stop himself, shook her hard.

“What the hell did you do?”

“Bobby—”

“Did you think I wouldn't care? Did you think I wouldn't mind being used as a tool for murder?”

“It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.”

“The hell it doesn't! You used me. You lied to me. You set me up to kill another human being.”

“I didn't have any other choice! Bobby, please listen to me—”

“Shut up!” he roared.

And then she slapped him. Across the face. Hard. His ears rang. His eyes blinked. The shock rocketed through him, and for an instant, he found his own arm pulling back. He could see himself in his mind's eye, swinging forward, smacking her back. She would fall, cut down by the blow. And he'd, what . . . lord it over her? Feel triumphant in his physical superiority? Watch her cower, as his mother used to cower, alone on the kitchen floor?

His arm came down. The roaring subsided in his brain. He came back to himself. Saw that he was still gripping Catherine's shoulder with one hand, and that his fingers were squeezing mercilessly while the tears poured down her face.

He let her go so abruptly, she stumbled.

“He was going to take Nathan away from me,” she said. “He was going to leave me with nothing simply because he could. You don't know what it's like, Bobby, to have nothing.”

“You had no right—”

“It never would've worked if he hadn't hated me. That's the real trick to manipulation, you know. You can never make someone do something they really don't want to do. You can only make them do what was already in their heart.”

“You don't know that.”

“I saw his face, Thursday night. I looked into Jimmy's eyes, and, in that one instant, I knew I was dead.”

“Liar.”

“Bobby, I didn't thank you for killing him,” she said steadily. “I thanked you because you saved my life.”