Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (Finlay Donovan, #3)(22)

“You just going to sit there?” my sister muttered at her cards. She smirked as I jumped out of my chair and grabbed my coat.

“Nick, wait,” I called out, rushing after him as his cane clicked across the parking lot.

He turned, hunched against the icy rain that had begun to fall as I caught up to him. For a moment, we just stood beside his car, staring at each other. “Do you want to get in?” His voice was husky, the air between us crackling, the same way it always seemed to whenever we were alone together.

“No,” I said quickly. “I mean, I shouldn’t.” I shouldn’t want to get in his car, but I did. And that was precisely the problem. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry for not calling you, and that I wasn’t upset. Not with you.” His eyes were intent on mine. His cheeks were flushed and his breath was warm. Our clothes were getting wet, and his offer was becoming more tempting by the second. I shivered, but I didn’t think it was from the cold. “I should get back inside. I’ll see you next week.”

“I’m really glad you came tonight,” he said as I backed away from his car.

It wasn’t a lie when I said, “I am, too.”





CHAPTER 9


Tyrese, Vero, and I were the last to leave Hooligans. An icy rain had begun falling in earnest and we pulled our hoods low, our chins tucked to our chests to fend it off as Ty held the door for us and we ducked out of the bar. I climbed into the van and stuck the key in the ignition, offering a prayer of thanks to the automotive gods when the engine started without much protest. A salt truck rushed past the parking lot, kicking up a spray of slush, its yellow roof light swirling, and I backed out of my parking space and eased onto the road, following behind it.

“What did you think?” Vero asked.

“You spent as much time with them as I did.”

“Maybe. But your conversation with Joey felt a little on the nose.”

The mention of it drew a chill out of me. Joey had been the first cop to show up tonight. Was that a coincidence, or was he just being thorough, careful not to miss any critical bits of conversations, same as we had been? And there had been all those perfectly vague references he’d made about odd jobs being hard to find after the holidays, how they were a little lean this year … you know how it is, right?

But Joey had been so convincing when he’d told me where he’d been the night of the shooting. And Mrs. Haggerty claimed she had indeed had a conversation with a police officer that night, specifically one that had been driving a sedan and had been talking with something in his mouth, like that damn omnipresent toothpick Joey was always chewing whenever he was somewhere he couldn’t smoke. “I’m still not sure,” I said, reluctant to let go of my suspicions. “What about Roddy and Tyrese? You spent a lot of time with them.”

Vero shivered and cranked up the heat. “Tyrese is a definite no. He’s greener than that stack of cash Kat was waving around. And he’s too damn eager to please. EasyClean’s too confident to be a rookie; he’s definitely been around the block. Now, Roddy,” she said thoughtfully, letting his name sit a little longer on her tongue, “he might be worth checking out.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Roddy was doing surveillance in front of your house the night of the shooting. If Joey’s telling the truth, he was parked in front of Mrs. Haggerty’s that night so Roddy could take a break and grab some dinner. But what if Roddy didn’t go to dinner? What if he went after Steven instead?”

“Roddy?” I stole a sideways glance at her. Roddy was a middle-aged beat cop, and by the looks of the strained buttons at his waist, he’d been wearing the same uniform for quite some time. “Huh,” I mused as I considered that. “Why do you suppose Roddy hangs out with all the big shot detectives from OCN?”

Vero put her fingertip to her nose. “I wondered the same thing about Wade. A firearms instructor would definitely know how to shoot.” She raised an eyebrow. “And then there’s Samara…”

“What about her?”

“Who’s better equipped to find and manipulate an internet forum to her own advantage than someone who works in cyber forensics? She was probably the first person Nick called after Cam tipped him off to the website. Don’t you think it’s a little convenient that the forum had already disappeared,” she said, punctuating the word with air quotes, “by the time Sam tried to find it the next morning?”

“Feliks’s people took it down overnight.”

“Or did they?”

Vero had a point. Feliks had agreed to take the site down, but that doesn’t mean he was the only one who’d had a hand in erasing it—or a reason to.

Salt from the truck in front of us peppered the hood of my minivan. I put on my turn signal, checking my mirrors as I switched lanes. The vehicle behind me switched lanes, too, pulling in close behind me. The driver’s features were obscured by the bright shine of his headlights. All I could make out was the slap of his wipers and the Chevy symbol on the grill.

“What’s wrong?” Vero asked as the light changed.

“I think we’re being followed.”

I accelerated around the salt truck and merged back into the right lane. Vero angled in her seat, watching the Chevy change lanes, too.