The 17th Suspect (Women's Murder Club #17)(66)

Was Brady in trouble? Had he gotten embroiled in some kind of scandal? Was he being tried by the deep state of Internal Affairs? Beyond that, she just couldn’t imagine.

Brady returned to their bedroom with a bowl of ice cream, handed her one of the two spoons, and got under the covers.

Yuki gripped his forearm with her free hand. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“Okay,” he sighed. “Here it is. The whole ugly mess. Remember last year when a half dozen cops in Robbery disgraced the department?”

“Sure,” Yuki said. “A gang of them were holding up check-cashing places and Western Union outlets.”

“That’s right. Citizens were killed, bunch of them. And while these dirtbags were robbing cash stores, they also robbed a major drug kingpin’s distribution depot.”

“Kingfisher. I remember all of it, but how does this figure into your job?”

“It figures into Jacobi’s job.”

“Jacobi?”

“That Robbery crew was a scandal. God punished most of them, but that’s really not enough. Someone in the hierarchy of the SFPD has to take the fall for a division full of corrupt cops. Head of the crew is locked up for life. Head of Robbery was let go, but that’s not really enough.”

“So you’re saying that this is going to fall on the chief?”

Brady said, “He’s not going to be officially blamed, but he’s going to be retired out. And everyone in the department will know why.”

He pushed ice cream around with his spoon. Then he said, “I had to testify about all those bodies at the OK Corral. Made me sick to have to talk about that, knowing I was making the case against Jacobi. I really love the guy.”

“What does he know?”

“He knows it all. Every day, after the day shift punched out, I’d go up to his office,” Brady told her. “We’d talk about every case in all the squads, go over personnel, and discuss plans for how things are going to go forward. He wants me to take his job.”

“He wants you to take over as chief of police?”

“He doesn’t get a vote. He can make a recommendation, maybe.”

Yuki felt closer to her husband than she had in months, and she even understood how badly he’d been feeling, how overworked, the weight he’d been carrying. What her hurt and anger hadn’t allowed her to see before. And she understood finally that Brady’s distance didn’t have to do with her. With them. And why he had had to keep it to himself.

Their arms were tightly around each other. There was no distance between them now.

“How is he taking this?” she asked.

“He says he wants to retire, but I’m sure this isn’t how he wants to do it.”

Yuki asked, “Brady, if they put you up for the job, will you take it?”

“I don’t know, darlin’. I like the job I have. But who would come in as chief? Levant? Or some new sheriff comes into town. That would be a game changer. I’m standing in for Jacobi while they figure out who’s going to replace him.”

“Starting when?”

“Any minute. Could be tomorrow or next week at the latest. Hon?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I’ve been so out of it. I’ve been working two jobs and depressed beyond belief. I’ve been dying to talk to you.”

She said, “It’s okay, love. I understand now. I feel so bad for what you’ve been going through.”

After Brady put the bowl on the floor, Yuki reached her arms up and put them around her husband’s neck.

He held her close, kissing her deeply, then pulled away to fumble with the little buttons at the collar of her nightgown. When the buttons frustrated him, he pulled the slip of cotton up to her waist. She put her hands between his legs.

Brady’s breathing was loud in her ears and she was burning up when he said, “Are you going to tell me about your day?”

“No, and you can’t make me.”

He grinned at her as he tugged off her panties and said, “I could just eat you up.”

“Say please.”

He laughed and said, “Please, please, please, baby, please.” He pulled her legs over his hips, telling her how much he missed her and loved her.

Their lovemaking was fierce and touching. It brought Yuki all the way back from anger and fear and grief to the only man she had ever really loved. She felt, as she always did in his arms, protected and adored. Connecting with Brady sent her to a place where she didn’t have to be in control. She could just let go.

She hoped he felt as she did—loved, understood, and safe. She was surprised when they were lying together in the afterglow and Brady began to cry in her arms.





CHAPTER 98


IT WAS THE day after my dramatic and embarrassing faint in the ladies’ room, and I was feeling pretty good. So I called a meeting of the Women’s Murder Club.

I was so glad everyone was available, because I truly needed an evening out with my best buds.

Susie’s Café is a mad scene on the weekend, filled with regulars and tourists and passersby drawn in by the smell of curry coming through the vents, the rhythmic plink of the steel drums, the bright-ocher walls, and the jollity seen through the windows.