The Bitter Season (Kovac and Liska, #5)(103)

“Todd’s wife had a little boy yesterday,” he said. “Maybe it’s contagious.”

He kissed her forehead and stepped back. “I’ll make you some oatmeal and tea for breakfast. That always settles your stomach. Come sit and tell me how your day was yesterday.”

“Nothing special,” she said, following him.

She spied Detective Liska’s business card on the dining room table, swept it up, and tucked it into the pocket of her sweater. Given her job, it wouldn’t have been unusual to find a cop’s business card lying around, but the word Homicide jumped out. She dealt primarily with Sex Crimes detectives in her work with the girls at Chrysalis.

That truth struck her oddly today. Ted Duffy had been a Sex Crimes detective. Her life was running in some kind of weird circle as it turned back to that time.

It all worked out for you . . .

“Pete Heller’s wife said there were a lot of cop cars in the neighborhood last night,” Eric said as he gathered ingredients and pots at the stove. “Did you hear if there was something going on?”

“No,” Evi said, taking a seat on a counter stool. “Oh, well, they’re looking everywhere for a man who might be connected to that horrible murder of that professor and his wife.”

“They didn’t come around knocking on doors, did they?” he asked, looking troubled. “Good thing I’m home for a couple of days. I don’t want you and Mia home alone if the cops think that guy might be in our neighborhood. I’ll call Brad Dunn later. He’ll have the scoop.”

A bolt of panic shot through Evi. Eric knew almost as many patrol cops as he did firefighters. She hadn’t even thought about that when Kate told her she would see that extra patrols came through the neighborhood. Would the officers have been told to keep a special eye on the Burke house? Would they have been told why?

Evi hadn’t wanted to worry Eric over the note when she thought it might be connected to the Anders case. She had no intention of telling him anything about her connection to the reopened investigation of Ted Duffy’s murder. There was no need to burden him with her ancient past . . . unless that past could put her family in jeopardy.

The idea turned her stomach over and over. A vague note and a late night phone call didn’t constitute a threat, she tried to tell herself. That’s what the police would say. What would her husband say if he found out she was keeping these things from him? Would he be hurt? Would he be angry? He had worked so hard to gain her trust over the course of their relationship, and here she was hiding something that could be potentially dangerous to them.

“We’re going to need a bigger house,” he said, setting her tea on the counter in front of her.

Evi looked up, startled.

“You’re a lovely shade of pale green,” he said, with a sweet, soft smile as he came around the counter to wrap her up in his arms. “Looks like morning sickness to me.”

“I hope so,” Evi murmured, fighting tears.

She wrapped her arms around her husband’s neck and buried her face against his shoulder.

It all worked out for you . . .





34


“He came in out of the rain to use the bathroom,” Tippen said as they watched the security video. “Betrayed by his own bowels. It’s one for the anals.”

He chuckled diabolically as everyone else groaned at his play on words.

“What time was this?” Kovac asked, squinting at the television screen. Even with his glasses, the time and date stamp was squiggly.

“Five seventeen this morning at the SuperAmerica convenience store on Thirty-fourth Avenue, south of the Minnehaha Parkway,” Elwood said, pushing a pin with a red head into the map on the war room wall.

“You’re sure it’s him?”

“Looks like him,” Tippen said, referencing the photo on the wall. “Same hair, same beard. The clerk was dead certain. Said he acted shady.”

“Him and every other street twitch sneaking into a bathroom meant for paying customers,” Kovac said. “What do you think, Tinks?”

“I think this bearded lumberjack fad has to end soon, or I’m going to become a lesbian.”

“Is that supposed to be a threat?” Tippen asked, “Or a tantalizing glimpse into one of my favorite fantasies?”

Liska threw a piece of stale donut at him, hitting him in the forehead. “Not in front of the children, you disgusting pervert,” she returned without rancor.

Taylor was glaring at Tippen like a hungry guard dog, clearly unhappy with Tippen’s apparent lack of respect for the lady of the group.

“Don’t worry about Tinks, kid,” Kovac said. “She could turn Tippen inside out by the scrotum if she wanted to.”

“Don’t give me ideas,” Liska said. “I don’t have time to play. Let’s get back on point, please.”

“Second possible sighting at Oxendale’s Market, just down the street from the convenience store,” Elwood said, sticking another pin in the map. “A truck driver delivering produce thought he saw Krauss hopping out of a Dumpster behind the store. That’s two sightings, blocks apart, within an hour and a half of each other.”

Kovac scratched his head as he stared at the map. “He’s a long way from Rising Wings. What’s he doing on that end of town?”