"Apparently, he has questions for me. Maybe I'm the new suspect." She laughed and the sound was ragged to her own ears. "Wouldn't that be interesting? The only victim who survived the Iceman turns into a killer."
"You aren't a killer," Tucker snapped.
"I'll call you soon, okay?" He has to stay away. Why did that hurt so much?
"Dawn-"
She ended the call and faced Anthony once again. "It seems Tucker is under orders to stay away from me."
"That's a good thing, Dawn."
Not to her.
She straightened her shoulders. "Did I have that last part right? You're here asking me questions because now I'm suddenly on the suspect list?"
He looked uncomfortable but said, "The questions have to be asked. You did have access to the inside of Jinx's condo. Maybe you slipped inside-"
"And killed my best friend? Why? Why in the hell would I do that?"
"Because you're an amazing PI. And you knew the identity of her lover. You knew that Jinx was sleeping with Tucker."
"This is bullshit." She moved toward the door. "I need you to leave, now."
But he didn't move. "What if I told you that during his interrogation today...Tucker Frost admitted that he was intimately involved with Jinx?"
Her heartbeat thundered in her chest. "Then I'd say you were lying."
He blinked.
"Don't play your games with me." Her heart raced even faster. "I've seen you do this-mislead suspects as you try to get them to slip up. It's not going to happen with me..."
"Because you're too careful to make mistakes?"
"Because I haven't done anything wrong, and neither has Tucker." She opened the door. "Goodbye."
He walked toward her, but stopped before exiting. "Do you think I like having to ask you these questions?"
"I have no idea."
"I hate it. But I have to do my job. My captain says interview you, says use our friendship to get close and find out the truth-"
She flinched.
"So I play my role. I come over here and I do my part, and I hate it." His breath expelled. "But I've got a morgue that's filling up with bodies. I have a killer to catch, and I will catch that perp, no matter what I have to do or who I have to hurt."
///
She inclined her head toward the door.
"How are you so certain he wasn't sleeping with Jinx? Why do you have this blind trust with him? That's not the way I thought it would be." Genuine confusion showed on his face. "Why?"
Because maybe I never stopped loving him. Maybe despite all the hell that came calling, I couldn't cut the link that bound us.
And I don't think he could, either.
"Sometimes-" her voice was soft "-you meet someone who seems to fit you so perfectly. As if a part of you has been missing and then-bam. It's there."
His brows rose. "He's your fucking missing part?"
"No. I'm his."
Confusion appeared again. She didn't have time for his confusion. She guided Anthony out of her home, shut the door, locked it and then nearly collapsed against that door frame.
Her breath came too fast. Her heart was racing hard enough to rattle her chest. And her hands were damp with sweat.
Fear could do that to a woman. Fear could make your whole body shake and quake. But fear could not hold her back. She pushed away from the door and headed into her bedroom. She went straight for the closet. She yanked open the door, turned on the light and stared at the back wall, the wall that had been nailed shut by Bowen. Dawn studied that space for a moment, then she turned on her heel and marched into her small utility room. Her washer and dryer sat to the side, and her tool box... Ah, yes, there it was. Top shelf. She grabbed the tool box and shoved aside the assortment of screw drivers that she had.
Her fingers curled around her hammer.
Time to get to work.
* * *
JULIA SAT BEHIND her desk. There were too many bodies. Too many dead. Too many victims. In the last few days, she'd seen too much violence. Even when she wasn't at work, the victims haunted her. She could never seem to shut them out of her mind.
She needed to give them justice.
She rose to her feet. Julia started to reach for her gloves, but the door to her lab swung open. She tensed immediately. Was the guy at the check-in desk just letting a parade into her office?
"Baby, did I scare you?"
Her father gave her a big smile. The kind of smile that had always made her feel safe when she was a little girl.
"Sorry, Dad." To her, he was always just Dad. To the rest of the world, he was Jones. A force to be reckoned with. Her force. "This case...it has me a little jumpy." A little? Try a lot. Maybe it was because of Jinx. Because she looked at that woman and thought...