The untouched note lies on the counter. Jacob and I look at each other and then he flips it over. It’s a plain notecard-sized piece of paper with typed words on it. I read it out loud:
Jewel—
You’ve proven yourself your uncle’s niece. Your reward is justice for a pregnant woman and her unborn child. 4455 Chop Street, Brooklyn, New York. Look in the basement.
“Oh my God,” I whisper. “Oh my God.” I grab my phone. “I have to call my boss.”
“I’ll call Royce,” Jacob says, and both of us stand up, pacing as we make our calls. From there it’s a whirlwind of more calls, and in between it all, I bag the note and the card. In what feels like an hour but is only twenty minutes, we’re rushing into the parking garage beneath the building to drive to Brooklyn. Jacob clicks the locks on a sleek black Mercedes and the minute we’re inside, the scent, all perfectly spicy and him, tells me a story. It’s his car. His very expensive car that he earned by doing very dangerous jobs.
He backs us up and in a few quick maneuvers we’re on the road, on the way to Brooklyn. I sink down in the heated seat, and a full minute passes before he breaks the silence. “What do you want to say?”
That’s all it takes. Words spill out of my mouth. “You really have made a lot of money trying to get killed, haven’t you?” I cringe. “I’m sorry. I just—”
“You’re on your way to pull two bodies out of rubble,” he says. “Death is on your mind. I get it. I know what that means to you and to us. I’ve made a lot of money, Jewel. I’ve invested it well. I already told you. I don’t need those jobs anymore.”
“Is that how it was? Did you need them?”
“For the money, no. It was never the money.” He stares straight ahead. “It was always about needing something that left no room for anything else.”
“The way every case I work leaves no room for anything else.”
“I guess that’s where you’re going to have to decide if you can leave room for me.”
“You already made that decision for me,” I say, without any hesitation.
He flicks me a look. “I don’t want to make any decisions for you, Jewel. And that’s not how I want to be in your life.”
“But you did, by being so damn big and impossible to ignore,” I tease, but quickly sober, reaching over the seat to press my hand to his leg. “I’m glad you’re here, Jacob. Especially tonight.”
He reaches down and covers my hand with his. “You’re giving them justice. You’re ensuring he never hurts anyone else.”
“I know. I do. I want this, but I can walk into a gory crime scene and be fine. Watching someone who was shoved into the ground by a monster, get dug up, is another story. It’s the finality of their lives that always hits me. I’ve never actually told anyone that.”
“I’m glad you told me. That you know you really can be human with me.”
“You be human now. What gets to you?”
“Children. I don’t like to see children die.” He glances over at me. “In other words, I’m not looking forward to this either. I vote we get drunk on tequila and each other when this is over.”
“Because it’s over or because it’s not over? We still haven’t found the slayer.”
“But we will,” he promises. “And when we do, I’ll make sure he’s gone for good. You have my word.”
Four hours later, Jacob and I stand outside the broken-down building where the bodies of a pregnant woman and her unborn child have been found. And while there is much that isn’t over, there is one thing that is: the lies of a billionaire CEO who will pay for his sins. My boss breaks from a cluster of forensics specialists and joins us. “You did good work, detective,” he says, scrubbing the three-day old stubble on his jaw. “By next week, if the DA gets his way, the lead counsel on this case will have the monster who did this in front of a judge for sentencing. It will be a good day.”
“Yes,” I say. “It will be a good day.”
He offers his hand to Jacob. “Thank you to you and your team for the support they’ve give Detective Carpenter. And to the department. Without you, we wouldn’t know that Rodriquez was dirty.” He refocuses on me. “Honestly, I knew he hated your uncle. I knew he was competitive with you—”
“Wait,” Jacob says. “What? He had an issue with her uncle?”
He looks at me. “You didn’t know?”
“No,” I say. “I had no idea he had issues with my uncle.”
“More like your uncle had issues with him. He didn’t like him. Called him a snake in the grass to his face.”
“My uncle hardly spoke to anyone. He certainly never spoke badly to anyone.”
“Well he spoke to him and to me about him. Told me once over whiskey that Rodriquez had the same vibe as a serial killer he arrested a decade back.”
I frown. “You knew all of this, and you actually accused me of sleeping with him?”
“He had a photo of you in his wallet.”
I blanch. “What? He—what?”
“IA was going to question you as a suspect. I put them in check real quick when we found out Rodriquez was dirty. But there is much more to this story.”
“What more?” Jacob asks, his hand settling protectively at my back.
“Rodriquez had newspaper clippings in his apartment from a half-dozen of her uncle’s cases,” he replies, looking from Jacob to me. “Bottom line, Little C. He won’t be fucking with your head anymore. He won’t be leaving you notes. And there won’t even be a funeral or service for him. He’s being cremated, and his will specified no service.” Someone shouts for him, and he lifts a hand to hold them off, speaking to me as he does. “Go home. Rest. Deal with the DA tomorrow and then milk the Walkers for as many free hours as we can get to solve the next case. You’ll go back in rotation after the sentencing hearing.” He turns and walks away.
I face Jacob, but I say nothing. I honestly don’t know what to say. “I know,” he says, as if I’ve spoken my confusion out loud before he wraps his arm around my shoulder, and sets us in motion toward the car.
Once we’re both inside, we sit there, in silence for several seconds. “It was Rodriquez?” I ask.
“Why was that a question?”
“Because it doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel done and yet, everything we were just told, says it was him. It just doesn’t feel final.”
“We’ll make it final,” he promises. “One way or the other. We both need to be at peace with how this ends.”
A long time later, I lay in bed with Jacob, both of us on our sides, facing each other. For hours, we stay that way, talking about everything that happened today, and tonight. “Maybe I’ll never be right with this ending,” I say. “It doesn’t feel like the right ending.”
“Then I think we should take steps to ensure your safety.” He brushes hair from my eyes. “Don’t rush back to your apartment. You’re safe here and I want you here.”
“You think I need protection? For how long?”
He wraps his leg around mine. “What I think, is that you belong here with me. Stay, Jewel.”
I could say no. I could leave and put space between us. I think about it, too, but the thing is, I don’t want to leave. I don’t want space. Tonight has reminded me that life is short and I don’t want to waste one moment of his or mine. “Yes,” I say. “Yes. I’ll stay.”
My reward is his smile, followed by his mouth on mine, his big body pressed close. His arms around me when I fall asleep, on a night when the finality of death would normally haunt me and keep me lying awake.