Chapter 4

“This one is different.”

Pam sat doubled over scattered pictures and police reports strewed across her desk. She had downed seven cups of bad drip coffee in the span of two hours and its effects were finally kicking in—she felt both exhausted and restless.

She heard a knock and raised her eyes to the door, wondering who was idiotic enough to bother her so late in the day. When she saw Colton’s head peek in, she resisted throwing her empty coffee mug at him.

“I have the toxicology report you were asking about,” he said.

She rubbed her temples trying to stave off a crippling headache. “Why wasn’t the toxicology report in the case folder?”

“You’re asking me?” Colton dropped the report on her desk. “I’m not a file clerk.”

“Sit down.”

He sighed and eased himself down onto the empty chair by her desk. “What’s this about?”

Pam leafed through the toxicology report. “Sofia Dulgorukova’s murder.”

“We were both at the crime scene. I know what you know, which isn’t much.”

“That’s the problem. If you knew more than me we might actually get somewhere.”

“I don’t know much about her murder, but I know plenty about her,” Colton said. “She’s a slut who ended up living in a dump, giving away blow jobs in a used bookstore. She had no business sense, which is the only thing that can make me respect a woman who would choose to live her life like that.”

“Keep your piggish thoughts to yourself. They’re terrifying.”

He began to stand. “Doesn’t sound like you need me here so, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna jet…”

“Stop.” Pam interrupted him. “I do need you here.”

“Why?”

“Sit your ass back down.

“This better be good.”

“I need you to tail Julian Reeve. Everywhere he goes, you go. If he doesn’t leave his house for three days, you don’t step out of your car for three days.”

Colton almost jumped off his chair. “That shouldn’t be my frigging job. Put an officer on him. There are more useful ways for me to spend my time.”

“Your job is whatever I tell you it is. How long have you been doing this, huh? Six months? You’ve a lot of dues to pay, Colton. Just be happy I’m not telling you to go pick up my lunch.”

“How’s tailing Reeve any different?”

“You’re working a case. That’s how it’s different. Pay attention to his routine. The places he goes. Who he’s with. I want a full description of every female that goes within ten feet of him. He knows where Tatiana Thompson is and we need to find her.”

Colton nodded.

“Make sure he doesn’t see you. No one can know about this. Not even here at the station. This stays between you and me.”

“Why can’t anyone know?”

“Just do what I tell you.”

“Since when do we keep secrets around here?”

“We’re not keeping secrets. We’re protecting our case. I need you on this with me. Aren’t you my partner?”

“Listen, Sung, you like having me as your partner as much as I like having you as mine. We’ll never be part of the same circle jerk. But I’ll be your obedient errand boy if I, in return, get something I want.”

“Careful, Colton. I’m not a woman you want to bargain with.”

“If I have to stew in my fucking car for the next couple of weeks I’ll take my chances.”

“Let me guess, working beats on the North Side is looking damn good and you want me to put in a word so a transfer can happen.”

He appeared surprised, perhaps even downright insulted, by what she had just said.

“This is where I want to be. No beats on the North Side for me,” he replied.

“Then what the fuck do you want?”

“More vacation time.”

“More vacation time?” she repeated, as if he had just spoken in a foreign language she couldn’t fully comprehend.

“When I started I was promised two weeks. Now the sergeant is saying I only get one. See, that doesn’t work for me. I want my two weeks.”

“And you want me to talk to him.”

“You’ve got sway around here. If anyone can get me my vacation time, it’s you.”

“I’ll talk to the man. Can’t promise anything, though. In the meantime, you work hard as a dog. No whining.”

“Not even a growl.”

“So, what the hell are you waiting for?” Pam pointed at the door of her office. “Go do your job.”

“This will be another wild goose chase, just like when we searched his condo. Reeve is fucking loaded and motherfuckers like that don’t go down—guilty or not.”

“That’s the thing, you ever meet a psychologist or a professor who can afford to live in a place like that?”

Colton paused at Pam’s comment. She saw that he was starting to think about Reeve the way she needed him to.

He was almost out the door when Pam called out to him. “Are you sure more vacation time is really what you want?”

Colton’s expression changed and he chuckled. “Oh, don’t you worry, Sung, I know a dime piece who will make every second of that extra week be more valuable than a lifetime in Reeve’s posh condo.”