Nancy’s gaze snapped to him. “Let go of me, nigger!”
Tower followed suit, grabbing her by the wrist and elbow. Together, both detectives slammed her to the ground with an arm-bar takedown. Nancy grunted loudly as she landed on the sidewalk. Her cheek bounced off the concrete, splitting the skin. Blood flowed from the small injury.
“You fucking bastards! This is police brutality!”
Tower said nothing, transferring into a prone-cuffing technique. He knelt across the back of Nancy’s neck to keep her still. Browning pinned her other arm to the ground.
“Rape!” Nancy screeched. “The fucking cops are raping me!”
Tower slipped he handcuffs onto her fat wrist and lowered it to the small of her back. Browning forced her other arm to where Tower held the cuffs.
“Call the cops!” she yelled. “Police brutality! You fuckers!”
Tower finished cuffing her and they rolled her onto her side, then into a seated position.
“You need to sit up on your own,” Tower said through gritted teeth.
“Fuck you!”
Tower sighed and looked at Browning. Browning grabbed her underneath the opposite arm and they lifted her to her feet. Nancy struggled with them as they walked her over to the police car.
“Help! Somebody help!”
“Enough with the hysterics,” Tower muttered.
“I’m going to sue your asses!” Nancy screeched into Tower’s face.
“You’ll be doing it from prison,” Tower told her.
Nancy stopped cold. “Prison? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You can drop the act,” Tower told her as Browning began to search her pockets. “Fred confessed to everything.”
“Everything? What everything?”
“You don’t quit, do you?” Tower shook his head. “Everything, Nancy. The van, the abduction, the murder. Everything.”
Nancy bit the inside of her mouth. Her eyes darted wildly around.
“You’ll never prove it,” she said. “You’ll never prove any of it.”
Tower shrugged. “We’ll see.”
Nancy’s shot him a look of pure rage. “Well, did he tell you that he fucked her, the disloyal son of a bitch?”
1130 hours
“What’s going on?” Georgina asked, handing the can of Coca Cola to Officer Willow.
Willow took the soda from the secretary. He jerked his thumb toward the interview room. “He was involved in that case with the kidnapped girl.”
“Really? The one they found this morning?”
Willow nodded.
“Why was the lieutenant so mad?” Georgina asked. “He stomped into the Sex Crimes Unit and yelled at Kopriva to get into his office.”
Willow looked at the plump secretary. Everyone was going to know sooner or later, he decided. But he didn’t want everyone to know it came from him.
“You can’t tell anyone, okay?” he said.
Georgina smiled and made a cross over her heart.
“I promise,” she said.
1219 hours
Kopriva sat in his chair and stared at the wall. His eyes took in the bamboo wall hanging that his sensei had given him years before when he’d earned his black belt. The picture showed a pale moon, partially eclipsed by dust or tendrils of clouds. Beneath the moon was a tiger. Sensei Allen had called the piece “Tiger Under a Raging Moon.”
Looking at it now, Kopriva allowed his eyes to slowly blur. That day seemed like decades ago to him now. He was a different person now, no longer the tiger. The throbbing pain in his shoulder and knee seemed to agree with him.
He replayed the scene at the Henderson home over and over again in his mind. Now that he knew that little Amy Dugger was alive when he was in the house, the vision was like a macabre film. Every misstep he made rang loudly in his ears like an accusation.
“I killed her,” he whispered, his voice ragged from throwing up earlier. The taste of bile remained in his mouth and he made no effort to rinse it out. It seemed fitting that he should taste it.
There was a knock at his door. It was a tentative, soft knock and he knew immediately who it belonged to.
The knock came again and he made no move to stand or open the door. After a third knock, there was a rattle of keys and Katie MacLeod came into his apartment. She spotted him sitting in the chair and gave him a small, worried smile. “I called the office, but Georgina said you’d gone home.”
Kopriva stared at her and did not reply.
“Georgina…she told me what happened.”
He remained silent.
Katie’s worried smile faded into a frown. “Stef, are you okay? It wasn’t your fault-”
“I’d like you to leave, Katie,” Kopriva said in an even voice.
She stopped suddenly. Surprise registered in her eyes. “Leave? Why?”
“I want to be alone.”
Katie was hesitant. “Okay…but are you sure you don’t want to talk about-”
“I asked you to leave!” shouted Kopriva, suddenly enraged. “Is that so fucking hard to understand?”
Katie jumped at his words, surprised. “Stef, I don’t think you should be alone if-”
“No one asked for your goddamn opinion,” Kopriva said, his voice gruff.
“Why are you talking to me like this?” Katie asked. “I’m just trying to help.”
“Then leave. That would be a big help.”
Katie said nothing, but she made no move to leave. Instead, she took a step toward Kopriva. “I know what you’re feeling,” she said to him. “I know what-”
“You don’t know shit,” Kopriva said.
Tears sprang to her eyes. “How can you say that after yesterday?”
Kopriva shook his head. “What happened on the bridge is nothing compared to what I did.”
“What?” Her eyes widened in surprise.
“You heard me.”
Katie swallowed hard and wiped away tears. “That’s the most horrible thing you could ever say.”
Kopriva didn’t respond.
“I know it hurts,” Katie said. “But it wasn’t your fault.”
“Leave me alone,” Kopriva said.
“I know how you feel, Stef,” she said. “I do.”
Kopriva looked up at her. His voice was hard and unfeeling. “You have no idea what I’m feeling. You couldn’t stop some guy from hurting a baby. Fine. Maybe you failed. I don’t know. But you didn’t kill anyone.”
“Stef-”
“I killed her!” Kopriva yelled. “Do you understand that? Now get the fuck out of my house and out of my life!”
Katie recoiled from his words, hurt and anger apparent on her face. Kopriva didn’t care.
Without a word, she turned and left, slamming the door behind her.
When the sound of the door slamming had faded into silence, Kopriva rose from his chair. He walked into the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. Reaching for the brown prescription bottle, he popped the top and shook three pills from inside. When he put the prescription bottle back in the cabinet, he stared into the mirror for a moment. Guilty eyes stared back at him.
In the refrigerator, he found a bottle of Corona beer. He tossed the three pills into the back of his throat and washed them down with the cold beer. Then he drained the entire bottle.
Inside the fridge, he was relieved to find five more bottles patiently waiting. He reached for the next one.
SEVENTEEN
1504 hours
Tower watched through the observation glass as Browning read deliberately through Fred Henderson’s confession. He marveled at how Browning was able to remain objective and to ignore the current of emotion surrounding this case. It was a difficult task for Tower.
“Where’s my wife?” Fred asked Browning.
“Jail,” Browning murmured, not looking up from the written confession.
“What was the charge, exactly?”
Browning raised his finger to quiet Fred and continued reading.
Fred waited.
Several minutes later, Browning nodded with satisfaction. “You did well, Fred,” he said, sliding the sheaf of papers across toward the man. “I just need you to sign the bottom of each page.”