He thought he’d won the sex-fantasy lotto. The guy undressed them with his eyes, probably imagining girl-on-girl action. Hell, the jerk was so balled up in testosterone and his own agenda, he hadn’t noticed they’d changed their names three times since they arrived.
“Yeah, we like it. The money’s decent.” Alexa took a pull of her beer, giving him a visual aid, then asked with perfect timing, “What were you saying about helping us out if we moved here?”
It took Burke a long moment to recall what he’d said.
“Oh, yeah…right.” A bead of sweat trickled down from his temple. The air was stale and muggy, but Burke had his internal furnace working overtime. He took a swig of beer to cool off. “For gas money plus change, I loan out my car, mainly to friends and people in the building. But with you two, maybe we could work out a…trade.”
“Wow, that’s very generous of you, Jason.” She turned to Alexa, and said, “He’s sure making it easy for us.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.” The blonde returned her smile. “So what now?”
Good question. And from the look in Alexa’s eyes, Jess knew she was on the same page.
With a little legwork, the cops could run down Burke’s friends and others in the apartment building to see who might have used his car on the night Mandy was killed. At least she had enough to tip off Sam. In her mind, there was no need to continue questioning him on the car. If he were guilty, it would only give him a heads-up that CPD hadn’t bought his story on the I-PASS.
“I’m thinking I’d like to have a little one-on-one time with our new friend,” she told Alexa.
She knew the woman understood her meaning, but Burke remained entrenched in his delusional male fantasies. All that remained were questions about Mandy, and Jess was relieved. That meant she could drop playing nice. He’d need incentive to talk about his murdered ex-girlfriend, especially if they wanted to get at the truth. And taking the gloves off with a guy like Burke fit into her comfort zone of dealing with sleaze-balls. No pretense required.
“If you don’t have a stomach for this, hang outside in the hall.” Jess stood, her gaze fixed on Alexa. “Be my eyes and ears?”
The tall blonde got to her feet.
“You don’t know me very well.” Alexa shifted her glare to Burke. “I want in on this.”
“What? What’s happening?” he asked.
His goofy grin had returned. And the man’s eyes were bugging from his shiny bald head, shifting between Jess and Alexa.
“Ladies, there’s plenty of Burke to go around. You don’t have to fight. Why not all three of us?” He shrugged, acting like threesomes happened to him all the time.
Yeah, right! In your dreams, dude! Like all they needed to get the party going was picking a safe word.
“I could go for that.” Alexa nodded. “Why not?”
“Oh, wow. Cool.” Burke looked like he was about to wet himself.
But she busted his mood by drawing her Colt Python—the muzzle aimed between his eyes—and said, “Let’s skip the foreplay.”
“Hey, what the hell is this?” he blustered.
“I’ve got Flexicuffs on my belt in a dispenser. Use ’em.” Jess ignored Burke and took charge, directing her comment to Alexa. “That radiator should work.”
Before Burke made a fuss, Jess said, “There’s a reason we wanted the music up loud, Jason. Think about it. And don’t make me shoot you.”
Alexa got to work and cuffed him to the radiator. She used the plastic restraints Jess carried with her for multiple arrests. With his hands tied to opposite ends, he sat with hunched shoulders and his butt on metal. For good measure, Alexa bound his ankles, too.
They’d have his undivided attention now.
“What’s this all about? It ain’t right, you comin’ in here like this.”
“We wanna hear what you’ve got to say about Mandy,” Jess told him.
“Mandy? How do you know her?” Staring into the Colt Python, Burke didn’t wait for an answer. “Hey, I got an alibi. I wasn’t anywhere near that motel. The cops know all about it.”
“Yeah, that’s what we hear, but humor us. She ever live here with you?”
Jess holstered her weapon, and Alexa backed off, giving her room to “work.”
“Yeah, but she moved out a month ago. We had a fight.”
“I find that hard to believe. An easygoing guy like you? What was the fight about?”
“Money. It was always about money.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“I saw her a few days before she was killed. She tried to make me feel sorry for her, but I’d had enough of her act. That scrawny bitch used men to get what she wanted.” He sneered. “All she cared about was cash to feed her habit. And she didn’t give a rat’s ass what she had to do to get it neither. She was playin’ that asshole, the guy who killed her. I seen him with her. Who knows what she did to piss him off?”
“Try again, asshole. ’Cause that damned tune ain’t gonna play with us.” Jess stepped closer. And when he flashed another arrogant smirk, she reached for a shiny gold ring that pierced his eyebrow and gave it a sharp twist.
“Damn it, bitch!” he spat.
Burke had squirmed and pulled his head back. Now the ring dangled loose, nearly ripping through his skin. Blood trickled down his cheek, mixing with sweat.
“Oops. You shouldn’t have moved, slick.”
“You better hope I don’t get loose,” he threatened.
“Actually, I hope you do.” She fixed her eyes on him. “In fact, I’m counting on it.”
To make her point, Jess retrieved a knife from her boot. Dim light from a nearby lamp reflected off the blade. And his eyes grew wide.
“Hey, you don’t need that. What do you want to know?”
“The truth, Jason. We just want the truth.” After he settled down, she asked, “Besides hooking, did Mandy have other ways to earn coin? And don’t bother to lie ’cause I’ll know it.”
When Burke didn’t speak fast enough, Jess reached for another pull tab.
“Okay, okay. Just lay off the metal.” He jerked his head, trying to stay clear of her hand. “Right before our fight, Mandy came into some dough.”
“I thought you said the fight was over money, not having enough.”
“It was more like, she lived under my roof, and I wanted my share.” He shook his head. “I never actually saw her stash, but I always knew when she was holding out on me. I figured she scored big bucks off a guy. When I asked her about it, she didn’t have much to say. We fought. She left. End of story. She packed her stuff and took off when I was at work.”
“So you were wanting a piece of her action. Real nice, slick. You have any ideas on how she got the money?”
“Blackmail, lady. That little bitch was blackmailing someone. At least, that’s what I figured out after I asked around, but no one could tell me nuthin’ for sure.”
“Any ideas who she was bleeding?”
“The guy who killed her, that’s who. He looked like he had deep pockets. Real used to money, you know what I mean?”
“But you don’t know this for a fact.”
He shook his head. “No, but I had a bad feeling about that kid from the first time I saw him. He didn’t look right. I always thought he was obsessed with Mandy for some reason, the way he kept coming around. I thought she put an end to that, but I guess not. Not if they were at a motel when he whacked her.”
Even a jerk like Jason Burke could damage Harper’s chances in court. He’d seen Seth with Mandy and could testify that Seth had been obsessed with her. Jess clenched her jaw. And Burke’s story had a ring of despicable truth since the bastard hadn’t tried to hide the fact he wanted to cut in on her action, whatever it was.