Kat didn’t know much about Tolan, but she knew the alert had been initiated by Frank Blackburn and that was good enough for her.
Unlike most of her fellow officers — hell, most of the squad, for that matter — Kat liked Frank. She knew that every time she walked away from him he was ogling her ass, but that didn’t bother her. She’d put a lot of time into making it a view worth ogling, so if people weren’t going to appreciate it, what was the point?
Besides, Frank’s backside wasn’t so bad either. And while she might not admit it out loud, she’d thought more than once about what it would be like to grab a couple handfuls while he did whatever he wanted with those nice big hands of his.
They’d been circling each other for over a month now, the circle getting smaller with each pass. Sooner or later, there’d be a head-on collision and Kat was looking forward to it.
But back to reality. While Hogan shone his flashlight into the girlfriend’s car, a sparkling new silver BMW parked in the drive, Kat leaned on the doorbell again.
They knew the girlfriend was inside. Had seen her turn in from down the block, where they’d been waiting for the last half hour. So Kat couldn’t quite understand what was taking so long.
She was about to ring the bell again when the door finally opened a crack and an attractive woman in her early thirties peeked out. Her hair was wet. Looked like she was wearing a bathrobe. She’d obviously been in the shower.
Which reminded Kat that she’d never taken one herself. She suddenly felt sticky and gross.
“Lisa Paymer?”
“Yes?”
“Sorry to bother you, ma’am, but we’re here about a Dr. Michael Tolan.”
Paymer’s face fell and she opened the door wider. “My God, is he hurt?”
Kat realized she should have phrased that differently. “No, ma’am, it isn’t that. We’re looking for him, is all. We were hoping he might be here.”
“Here?” Paymer said. “I haven’t seen him since this morning.”
“At the hospital?”
“Yes, I’ve tried calling him, but he doesn’t answer, and I’ve been worried sick. Why are you looking for him? Is he in some kind of trouble?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that. Would you mind if we came in and took a look around?”
“I told you, he’s not here.”
“It’s just a formality,” Kat said. “Part of the job. And it’s entirely up to you.”
Paymer hesitated a moment, then gestured them inside. “Be my guest.”
Kat nodded to Hogan and he moved around the BMW and joined her, the two of them stepping into a nicely appointed living room with oriental rugs and off-white furniture. It looked like a photo out of House Beautiful. The kind Kat usually found herself drooling over while she waited her turn at the dental clinic.
She and Hogan took a perfunctory look around, Hogan sticking his head through a doorway that led into the kitchen, then moving down a short hallway to what looked to be an extra bedroom.
Kat glanced toward a set of carpeted steps that led to the second floor, but decided not to bother going upstairs. Paymer had seemed genuinely surprised that they were looking for Tolan, and her willingness to let them search the place was a fair indication that she wasn’t hiding anything.
A moment later, Hogan returned, and Kat knew from his expression that he thought this was as much of a waste of time as she did.
They exchanged a look, then moved back to the front doorway. “Sorry to bother you, ma’am.”
“You don’t want to go upstairs?”
“I think we’re okay,” Kat said. “Sorry for the intrusion.”
As they were about to step outside, Paymer said, “Wait.”
Kat turned to see her digging through her purse on the coffee table. She brought out a business card and handed it to Kat.
“If you do find him, please call me right away. Both my home and cell are on there.”
Kat glanced at the card, nodded, then unsnapped her shirt pocket and slipped it in.
“You have a good evening,” she said, then went outside.
When the door closed behind them, Hogan whistled. “Wish they grew ’em like that at my hospital.”
“Keep your voice down, dumbass. She might hear you.”
Hogan waved her off as they headed down the drive to their cruiser. “I’m sure she’s used to it. But I’ll lay odds she didn’t buy that house with the money she earned cleaning up after crazies.”
Kat nodded. “I’m guessing she’s daddy’s little rich girl. She’s got that pampered look.”
“You gotta give her credit for taking a job at Baycliff.”
Kat was about to agree with him when her cell phone bleeped. She dug it out and clicked it on. “Pendergast.”
“Hey, hot stuff, you on duty yet?”
Frank Blackburn.
Kat stifled a smile. “Unfortunately, yes. They called us in early. What’s up?”
“I’ve got a favor to ask you and your partner. Strictly off the books.”
Kat glanced at Hogan. “What do you need?”
“A lookout.”
“For what?”
“What else?” Blackburn said. “A little B and E.”
46
When the front door closed, Tolan let out a breath.
He was pretty sure he’d been holding it ever since the doorbell rang. He hadn’t been able to hear much of what was going on downstairs, but it was enough to let him know that the police were looking for him.
The question was, why?
Did they know about Carmody?
A moment later, Lisa was back upstairs, pulling open the closet door. It was a big walk-in adjacent to her bedroom that provided plenty of room for both Tolan—
— and the body.
Lisa had taken her bathrobe off and was standing there in her bra and panties. As the light spilled inside, illuminating the rolled-up comforter that lay at Tolan’s feet, the absurdity of the situation suddenly hit him.
What the hell were they doing?
Instead of hiding from the police he should have called out to them. Instead of helping to get rid of a body, a cop’s body, no less — a cop he knew—he should have reported the death immediately.
But he hadn’t. Because Lisa was right. They would assume that he, not Vincent, had killed Sue Carmody. And before he had a chance to explain, his arms would be yanked behind him, his wrists cuffed, and he’d be spending the rest of his life in a jail cell.
And how, exactly, would he explain this?
Because, despite his protests, something Vincent had said kept running through his mind:
We had a lot of fun with her this afternoon.
It was the we that got to him. The we, accompanied by his bloodied shirt and his jacked-up memory. He’d had another blackout. Another gap in time. This one bigger than ever.
The image of a blade piercing flesh once again flitted through his mind.
Who, he wondered, was holding that blade?
Lisa stepped into a pair of blue jeans. “We need to get her downstairs.”
“Why are the police looking for me?”
“They wouldn’t elaborate.” She fastened the jeans and grabbed a T-shirt from a hook on the door. “But I guess I could have invited them to dinner. Maybe they would’ve told me all about it.”
It was a pointed jab, and he knew he deserved it.
“Look, I’m sorry. I thought I was protecting you.”
“That’s my job, remember?”
She pulled the T-shirt over her head, the words BEST IN SHOW plastered across her chest.
“What happened at the hospital?” Tolan asked. “After I left?”
She gestured to Carmody’s body. “Apparently this did. Now help me get her downstairs.”