Page 20 of The Death
“Rude,” she substituted.
“Rude,” he repeated. “But I’d given up all night to sit with you in that morgue even though I had business to take care of that could have been important to both of us. I couldn’t allow myself to become distracted.”
“I never asked you to sit with me and hold my hand,” Celine said coldly. “All I wanted was for you to arrange to get me permission to go there. I thought you were someone important in the police department.”
“And now you don’t think that?” He poured her coffee and was carrying the cup across the room to her. “Please don’t throw this at me. It would please Rashid too much if he heard about it later. If you spare me, I’ll tell you what I was doing at that precinct tonight. And then I’ll tell you a few more interesting facts about Jossland that you’ll need to know.”
“This isn’t a game.”
“No, it’s dead serious. With the emphasis ondead.”
She looked at the coffee and then slowly took the cup. “You’re not a regular policeman, are you? In addition to the watch, you don’t dress like a cop, and you scoot around town in a limo with a driver. And yet you seemed to have the run of the precinct. You knew that lieutenant. But those M.E. agents at the morgue had to call someone to verify you had the authority to let me view Barnaby.”
“All very true.”
“But they practically snapped to attention after they called for permission. So you’re someone who wields a lot of power. Who the hell are you?”
“As I said, Alex Dominic.”
“And why did you come to see me tonight?”
“I had to question you in case you had information I needed. It was necessary.”
“And why did that lieutenant and those other cops welcome you with open arms?”
“You might say politics entered into the picture. I’m a very good friend of the commissioner. I asked him to give me carte blanche with this particular case.”
“And he did it? Just like that?”
Dominic shrugged. “I assured him I’d clear the matter up to his satisfaction.”
“Satisfaction! Barnaby’s dead.”
“Don’t worry. The commissioner is a politician, and he only wants a clean slate. But it will be done exactly as it should be… as you’d want it to be.”
“And how do you know how I’d want it to be?” she asked fiercely. “You don’t really know anything about me.”
“I know much more about you than most of the people inyour life,” he said. “Because I’ve been doing a bit of research on you lately, and though I can’t claim to know you intimately, I believe we came a little closer last night. We’re no longer strangers.”
“Research?” She shook her head. “Why would you be doing research on me? What kind of research?”
“As I said, I had to make myself completely familiar with you. Therefore, it had to be rather in-depth.”
She was looking at him in bewilderment. “Because of that monster Jossland?”
“No, it didn’t start out that way. He’s just a minor part of the puzzle.”
“Minor?” she repeated harshly. “He’s a very big part of the puzzle. He killed Barnaby. Or was that a lie, too?”
“No lies, Celine. I told you I’d tell you the truth.” He shook his head. “It’s just a damnably confusing truth at the moment. The first thing you should know is that Jossland is a very nasty thug who works for an underworld boss named Ezra Caldwell. If Jossland tried to hurt or kidnap you the other night, it was almost certainly at Caldwell’s orders. As far as we can tell, Caldwell has a plan to steal gold from a mine in Central Africa, and it involves at least three people who have been brought to our attention: Masini Zakira, Eve Duncan, and you, Celine.”
“What?” Celine shook her head emphatically. “That’s crazy. It sounds like something from a kid’s comic book.”
“Except it wasn’t a kid who killed your friend Barnaby,” Dominic said. “And if they showed you Jossland’s police file, you’d notice that his past crimes usually involved torture and dismemberment.” He paused. “You do remember what you saw in that morgue last night?”
Celine inhaled sharply as that memory jolted back to her. “I could hardly forget,” she said bitterly. “Damn you!”
“I didn’t want to have to remind you,” he said softly. “But you had to accept it. Because it wasn’t really Barnaby he wanted to kill. It was you.”
