CHAPTER FOURTEEN

AJ yawned again, making Kate yawn with her.

“It’s been a long day. I appreciate the coffee and the confidential conversation—and getting to know you better—but I guess it’s time I get home and kiss my kid. The big one and the little one. On days like this it helps me to remember that there really is good left in the world.”

Right then, Kate couldn’t find much of the good. John’s murder was a crushing blow, but finding out what he had been doing, as well as what she was able to do, made the world that Kate thought she knew feel foreign and hostile. She was exhausted and knew that she needed to get some sleep, but she doubted she would get much.

“I’ve got to be at John’s house early,” AJ said. “We have a lot of investigation still to do and evidence that needs to be processed. We also need to interview all the neighbors. Between combing through the crime scene and trying to find someone who might have seen or heard something, I’m hoping that I can find pieces of this puzzle that will lead me to John’s killer. It’s going to be several days yet before we’re finished up at his house and we can turn the place over to you.”

Kate couldn’t help remembering the blood all over the living room. She imagined that even after it was cleaned up, she would still see it, if only in her mind’s eye. The place, for her, would always be haunted by ghosts.

“You said that a lot of murders go unsolved.”

“This isn’t one of those kind,” AJ insisted. “We’re going to catch this guy. In the meantime, I suggest that you wait until after the place has been thoroughly cleaned before going back there. I’ll get you those names of some reputable companies that can handle it for you.”

Kate couldn’t bear to worry about such details right then, so she simply said, “All right.”

AJ slid out from behind the table and stood. “Here, give me your phone.”

Kate pulled it out of a pocket, unlocked it, and handed it over. The woman started tapping away with her thumbs, then took her own phone out of her jacket pocket and made entries into it.

“I put my name and cell in your contacts list, and yours in mine, so if you want to know anything at all, just call me. If I can’t take it, I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

Kate set her phone down on the counter beside her laptop. “Okay. Thanks.” She could only imagine how busy the detective must be.

“I wish I had more answers, Kate. But for now I wanted you to know about your brother—that he was a good man. It was important to me that you know he helped put a couple of killers away for life and in all likelihood saved other people from being murdered. You’ve done the same thing tonight. You don’t know how much I appreciate it.

“No one other than you and I will know about this, but it will help stop two killers. I’m going to make sure that guy is never able to harm another child. I want you to hold on to that. In all the terrible things you’ve learned today, that’s something good. You helped keep some good people alive.”

Kate nodded and thanked the detective as she walked her to the door. She supposed that sooner or later the woman was going to want to show Kate more photos. In a way, it gave her an inner rush to know that she was able to help stop such animals.

“Please, when you have time, or if you learn anything, keep me informed?”

AJ flashed a sympathetic smile. “I’ll be in touch—I promise. I’m hoping that as soon as I start questioning people and develop some leads you might be able to help me identify the guy who did this to John.”

“Gladly,” Kate said, and meant it. She wanted John’s killer found and punished.

She wanted him dead.

AJ turned back from the doorway. “Look, Kate, I want you to know that I’ll keep digging, but I don’t think this is going to turn out to be an ordinary case. There are too many strange things about it.”

“Like John chaining a killer up in his basement?”

“That would be at the top of my list, especially since I knew John and I would never have thought him capable of doing such a thing. Knowing John, he had to have had a powerful reason.”

Kate frowned, staring down at the floor as she ran the conversation back through her mind. She looked up. “I just thought of something. When John was on the phone with me when I got back in town, before he told me to run, he told me that he’d gone to put flowers on our parents’ grave.”

“What of it?”

“He said that someone was watching him.”

AJ’s brows drew together over her dark eyes. “Really.”

“I told him that it was probably just someone putting flowers on another grave—and it probably was. John was pretty fearful when he was out by himself, so he might have imagined it.”

“I don’t really believe in coincidence,” AJ said.

“I have to tell you, I never have, either. That’s why I’m mentioning it.”

“I wish I understood what the hell was going on and what it all means.”

“You think you’re confused?” Kate asked. “I’m upside down and inside out.”

AJ smiled reassurance. “I’ll be there to help you figure it out. You won’t be alone in this, I promise.”

“Thanks. That means a lot to me, it really does.”

AJ handed Kate a card. “I put my number in your phone, but keep this handy as well, just in case. It’s my personal card. It has my cell and my home phone number, so you should be able to get me anytime, day or night.”

The card had a City of Chicago badge printed beside her last name. “Just like the one you gave John?”

She nodded with a deadly serious demeanor. “Listen, Kate, don’t be afraid to call me. Anytime. I mean it. I don’t live that far from here.” She leaned in and pointed. “See? There’s my address. I can be here in no time. Lights flashing, guns blazing.”

Kate smiled as she used her first finger to mimic the detective’s earlier imitation of a gun. “Guns blazing.”

“I mean it, Kate.”

“I know.” Kate knew that AJ wished John had listened and that he had called her. She very well might have been able to help him. AJ didn’t want Kate to make the same mistake of not calling for help.

“Will you call me if you hear any more from Jack Raines?”

“Absolutely.”

AJ paused in the doorway, as if trying to decide something. She tapped the palm of her hand against the doorjamb, considering. She finally turned from staring off into the darkness to look back at Kate.

“Angel.”

Kate’s nose wrinkled. “What?”

“My first name. It’s Angel. Angel Janek. You asked me before what the ‘A’ in ‘AJ’ stood for. It stands for Angel.”

Kate folded her arms and shrugged. “That’s a great name. A wonderful name. Why wouldn’t you want to tell people?”

AJ made a sour expression. “I’m a female homicide detective. I have to be tough if I want to be respected. Angel just sounds … I don’t know, froufrou. I’ve always been afraid that if people knew my name was Angel they wouldn’t take me seriously.”

Kate studied the other woman’s eyes for a moment. “I think the perception of a person’s name is shaped by their character. Genghis Khan sounds like he could be a monk in a monastery if you didn’t know anything about him. The name only sounds intimidating because the man was.

“As strong as you are, I don’t think people would take your name lightly. You said yourself that day by day there is more sympathy for the devil. I bet that the people on our side of civilization would think of you as an avenging Angel.”

“Avenging Angel.” AJ smiled. “I like that. I should have met you sooner. But I think I’m stuck with AJ, now.”

As she walked to her police cruiser, she turned, walking backward for a moment, pointing her finger gun at Kate like she had in the police car.

“You’re everything John said you were, Kate Bishop.”

As she watched the woman climb into her police cruiser, Kate smiled at the thought of the way she was always an invincible hero in her brother’s eyes, but then the smile faded.

Kate leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb and folded her arms as she watched the taillights of the unmarked police car vanish down the empty street.