Garage Cafe, Tenth Terrace South, 12:52 p.m.

Dan hadn’t been to the Garage in ages. Most of his lunches involved work, and the Garage didn’t fit the bill when it came to the necessary atmosphere for dealing with Birmingham’s political hierarchy. A little bohemian and a lot funky, the place was perfect for guys like Corlew.

His nemesis had taken the little table way in the back, in the corner, of course.

Some things never changed.

“Well, well, Danny boy, how’s the Magic City’s top cop?” Corlew mouthed off as Dan pulled out a chair.

“I might bother with an answer if I thought you actually cared.” Dan waved off the waitress who started their way. “But I caught most of your interview with Gerard Stevens the other day. Since bashing the department and me appeared to be the crux of the broadcast I’m relatively certain you couldn’t care less.”

“You should order.” Corlew motioned for the now-confused woman to come on over. “The food here is like fine wine—it’s gotten better with age.”

“You would know.” Dan silently chastised himself for stooping to this guy’s level.

“Bleu cheese burger, medium rare, and a Bud draft.” Corlew gave her a wink. “My friend here will have the most expensive bottle of water you have in the house. And he’s picking up the tab.”

“You got it, Buddy.” The young lady gave him a big smile and a nice view of her hips swaying as she sashayed off.

When she was gone, Corlew’s smile disappeared. “What’s the deal, Daniel? You have something you need to say to me?” He shrugged. “I don’t know, like I’m sorry for being a dick or something?”

“Keep dreaming, Buddy.” Irritation worked its way into his voice, and Dan hated that Corlew could so easily rile him. It was like being back in high school again and facing off after a pivotal football game. “We need to talk about the Man in the Moon case.”

Corlew laughed. “I gotcha. You heard I’ve been retained by some of the parents who would actually like someone to find out what happened to their children.” He held his arms out in a search-me gesture. “I got nothing to hide. I did my job when those last two kids went missing.” He dropped his hands back to the table. “Can the BPD say the same about all its detectives? I don’t think so, or this case would’ve been solved years ago.”

Oh yeah. The guy still had a hard-on for making the department look bad. “It’s been a long time, Corlew. Four years.” Dan leaned across the table, his frustration getting the better of him now. “You fucked up and I did what I had to do. Drinking on the job, dragging in late, failing to file reports, shall I go on?”

Corlew said nothing, just stared straight at him as if Dan hadn’t said a word.

“If you genuinely want to help those parents, then you help them. But don’t use those people for your own selfish agenda.”

Fury flared in Corlew’s eyes. Oh yes, he’d hit a nerve with that one.

“You’re a politician, Dan. Politicians see what they want to see. Say what they think folks want to hear.” He did the leaning across the table this time. “Problem is, you’re not a liar and a cheat like most politicians. You’re one of those people who wants to believe the best in everyone—except me, naturally—so you see what you want to see. That’s gonna be your downfall, Daniel. Mark my words.”

Like he gave one shit what this jerk thought. “Just don’t make this about you,” Dan warned. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a department to see after.”

Corlew grabbed his arm when Dan would have pushed back his chair. “I’m through waiting for you to do the right thing, Danny boy. This freak’s decision to start digging up bones is a sign, my friend. I’m paying attention. Are you?”

Dan stared at him for a long moment before pulling his arm free. “This city and the citizens who live here always have my full attention.”

“And what about Jess? With all your attention on work, can you take care of her too?”

Dan reached across the table and grabbed Corlew by the shirtfront. He jerked him close. Stared straight into his eyes to make sure the man got the full intent behind his words. “If you do anything,” he snarled, the urge to do more than warn this asshole a living, breathing urgency inside him, “to hurt her or upset her in any way, I will hunt you down and beat the hell out of you like I should’ve done a long time ago.”

Corlew didn’t flinch. “Jess and I go back a long way. She knows she can count on me when the chips are down. We’re cut from the same cloth, me and Jess. You’ll see. She won’t turn on me.”

Dan smirked. “Jess knows what you are. You’re trying to play her just like you did back in high school. It won’t work. Save yourself the trouble. Stay away from her. Do we understand each other?”

“Hell, Danny boy.” Corlew laughed. “I didn’t know you still had it in you.”

Dan shoved him away. “You remember what I said and we won’t have a problem.” He stood and dropped a twenty on the table. “Enjoy your lunch.”

Struggling to regain his composure, Dan strode out of the restaurant and headed for his SUV. What he really wanted to do was to go back in there and beat the hell out of the guy on principle. If he had something on the department then he should give it up. This dancing all around it, throwing about innuendos and then dropping the ball until the next time he wanted to stir the stink was bullshit.

Be that as it may, it was Dan’s duty to make sure that all his people were clean. For the past four years he had ignored Corlew’s insinuations about Harold Black and his division. It was time to put those allegations to rest once and for all.

Might as well start with his latest off-the-cuff remarks about how the last two cases in the Man in the Moon investigation were handled. Dan put in a call to Harper for a private meeting in his office ASAP.

Harper was a good man. He could do what needed to be done without prejudice. Jess could do the same, but she had enough going on right now. Dan didn’t want to weigh her down with any additional complications.

When Dan reached the city parking garage, Harper and Cook were just pulling in.

Couldn’t ask for better timing. He climbed out, shut the door, and secured his vehicle. Harper waited in the aisle between parking lanes.

“I sent Cook to the office to complete reports.”

“Good.” Dan surveyed the garage. “I need you to look into a situation that’s been festering for a while.” As much as he needed this done, he wasn’t looking forward to it. Maybe that was why he’d put it off all this time. It was easier to despise Corlew than to think there was some truth to his allegations.

Maybe the history between them was the reason it had been so easy to believe the worst about Corlew four years ago.

Don’t even go there, Dan.

“Buddy Corlew insinuated that we fell down on those last two cases, James and Myers, in the Man in the Moon investigation. He’s been retained in his capacity as a private investigator by one or more of the victim’s families. I don’t know which ones yet. At any rate, if the department is culpable in some way I need to know it and I need to make it right if that’s possible. Chief Black swears it was all done by the book, but he was so close to the investigation his judgment may be skewed. I don’t want any question about this. I want to be absolutely certain.”

They’d been down this road with Corlew before. The trail was getting worn and rutted.

Harper considered his words for a moment. “Cook and I’ve been interviewing the cops who worked the case, from the beginning.”

“Have you picked up on some thread that’s nudged your instincts?”

Harper shook his head. “Not at all, sir. What I’ve gathered is that we did everything possible to do the impossible—find a ghost.”

That eased Dan’s tension a fraction. “Look closely at those last two cases. If there were any mistakes, I want to know.”

“Yes, sir.”

Dan’s cell vibrated with an incoming text. He slid it from his pocket as they continued toward the BPD offices.

A man should always send his beloved flowers.

He stalled. “What the hell?”

An image came next. A bouquet of flowers with a card. He zoomed in on the card. It was addressed to Jess. His gut clenched. He zoomed back out. The flowers were lying on what appeared to be the hood of a car… a red car.

He turned to Harper. “Where’s Chief Harris?” His pulse rate went off the charts.

“She and Detective Wells are conducting interviews in the field. Parents of the victims.”

“In Wells’s red Mustang?”

Harper nodded.

Fear pumped through Dan’s veins. “We need to find them. Now.”