Brick sped into downtown Billings, the rim rocks around it glowing in the lights from the city. He turned off the lights and siren a few blocks before the building where Thomas worked. He didn’t want him to know he was coming. Mo had told him that it was where Thomas had said he had the papers and key locked in his desk drawer. She was meeting him there to pick them up.
He told himself that there was no cause for alarm. That Mo would have gotten the papers and already left. But he’d tried her phone a half-dozen times. Each time it had gone straight to voice mail. Each time, he’d left a more urgent message. Each time, she hadn’t called back.
In his gut, he knew. Mo had realized that her brother-in-law was the killer. As he pulled up in front of the building, he saw Mo’s car parked on the almost empty street and felt his heart drop. Mo was in there with a killer.
The front door opened onto a small entry. He ran to the elevator and the information sign next to it. The pharmaceutical company was on the top floor. In the elevator he pushed the button again and again until the doors finally closed and he felt the lift begin to climb.
His heart was pounding. He tried to tell himself that she could take care of herself. If she saw it coming. But the fact that she was still here, that she hadn’t called, that she wasn’t taking any calls told him she was in trouble.
The elevator finally came to a stop, the door sliding open. Brick rushed off only to find a deserted office full of cubicles behind a wall of glass. He tried the door. Locked. He looked around, frantic to get inside. He could see a light on deep inside but saw no one.
Spying a fire extinguisher at the end of the hall, he pulled his weapon and using the butt end, smashed the cover and lifted the fire extinguisher out. Moving to the glass door into the office, he swung the heavy fire extinguisher and let it go, shielding his eyes as the glass shattered.
He shoved his way through the shattered glass, felt a shard bite into his arm and catch on his long-sleeved shirt. But he ignored the pain as he rushed in toward the only area that was lit.
“Mo!” he called as he ran, his pistol he’d taken from the patrol car drawn. “Mo!” His voice echoed through the emptiness, sounding hollow. He knew before he reached the last set of cubicles that Thomas and Mo weren’t here.
But a suit jacket lay over the back of a chair nearest the exit. Brick stepped to the desk and saw Mo’s cell phone sitting beside the computer. She was here and hadn’t gone far. Where was Thomas? Brick picked up the scent of cigarette smoke from the jacket and looked toward the exit. A hardcore smoker couldn’t go long without one, which meant there was no way he went all the way down to the ground floor every time he took a break.
He ran toward the exit door and shoved it open to a set of stairs that led up. Taking them, he followed the scent of cigarette smoke as if it were a bread crumb trail.
As he burst out the door onto the roof, he didn’t see anyone. But he heard the murmur of voices. His instincts had him closing the door quietly behind him as he moved toward the sound, his weapon drawn.
MO NEVER THOUGHT she’d find herself on a rooftop fourteen floors above the city with a killer. What made it more surreal was that she knew this man. She’d loved Thomas like a brother.
“I knew you would figure it out if you kept at it long enough,” Thomas said, his gaze locked on her. “Tricia used to say that you were like a dog with a bone when you got something into your head. How could I forget that you’re a cop, through and through? Her ashes, huh?”
“When did you realize that I knew?” Mo asked as Thomas lit another cigarette, never taking his eyes off her.
“You forget. You and I go way back, Maureen. I met you even before I met your sister. I know you. What I don’t understand is why you would come here alone tonight to meet me, knowing what I’m capable of doing.” He started as if it finally hit him. “You didn’t know.”
She felt the fine hairs stand up on the back of her neck. “You’re not a killer.”
His laugh sounded full of glass shards. “I wouldn’t have thought so not all that long ago, but now...” His expression soured. “But maybe you haven’t noticed, I’ve changed.”
She shook her head. “You killed Tricia in a fit of passion, I would imagine. Killing me would be in cold blood.”
“It’s not all that much different, I don’t believe. It’s about survival. I don’t want to go to prison. I want to live.”
She knew in that instant. “Quinn.”
He smiled, his teeth looking sharp in the glow of the city below them. “You picked up on that right away, didn’t you?”
“So you and Quinn—”
“I wasn’t having an affair at the same time my wife was, if that’s what you’re asking. I got to know Quinn after Tricia died—”
Mo felt a stab of anger at how blasé he was about her sister’s death. “She didn’t die. She was murdered.”
His gaze narrowed. “You want to hear this or not?”
She didn’t really want to. Was she that sure that he wouldn’t hurt her? Or that sure that she could take care of herself?
Right now both seemed foolish. Thomas had fallen in love again. He had even more reason to want to be free of the past and that meant being free of his sister-in-law, as well.
“I got to know Quinn. She’s sweet.”
“You thought Tricia was sweet.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously again. “But I never thought of you that way, Maureen.”
His words actually hurt. “You’re confusing sweet with vulnerable.” Mo had forgotten that her sister had been in love with another boy at college before she’d met Thomas. The boy had broken it off. Had she not realized how vulnerable Tricia had been when she’d met Thomas? Had he recognized it, though, and preyed on her?
She’d thought she had such a clear picture of the past, but now it wavered as if for years she’d remembered only what she wanted to. Thomas and Tricia, the not-so-perfect couple.
Even in the beginning, hadn’t she seen tiny flaws in their relationship? Red flags that her sister had ignored. She suspected that Thomas had never let Tricia forget that he’d given up medical school for her. Add to that Tricia’s problems getting pregnant—until she met JP.
She told herself she could talk him off this roof. Talk them both off. “I was surprised when you had her cremated.”
He finished his cigarette, brutally stubbing it out with the others. “You think she deserved a nice burial?” He snorted. “When I confronted her, she told me that she had planned to tell me. Leave me, is what she meant, but then she realized she was pregnant. Apparently her lover wasn’t interested in fatherhood so she broke it off. Or so she said. But often I smelled him on her skin.” His eyes swam with tears. “That’s right, your precious sister wasn’t just an adulteress, she was going to pass off another man’s son as mine.” He made a swipe at his tears with the back of his sleeve. “It was just one betrayal after another.”
She considered her options. He was standing only inches away. If she made any kind of sudden move, he could grab her before she took a step. He was a good foot taller and sixty pounds heavier. He worked out almost every day. She didn’t stand a chance against him even with her training.
“If you turn yourself in—”
He laughed. “And go to prison for the rest of my life? I don’t think so. Just tell me this. Does your deputy friend know?”
“No,” she said quickly. Maybe too quickly because Thomas smiled.
“When I caught you at his apartment, I couldn’t believe it was like that between the two of you. I never thought you’d find a man who you felt was your equal.”
“Who said I think Brick is?”
Thomas laughed. “Sorry, sister, I don’t believe you. I know how distraught you’ve been over your sister’s death. But I never expected you to jump off the roof of my office building.”
“I’m not jumping, Thomas.” She didn’t move even when he pulled the pistol from under his shirt behind him and pointed it at her. She wasn’t the only one who had a weapon tucked in her waistband, it seemed.
She met his gaze and saw both desperation and determination. One way or another, she was going off the roof of this fourteen-story building.
BRICK MOVED ACROSS the dark rooftop. The glow of the city illuminated a portion of the roof at the corner. He spotted the two figures silhouetted against the city lights—the radiance bouncing off the weapon in Thomas’s hand. The barrel of the gun was pointed at Mo’s chest. She was talking quietly, cajoling, but the figure opposite her was tense and on alert.
Brick worked his way closer, staying to the shadows. The sound of traffic fourteen floors below drowned out his footfalls. He wanted to rush Thomas, but didn’t dare. He couldn’t take the chance that the man would get a shot off before he tackled him to the rooftop.
He was within a half-dozen yards now. He could see that Thomas’s hand holding the gun was shaking. The man was about to do something stupid, but then he’d already done that when he’d killed his wife.
Unfortunately, Brick couldn’t get a shot from where he was without jeopardizing Mo’s life. He had to get closer because he could feel time was running out.
MO SAW BRICK out of the corner of her eye. She wanted to call to him, to warn him, but as he stealthily approached, she knew he must have seen the gun Thomas was holding on her. She didn’t dare look straight at him for fear Thomas would see and turn and fire.
“You don’t want to do this.”
“No, I don’t. But you’ve given me no choice, Maureen. I begged you to let it go.” His voice broke. The gun in his hand wavered just enough to tempt her.
Taking it away from him was dangerous, but he was getting more anxious by the minute. She had to do something. She could still feel the letter opener digging into her back. “We can both walk away from this.”
He shook his head. “Even if Tricia hadn’t been your sister, you couldn’t forget this. It’s that cop in you. You just couldn’t leave it alone. That damn Natalie had to open her mouth...” He shook his head. “Did she say how she knew that Tricia hadn’t killed herself?”
“No. I never got to talk to her before she died. Maybe she was just suspicious.”
Thomas made a sound like a wounded animal. “That would be just like her. She was always watching us, couldn’t keep her nose out of our business. I hated having her living in our house. I could see how close Tricia was getting to her. I would see them with their heads together. I’d walk into a room and they’d both shut up as if they’d been talking about me. I’m sure they were. I’d failed Tricia over and over. I couldn’t even give her a child.”
She had to keep him talking. Brick was edging closer. Once he was close enough... “Tricia loved you. That’s why she broke off the affair. She wasn’t leaving you.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” he scoffed. “Do you really think I wanted anything to do with her after she’d been with him? After she’d had his baby? That was supposed to be our family. Our family. Not his.”
Mo felt a shock race like fire through her veins. Joey. “Thomas, the baby, you didn’t...” She couldn’t breathe as she saw the answer in his eyes. “You killed him.”
“He was going to die anyway.”
She felt bile rise to the back of her throat. She was going to throw up. “You let Natalie take the blame.”
“She would have done it if I hadn’t. Don’t you think I watch the news? She’s under investigation for other murders. You know how badly I wanted a family. I gave up my dreams. I gave up everything.” His gaze hardened. “Why haven’t you tried to get away or take the gun away from me, Mo?”
“And give you an excuse to coldcock me with the gun and throw me over this wall?”
Thomas took a step toward her. She stepped back and he advanced again, this time pinning her in the corner of the rooftop.
She reached back, supporting herself with one hand, pulling out the letter opener with the other. “Thomas, don’t do this.”
“You’ve left me no choice. I begged you...” His voice broke. “Climb up on the ledge, Maureen. I don’t want to hit you. Make this easy on yourself.”
“On you, you mean.”
BRICK SAW THAT time had run out. He was close now. But not close enough. Thomas had Mo trapped in the corner at the edge of the roof.
“Thomas!” he called out, making the man jump and begin to turn. He’d seen Mo reach behind her as if to steady herself on the short wall an instant before he caught the glint of something long and lethal in her hand.
As Thomas saw Brick, he must have also seen Mo’s movement out of the corner of his eye. He swung the gun toward her. The weapon in his hand arced in a circle as she ducked the blow aimed at her head.
The gun caught her in the back, doubling her over on the narrow short roof wall. Turning, Thomas got off a couple of wild shots before he grabbed Mo, lifting her to push her over the wall.
Brick charged, watching in horror as she was lifted up. He saw the flash of the object in her hand as she drove the weapon into Thomas’s side. He let out a scream of pain. She struck him again as Brick grabbed him from behind and brought him down to the rooftop. But Thomas didn’t release Mo, taking her down with him at the edge of the roof.
Belatedly, Brick saw that Thomas hadn’t lost his grip on his gun. The man grabbed Mo and put the barrel against her temple.
“You both should have stayed out of it,” Thomas spat and pulled the trigger. As he did, Mo stabbed the man in the throat with what appeared to be a letter opener at the same time Brick fired his own weapon. Thomas’s shot was so close, it had to be deafening for Mo. But fortunately, the bullet missed. Brick’s, though, had found its mark. Thomas crumpled to the ground next to her.
Brick quickly pulled Mo up into his arms. He held her, refusing to let her go as he called 911.