her employer. “Marisa. Your mother left about twenty minutes ago. She assured me it was all right to wait for you.”
“I’ll bet she did.” Hannah was fascinated by Adam Raiker, while maintaining a healthy wariness of the man. It might have been his appearance, which Risa had to admit was ferocious. A black eye patch covered one laser blue eye and a hideous scar ran across his throat. More scars covered the backs of his hands, one of which clutched the knob of the cane he was never without. He looked like a man who had entered the gates of hell and made it out, barely alive.
If even half what she’d heard was true, the description fit.
“You’ve been gone all day, she said. Didn’t leave a note, so she wasn’t sure where you were.”
“Shopping,” she lied, and watched with satisfaction as his eye narrowed in annoyance. “I hate to miss those spring sales.”
His gaze swept her. “No bags.”
“With my height everything has to be altered.” Because she’d never been one to enjoy being manipulated, she continued the pretense. “Once it’s done they’ll be delivered to me. Pretty good deal.” She shrugged out of her coat and hung it up in the postage stamp front closet.
When she turned back, he seemed to have relaxed against the couch. She wasn’t fooled. Raiker never relaxed, and his brilliant mind was always operating on multiple levels simultaneously. “Nice try. But there’s not a woman alive who’d go shopping dressed like that.” He nodded to her attire. “I can only think of one thing that would have you rolling out of bed and leaving the house without changing.” His pause was full of meaning. “A case.”
Risa dropped the farce. It was useless with him anyway. She also didn’t bother hiding her irritation. “I’d be more impressed with your powers of deduction if I didn’t know damn well that you were behind the invitation from Detective McGuire today.” She set her purse on the hallway table with a bit more force than needed. “Had a little chat with the chief inspector of the detective bureau, I understand.”
His shrug was negligible. “Actually, I spoke with the commissioner. I assume he made a suggestion to the chief inspector.” He waited, but when she said nothing, he added, with a familiar note of impatience, “Well? So you were invited to look over the case file on the torched cops?”
“Not exactly. I rode along to a response to the newest victim.”
Adam’s impatience faded to be replaced by a gleam of interest. “Another policeman?”
She nodded, trying, and failing, to ignore the pitch of excitement that was always present at the onset of a new case. “I don’t even know why I went. I can’t help them. I can’t help you. How many times have I told you that?”
His smile was feral. “I don’t know. I wasn’t listening.”
Risa hissed in a breath, an all too familiar sense of frustration filling her. It was maddening to be faced with a man who refused to take no for an answer. Who constantly thought he knew better than she what was in her best interests.
And heartbreaking when his dogged persistence inevitably had doubt rearing.
And that was perhaps the most difficult emotion to deal with. She knew what the spectacular failure in her last case meant. Her career was over. Her usefulness on an investigation at an end. And sometimes she could almost hate the man for trying to make her think differently. For making her hope.
“So a third cop is dead, burned alive if the same MO was followed.” He looked to her for confirmation, found it in her nod. “The department is going to pull out all the stops. A task force was being formed even before this latest casualty. An UNSUB targeting cops is going to bring a high-profile effort after him. No expenses spared.”
“So hiring a consultant from the firm of the legendary Adam Raiker would be welcomed by the brass,” she guessed caustically.
“I wouldn’t know.” His answer stopped her dead. “I never suggested it. What I did suggest is that the commissioner might be interested in using the voluntary services of one of my employees while she’s in the vicinity on leave. A former employee of the department with enough commendations in her file to be something of a legend herself within the PPD.”
Sick fear twisted through her at the thought, even though she’d figured out how it must have gone down. “I can’t.”
“You did. Today.” His expression was fierce. “Last