a gun and a shield hadn’t saved my sorry ass.
I turn in my seat to look back at him. “You trick these guys into taking that van. Get them to talk about the robberies. When we have them locked up on charges, you walk.”
“You get out of drug charges and a ten-year stint in an eight-by-ten cell,” Julie grumbles. “Everybody wins. Including some people who don’t deserve to.”
“Little salty tonight, Detective?”
“Let’s get this over with.” I hand Ricky a small earpiece and he inserts it, pressing it into his ear. I flick on the wiretap mounted on the dash. “Can you hear me through the earpiece?”
“You’re good.” His voice crackles over the wiretap. He opens the door. “You got a smoke, Detective Parker?”
“You want a steak dinner to go with it?” Julie shakes her head but hands him her pack with two left.
Ricky gets out and shuts the door. He lights up and shuffles down the path. Over the wire, gravel crunches under his feet as he disappears around a bend.
“I want your sex.” he belts out in a nervous voice. He hums a few beats. “I want your sex…”
Julie groans. “That better not be a proposition, Ricky.”
“Oh, Jesus,” I say. “You had to pick that song? Now I’m going to have it stuck in my head all night.”
“Kiss my ass, Detectives.” His voice sounds tinny.
Julie and I sit in silence, listening to him sing off-key, watching the clearing. Five minutes pass.
“Shit, how far away did the little fucker park?” Julie looks around.
The wiretap goes silent.
I peer at my side-view mirror, but I don’t see him. I snatch the wiretap box from the dash. “Ricky? You there?”
Dead air.
“Ricky?” Julie snaps.
More dead air.
“Oh, you have to be shitting me.” I flick the machine off and on. “Ricky.” I get nothing.
“Little bastard bailed,” Julie mutters.
“Or Ritter got him and made him squeal.” I look everywhere at once, expecting to hear the approach of Ritter’s vehicle.
Five more minutes tick by.
“Check if he’s out there, Jules.” I nod to the door.
Julie climbs out and goes down the path. A few minutes later, she stomps back and gets into the car. “The fucker’s gone.”
“Son of a bitch!” I push my hands through my curls. “Just give him another few minutes.”
Minutes drag on. Crickets chirp outside our windows.
Julie sighs. “He’s not coming back, Cass. He rabbited.”
“Damn it.” I check my watch. It’s almost nine. My shift was over two hours ago, and the movie would have started by now. Mitch will be fit to be tied. “Knowing our luck, the minute we leave, he’ll show up. Go.” I gesture to the door. “Go be with Mitch.”
“Uh-uh. No way.”
“Why? I can handle Ricky if he comes back.”
“Forget it. I’m not leaving you in the middle of a sting, girl. Besides, Colburn would have my head. He’s already pissed at you for going off on your own last week.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“Not happening. If Ritter and his guys show up and things go south, even a hotshot like you won’t be able to take them all.”
I roll my eyes. I’m gonna kill Ricky. “Fine. He’s not showing. Let’s go.”
“You’re sure?”
“No, but I’m not waiting here all night, and you’re not standing Mitch up again.”
The last thing I want to do is go back to Colburn empty-handed. I hate the idea of leaving him to deal with the press, an angry police chief, and the vengeful family members who already think we’re mishandling this case. All of whom will be beating down his office door when these asswipes pull another heist.
“I’ll be right behind you,” I add when Julie cocks a brow suspiciously. “I promise. Go.”
She slips her brown clips from her hair, causing her wild curls to spring free, huge and full. She shakes the curls out with her fingers, touches up her frosty-pink lipstick in my rearview mirror, and flashes me a gorgeous smile. Her partner, Max, gives her a hard time about her massive hair, but I love it.
“Okay. I’m gone,” she says, grabbing her purse and dropping the lipstick inside. “But you better be right behind me.”
“I will be.”
“If you run into trouble”—she taps the police radio—“you call for backup, you hear? No hero crap.”
“Yeah, yeah. Go. And don’t worry. As soon as Mitch sees you, he’ll forget all about how often this job gets in the way.”
“Hope so.” She gets out, shouldering her pink purse. Shuts the door, patting the window frame with her palms. “Thanks, Cass.”
“Of course. One of us has to be