Fatal Exposure - By Gail Barrett Page 0,83

but a thump came from the door. She whirled around, one hand going for her gun in its holster. But after several seconds, when nothing more happened, she turned to face them again.

“Move over there,” she told Brynn, motioning to the side of the bed farthest from the door. “Stand near the wall and behind the bed.”

Brynn shot him a questioning look, and Parker nodded for her to comply. Lieutenant Lewis was taking precautions, getting a civilian out of the line of fire in case shots broke out. But it also made it harder for Brynn to escape.

An unsettled feeling took root inside him, a sliver of alarm clamoring hard. Something about this situation felt off. Something besides the obvious. “Why would Delgado kill Hoffman?” he asked Lieutenant Lewis.

She held up her hand. “Hold on.” She went back to the door and peeked outside, her voice low as she consulted with the guard.

The feeling of wrongness hit him again.

He rubbed his unshaven jaw, trying to clear his mind. He knew he was missing something important, a detail wavering just beyond his reach. Cursing the painkillers turning his brain to sludge, he struggled to figure out what.

Delgado had murdered his brother. Both Delgado and Colonel Hoffman had worked in Homicide at the time. One of them, presumably Delgado, had intercepted Brynn’s photos, destroying crucial evidence that could have convicted him of the crime.

Vern Collins had been Hoffman’s partner. He’d investigated Tommy’s case. He’d eventually left the force and taken a job at the Hagerstown prison, where that gang member had been released. Hoffman had probably asked him to do it, hoping to hide his pedophile activities by killing Brynn.

All that seemed to make sense. But why would Delgado kill Colonel Hoffman? Had the colonel found out about the murders? Was Delgado trying to keep him from revealing the truth? But why kill him now, after Lieutenant Lewis had caught on to his activities—when it wouldn’t do any good?

Blowing out his breath in frustration, Parker ran through the facts again. Vern Collins was Hoffman’s partner. Collins had left the force after Tommy’s case was closed, due to a sexual harassment charge...which in itself was rather odd. There hadn’t been that many women on the force back then. And sexual harassment had been a hot topic, mandating sensitivity training and workshops. Even the most bullheaded officers had understood that any insinuation of harassment could ruin their careers.

Parker’s gaze went to Brynn. She stood beside the bed, a frown creasing her face, that bruise standing out in sharp relief on her pale cheek. He shifted his gaze to Lieutenant Lewis, who was walking back across the room.

A memory floated at the edge of his awareness, something he couldn’t quite grasp. Something about Lieutenant Lewis... She stopped beside the bed and met his eyes. And, suddenly, it clicked into place. “You were there, too—in Homicide, back when Tommy died.”

Surprise rippled across her face. She whipped open her leather bag and pulled out a gun—with a suppressor screwed on the end. “Don’t move.” The gun swerved between Brynn and him.

He stared at her aghast, the realization sinking in they were trapped in the room with a killer.

Why hadn’t he figured it out before?

He stole a glance at Brynn. Her eyes were dark with shock.

“That’s right,” Lieutenant Lewis confirmed. “I’d been detailed there.”

On temporary duty—which explained why she wasn’t on the list. There would have been a personnel order floating around back then assigning her to the unit, but until she was posted there permanently, they wouldn’t have entered her name in the books. “And they didn’t pick you up.”

The lieutenant’s eyes flashed. “I didn’t want to stay there. I wanted something bigger than homicide. Intelligence was a better choice.”

Of course. And an EEOC victim—the victim of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission violation—had power. The commissioner would have bent over backward to avoid adverse publicity, giving her any job she desired.

Then another realization sank in. “You invented the charge.”

Her mouth formed a little smirk. “Collins was a fool, like most men are. It was easy to set him up.”

And it began to make sense. The person behind the pillar in the warehouse had been a woman—a tall, thin woman—not a man. “You were the gang leader, the one who ran the City of the Dead.”

“No, I wasn’t. I never belonged to the gang. I don’t approve of that type of thing.”

“But you killed Allen Chambers.”

“I had to. My cousin Dustin got in over his head. He didn’t