answered.
“I’ve been trying to reach you.”
Jack had turned off his cell phone, busy trying to figure out how to deal with the latest challenge—his new bride.
“Where is Karen?” Denny demanded.
Jack had a sudden clear mental picture of her in the claw-foot bathtub. He dragged himself back from the enticing scene of his “wife” chin-deep in a bubble bath. “I don’t know.” Another lie. All for a good cause.
“I don’t believe you,” Denny said, no recrimination in his voice. “You’d be freaking out if you didn’t.”
Freaking. The same word Liz had used on the answering-machine tape. “This is so freaky.”
“At least she wasn’t in the hotel when it blew up,” Denny said.
“She was determined to go to the meeting place so she gave her guards the slip.”
“Amazing woman, isn’t she?”
More than Denny knew. “There has to be a leak in the department,” Jack said, voicing his suspicions.
“Seems that way, huh?” Denny was silent for a moment. “I hope you don’t think I had anything to do with it.”
Silence. Jack didn’t know what he thought anymore.
“Baxter is going crazy,” Denny warned. “He’s beside himself. I thought he was going to shoot the two officers who lost her.”
“They got off the floor before it exploded?” Jack asked in surprise.
“Supposedly, they were out looking for Karen. It seems she climbed out the bathroom window while they thought she was taking a bath, and down a fire escape.”
Jack shook his head and smiled to himself. “She’s something, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah, well, Baxter wants her found,” Denny said.
“Denny, there weren’t any cops at the stakeout. Someone had pulled them off.”
“I heard Baxter got a call that said Karen was in trouble at the hotel and they were responding when it blew up.”
Is that where they’d been, just across the river when Karen was attacked? How convenient. Jack no longer knew what to believe.
“Another letter came to the paper,” Denny said into the silence.
Jack wasn’t surprised. The killer had failed twice. He wanted another chance. Especially now with Karen missing. “When is she supposed to meet with this one?”
“Tomorrow night.”
Jack knew he should tell Denny about Karen’s memory loss. This was his partner. But he couldn’t trust even Denny. Not now. Not until he could prove to himself that Denny wasn’t involved.
“Who knows what Baxter will do if he can’t locate Karen before then,” Denny said. “You think it’s another setup.” It wasn’t a question. Denny had to be thinking the same thing Jack was.
“Yeah. I think all the killer really wants is to draw her out now. He doesn’t care if she’s made him—or if she’s told anyone else what she knows. He just wants her dead. With her dead, it would be hard to prove he killed Liz.”
Denny was silent.
“How are you holding up?” Jack asked.
“All right.”
He didn’t sound all right.
“That new cop, Marni Phillips, is about Karen’s size,” Jack said. “Baxter could have her fill in tomorrow night and see who shows.”
Jack heard the water draining in the bathroom. Karen would be coming out soon. The thought of her fresh from the tub, her skin rosy and glowing, set a fire in his groin.
“I have to go,” he told Denny and turned to find her standing barefoot, her body wrapped in his robe, her damp hair a dark fringe around her glowing face. How much had she heard? The look in her eyes said, enough.
KAREN STARED at her husband, touched by what she’d heard of the conversation. The killer was still on the loose but another man had responded to the ad Jack had told her she’d put in the newspaper. Another meeting had been set. But Jack wanted a female cop to take her place.
“I should be there,” she said softly.
He looked a little surprised, then shook his head. “Too dangerous.”
“You say you think there’s a leak in the police department,” she reasoned. “Unless I really show up, then neither will the killer.”
He laughed. “Your logic has always scared me.”
“That’s probably because it’s so…logical,” she said, laughing as she moved closer. Oh, how she wanted him to make love to her. Forget what the doctor had said. Throw caution to the wind. Just take her, madly, passionately.
No, she was definitely not herself. But she liked this new her. And thought she could get used to her. And Jack.
“Jack, I feel so good—” She pressed closer and trembled as her gaze met and held his. “Don’t you want to live dangerously?” She saw the answer in his eyes.
He took her upper arms in his