It was 6:37 when she parked in front of Denny's house. It was a basic little one-story house, a far cry from the Osborne residence they had just left. As they walked up to the porch, Avery saw a dead plant sitting next to the door on the front porch. The vinyl siding was starting to peel and grow mildew.

She rang the doorbell twice, having to push hard for it to work. Within seconds, a young man of about twenty-five or so answered the door. He was slightly overweight and had a scrubby few days' growth of beard.

He also appeared to be drunk. It was apparent in the way he wobbled on his feet, the blinking gaze to his eyes, and the unapologetic way in which he looked Avery up and down like a slab of meat.

"Hey there, Officers," he said. "Oops, no...Detectives, right?"

"That's right," Avery said. "Detectives Black and Ramirez. And you're Denny c.o.x, yes?"

"That's me," he said. "I was wondering how long it would take before you guys started questioning me. I figured I had until tomorrow at least. If I'd known you were coming so soon, I would have stopped at two beers. Maybe."

"And how did you know we were coming?" Avery asked.

"I saw the news about Sarah. It was on the local news at five o'clock."

s.h.i.t, Avery thought. This could potentially get out of hand a lot faster than O'Malley thought.

"You dated her for a while, right?" Ramirez asked.

"That I did," c.o.x said. His words were slurred and he seemed to be finding far too much amus.e.m.e.nt in the situation.

"And why did you break up?" Avery asked.

c.o.x looked at them for a moment with his drunken stare. It was clear to Avery that she and Ramirez were not going to be invited in-and it would be the second time in two days. When she thought of how things had gone with Adam Wentz, she heard a small alarm sound in her head; she was going to have to keep an eye on Ramirez if c.o.x got out of hand.

Sadly, though, it was also clear to her that in his current state, Denny c.o.x was not going to be of much help.

"She was too young," Denny answered. "Only four years younger than me, but when I started working on the force she got all possessive. She was always griping that I didn't spend enough time with her. Plus, a cop dating a young girl...there's too much ribbing and jokes from the guys. It got old."

"And did you see her much after that?" Avery asked.

"Once. She got stoned off of her a.s.s and called me up. I brought her over here and we had s.e.x."

"You said she was stoned...do you know what she was on?"

"c.o.ke, probably. She was sneaky about it, but she liked her cocaine." He snickered here and added: "But Mommy, Daddy, and Big Ol' Uncle Ron had no idea."

"You know for a fact she did drugs?" Avery asked.

"Yes. And she was d.a.m.ned good at hiding it. She drank here and there, too. But her big draws were cocaine and ecstasy."

"And as someone joining the force, you were okay with this?"

"It wasn't my business, you know? She and I had fun together...and during that last little while, I think it was mostly because of the drugs. So I let her have her fun. I was her boyfriend, not her father."

"Do you know who her dealer was?"

c.o.x chuckled and shook his head. "No. She kept that hush-hush-especially when I started talking about joining the force. But really, I think she was mostly concerned about her family finding out-especially her s.h.i.thead political weasel of an uncle."

"Mr. c.o.x," Avery said, quickly trying to swerve the attention away from c.o.x's obvious disdain for the Osborne family, "what can you tell me about the two marks on your record that involve fire?"

"What marks? You mean that bulls.h.i.t from high school about the dugouts? Yeah, that was dumb. A mistake I made to p.i.s.s off the boyfriend of a girl I liked. Some stupid jock. I was fifteen. You think that makes me a candidate for murdering someone?"

It occurred to Avery that she had not seen the news reports. How much did the media know? If they weren't reporting anything about the way the people were being killed, she certainly didn't want to tip her hand to the likes of a man like Denny c.o.x. She figured if he had heard that little tidbit, he would have said something about it by now.

"No, it does not," Avery said. "But as a former cop, you know we have to speak to everyone connected to Sarah. You said it yourself...you knew it was just a matter of time before someone came to ask you some questions."

"There's also the matter of your father's shed burning down," Ramirez said. "And then the thing with the prost.i.tute. You don't really have a very clean record."

c.o.x leaned against the doorframe and again looked Avery up and down. "You know...I know who you are, Detective Black. Avery. Most men were all p.i.s.sy when you came on board in Boston. But I didn't see the big deal. Nice to look at...awesome record."

His eyes leered just a little too long. To get his attention, she moved her hand to her hip to reveal the Mace and the Glock holstered there.

"That's neither here nor there, Mr. c.o.x. We just wanted to ask you about-"

"Sarah, I know," he interrupted. "Yeah, I bet O'Malley and his boys are about to s.h.i.t themselves over this. Niece of a councilman. I also saw where there's some disagreements over what district gets this high-profile case. I bet you two are working hard to get this one wrapped up, huh?"

"We are," Ramirez said, stepping forward. "So if you could please stop undressing my partner with your eyes and answer some f.u.c.king questions, that would be helpful."

"Settle down now," c.o.x said. "What the h.e.l.l are you? A knight in shining armor or something?" He then leaned in and, in a hushed whisper, added: "You tapping that, my man?"

Ramirez moved too fast for Avery to stop him. He took one huge step forward and threw a right-handed punch at c.o.x.

c.o.x moved with surprising speed as well. He not only dodged the punch but caught Ramirez's arm and twisted it and pushed it hard against the doorframe. Ramirez instantly went for his sidearm but Avery stepped in to save a terrible situation from becoming even worse.

She shoved Ramirez back hard, causing c.o.x to release his arm. c.o.x then came at her, bringing his right hand back. Maybe it was because he was drunk, or maybe it was just because he was not taking the news of the death of an ex-girlfriend well, but he was apparently not taking the repercussions of his actions into account.

Avery attacked faster, though. She jabbed out a hard right hand, palm out and fingers curled. She struck him twice in rapid succession in the ribs. c.o.x dropped to his knee, gasping for breath. Ramirez stepped up again, going for his cuffs.

"No," Avery said, wheeling on him. She pushed him back a step and spoke as quietly as she could, not wanting c.o.x to overhear it and report the conversation at the station-where he would clearly be within an hour.

"What the-?" Ramirez began.

"That's twice in the past two days," she said. "You can't go after someone just because they speak to me in a degrading way or look at me a certain way. You're smarter than that. And quite frankly, it's p.i.s.sing me off. While we're on the clock, I'm your partner...not your f.u.c.king babysitter."

Ramirez scowled at her but said nothing. In fact, he gave a quick nod of the head and went back to the car without a word. Avery took a deep calming breath and then turned back to c.o.x.

"That was pretty stupid," she said.

"Yeah," he grunted, now on his hands and knees.

"You know what comes next. You either get up and come calmly with me or I'm going to cuff you right here. I might just be mad enough to pull your shoulder back a little too hard. You know that cracking noise you sometimes hear when you bring a perp's arms behind their back a little too fast?"

c.o.x spit at her feet as he slowly started to get to his own. "I'd like to see you try it, b.i.t.c.h."

She smiled, clenched her fist, and showed him.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Avery had seen the A1 headquarters in disarray a few times. It usually happened when a new huge case broke or just as a promising lead came in and had everyone in a fervor to work together to wrap the case up. But when Avery and Ramirez arrived back at the station with c.o.x in tow, the place was a circus.

There were a few news vans in the parking lot as she parked. She led the way across the rear lot with Ramirez escorting Denny c.o.x. She heard a reporter say something loudly. Within seconds, four people were rushing across the back lot, one of whom was a cameraman. As she lowered her head and continued for the building, Avery also saw a few unfamiliar cop cars. She checked the tags and the decals and cursed under her breath.

Cops from the B3 district, she thought. Great. Apparently they're going to ride this thing into the ground.

Just as a reporter and a cameraman reached them, Avery was at the door, ushering Denny c.o.x inside.

"Excuse me," the reporter said. "Is this man under arrest for the killings and burnings?"

She said nothing, but Denny c.o.x sure as h.e.l.l did.

"They came to my house and went nuts," he said, his drunken slur seeming to draw out each word. "Beat the s.h.i.t out of me because they don't have any real leads."

Ramirez gave him a push and they were all through the doors and away from the reporters.

"What the h.e.l.l is that about?" Ramirez asked Avery.

"There were B3 cars out there," she said. "I'm betting they went to the news, hoping the attention would throw us off."

As they ventured further into the station, the circus continued. She saw a few men in B3 uniforms, including the one who had confronted them earlier in the day at the latest site. He was arguing with Officer Finley. Connelly was in the fray, too, doing everything he could to appear calm. When Connelly saw Avery, he waved her over urgently.

"You got this handled?" Avery asked Ramirez, gesturing to c.o.x.

"Yeah. See if you can sort all of this out."

Avery quickly made her way over to where Connelly was in the midst of a heated debate between Finley and one of the B3 officers. The tag on his uniform read Simmons.

"What the h.e.l.l is going on here?" Avery asked.

"Too much at once," Connelly said. "Someone over at B3 leaked the story to the press. In the last hour, the media has been reporting that there's an interdepartmental rivalry going on."

"That's not exactly accurate," Simmons said. "Although, we..."

Simmons trailed off here, looking behind Avery. She turned and followed his gaze. He was looking at Ramirez ushering c.o.x to an interrogation room.

"What the f.u.c.k?" Simmons said, not quite in a yell but nowhere near quiet. "Is that Denny c.o.x?"

"Yes, it is," Avery said. "Do you know him?"

He looked at her with such venom that she thought he might throw a punch or shove her. "He used to be a B3 cop."

Connelly's eyes grew wide. "Are you s.h.i.tting me? This is unbelievable."

"I don't care what department he was with," Avery said. "He was fired for very good reasons and also has a history of arson. Add to that the fact that he was an ex-boyfriend of Sarah Osborne, the latest victim, and there's more than enough reason to bring him in."

"Jesus," Simmons said.

"Seems like karma if you ask me," Finley said. "You tattle to the media on us and now there are cameras rolling everywhere when one of your boys gets arrested."

"Everyone calm down," Connelly said. "Finley...I need you to go ahead and release Adam Wentz. After that, I don't care what you do, just stay away from these B3 p.r.i.c.ks."

"Hey, watch your mouth," Simmons said.

"You're in my station, a.s.shole. I don't need to watch my mouth." Ignoring him, Connelly then turned to Avery. "I need a word with you in private. Come on."

He led her through the cramped station and to his office. He shut the door behind them and rubbed at his temples.

"This is a mess," he said. "This is just one huge cl.u.s.terf.u.c.k, Avery. Now please...tell me there is a really good reason for having that ex-B3 cop here in cuffs."

"Aside from his record, he also got violent when we questioned him."

"In your opinion, is he our guy?"

"It's too soon to tell, sir."

"Cut that nonsense. What's your gut telling you?"

She thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. "Probably not. If he was the killer and has been dumping bodies at the rate we're finding them burned, I doubt he'd have been drinking heavily-and Denny c.o.x is pretty drunk at the moment. If he was the killer, he'd want to stay alert and ready just in case we caught on to him."

"But is there a chance he's our guy?" Connelly asked.

"There's always a chance, sir."

"Well, if we can't nail him for it within an hour, I'm letting him go. This just makes an already screwed-up situation even worse."

"Understood."

"Now," he said, "as if things aren't bad enough, I need you to head to O'Malley's office. The f.u.c.king FBI showed up two hours ago and are pushing against us. I need you to talk to him and see if you can work your magic. And I need you on it now."

She left Connelly's office as he started rubbing at his temples in frustration again. She hurried down the hallway to O'Malley's larger office. She knocked on the door, which was already cracked, and entered following O'Malley's loud "Come in."

She entered the office and saw that O'Malley looked just as fl.u.s.tered as Connelly. The FBI agent that was standing at the edge of O'Malley's desk and rifling through doc.u.ments, however, looked unreasonably calm.

"Special Agent Duggan, this is Detective Avery Black," O'Malley said. "She's our very best. She's also the lead on this case."

Duggan extended his hand and gave hers a hearty shake. He looked to be in his late forties. He was well-polished right down to his beard. "Nice to meet you," Duggan said. "I hear you're the very best in the A1."

"Let's hope so," she said. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I'm not here to run the show. I just wanted to sort of partner up with the best there is. This guy you just brought in...do you think he's the culprit?"