Kill for Me

“No. Young. Dark hair. Chin bob.”

Susa

Frowning, he searched his briefcase again. “Only this one.”

Susa

“Yes.”

Luke let out a breath. “I’ll be damned,” he said softly. “Rocky is Kate Davis.”

“And Bobby killed her.” Susa

“I hate her. Said to kill the girls. Kill me.”

“But you escaped,” Susa

“No. Other here. Hurt rev.”

“Rev? Reverend,” Luke said. “So Je

“No. Another. Not safe. Killed Jen sister.”

“The nurse’s sister is dead?” Susa

“Beat her death. Jen cry. Worry about son.”

“Wonderful,” Luke muttered. “We’ll check on the little boy. But Rocky’s dead.”

Satisfaction filled Monica’s eyes and Susa

“Monica,” Luke asked, “how did they get you?”

The satisfaction in Monica’s eyes disappeared. “My fault.”

“None of this is your fault,” Susa

“Met boy. Online. Jason. Not. Was deputy.”

Luke’s eyes narrowed. “So Mansfield lured you, pretending to be Jason?

“Yes. Made me …” She stopped, closing her eyes. Tears seeped from beneath her eyelids, ru

“We know,” Susa

“Jason,” Luke murmured.

“Just like Agent Grimes said,” she murmured back. Harry Grimes had told them about the conversation records he’d found on the Cassidys’ home computer. He’d also told them that Monica’s father was missing, with foul play assumed, but Monica didn’t need to know that now. Not yet. She’d been through enough.

Monica opened her eyes and began to blink again, fast. “Who is Simon.”

Susa

“Simon. Who.”

“My brother,” Susa

“Good.”

Susa

“Monica.” Luke leaned close. “Did you know Angel? They called her Gabriela.”

“Yes.”

“What about Kasey Knight?”

“Truck stop whore.”

Luke’s face darkened and a muscle jerked in his cheek. “Bobby, Granville, and Mansfield had a truck stop prostitution business?” he asked.

“Kasey ran away. Deputy caught. Doctor put Kasey river place. Starved.”

“We found IVs in the river bunker,” Luke said. “We thought he was treating them.”

Monica’s eyes flashed. “Fixed us. Hurt again. I wanted die.”

Susa

Monica blinked away more tears. “Throw away key.”

Luke smiled down at her. “You heard that, too.”

“Want bite apple too.”

“You’ll have another bite at the apple, too,” he promised. “We have to go now, but I’m putting another officer on, so they’ll be inside and outside ICU. You’ll be safe.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you. You’re a very brave young lady. Now try to sleep. We’re going to look for your sister and all the others.”

“Mom.”

“She’s on her way,” Susa

Outside of ICU, Luke pulled her to him. “That was good. We worked well together.”

He was right. She rested her forehead against his chest. “I should stay with her.”

“I’ll bring you back after we go to see Angie Delacroix.”

She pulled back to see his face. “But we know about Bobby now.” The thought of going back to Dutton still filled her with anxiety. “Why do we need Angie?”

“We don’t know where Bobby’s hidden the girls-or where her own two sons are.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

Atlanta, Sunday, February 4, 3:25 a.m.

When Luke got behind the wheel, Susa

“What are you doing?” he asked when she pulled out a compact.

“I’m fixing my face. My mother never would have dreamed of going to the beauty shop without every hair in place and her makeup on. I never have either.”

“Then why go?”

She shrugged. “It’s a woman thing. Don’t try to understand it, Luke. It just is.”

“My sisters say the same thing. I was hoping it was just them.”

One side of her mouth lifted. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“You don’t,” he said seriously. “You couldn’t.”

The hand applying her lipstick trembled, then steadied. “We’ll see,” she said cryptically. She shot him an a

“I can dial Chase and look at you at the same time,” he said, punching buttons on his cell. “I’m a multitasker on top of being sinfully sexy.”

“The sinfully sexy came from you.” She snapped her compact closed. “Not me.”

“But you agreed. Because I’m engaging on top of being sinfully-” He broke it off when Chase answered. “Hey, it’s Luke.”

“I’ve got news,” Chase said before Luke could say any more. “Ed got a match on the prints on that road atlas of Mansfield’s. Guess who else touched it?”

“Kate Davis,” Luke said. “Monica Cassidy identified her as Rocky.”

“Really? I shouldn’t continue to be surprised by anything on this case, but I still am,” Chase said. “You still going to talk to the beauty shop lady?”

“Yeah. But you need to check on Je

“So that’s how she bullied the nurse. I’ll follow up.”

“She also said the nurse claimed someone else tried to kill Ryan Beardsley.”

“Do you believe that?”

“I don’t know why she would have lied about it. Isaac Gamble had an airtight alibi, so he wasn’t the one in Beardsley’s room Friday night.”

“Everyone has a guard outside their room.”

“I’m not sure that’s enough. We had a guard outside ICU and Je

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. We can’t just make sure nobody goes in. We’ve got to make sure nothing is administered that isn’t specifically ordered.”

“Pain in the fucking ass,” Chase muttered. “What else did Monica say?”

“That Kasey Knight was forced into prostitution at truck stops.”

Chase cursed quietly. “Every time we clean that up…”

“I know. But they’re mobile. They just break down and move to the next stop. I was thinking that that might be how the trucker who’s been using Bobby Davis’s cell phone got it. Maybe he was a client.”

“If he kept a clean truck log we might be able to find out where he’s stopped around here,” Chase said. “We haven’t had any hits on his BOLO yet. I’ll call you when I do.”

“We’ve seen a rise in interstate truck stop prostitution up north, too,” Susa

“I-75 is a problem,” Luke said grimly, pulling out of the hospital’s lot. “For a long time it was drugs coming up from Miami. Now it’s prostitution and a million other things.”

“That’s going to be hard for Kasey’s parents to hear.”

“I know. But knowing what happened to her might help Talia loosen the tongues of her so-called friends who wouldn’t help the police two years ago.”