I sighed. “I don’t know. She trusts me. She knows I’m not a dirty cop and that all I want to do is stop him before anyone else gets hurt. He killed a girl just to leave Reeve a message and he had another one shoot up a strip club last night. This guy is effectively bringing the Point to its knees and he’s doing it without being seen. He’s like a puff of smoke and just as toxic.”

“He’s good.” Begrudging respect colored the older man’s voice.

“Too good.” I ran my hands over my hair and looked at the empty coffee mug sitting on the edge of my desk. I needed to eat. I needed to sleep. I needed to get laid, and more than all of that I needed get my head on straight. “So why exactly are you here?”

“I’m here because Novak’s case is in the garbage. Everyone that had any information we could use is gone. Benny was on the verge of giving us the entire portfolio of suppliers and distributors if we promised him immunity and a brand-new life in sunny Orlando, but like I said, someone got to him before we could make that happen. We need to stop Roark. He’s dangerous, and not just because he’s skilled and unbalanced, but because he has the training to do serious damage. You already know that the folks keeping this place afloat are a target, but so are you and the girl. Conner isn’t going to take being double-crossed lightly.”

“Already figured that out for myself.” I pointed to the word on the door that said DETECTIVE. “Kind of my job.”

“Well, the girl’s deal is done. We don’t need her to testify anymore.”

“So what? You’re just planning on throwing her to the wolves and letting her try and fight Roark on her own?”

“No. I think you and I probably have the same idea in mind, son. You know Conner is going to come after her and so do we. We thought we could find him, save the department some embarrassment; turns out he’s using our own tricks against us. We want the same thing here, you and I, King. We want Conner brought in.”

I grunted. “That was the plan, I’m just not sure how to do it and keep the girl alive in the process. I’m not as eager to dangle her out there like meat and just hope I’m faster on the trigger than Roark is. There has to be a better plan.”

“You know you can’t afford to lose when it’s time to face off with him, and as an incentive you might want to remember that if the girl isn’t any use to us, her plea bargain goes away and she’s looking at murder-for-hire charges not to mention being an accessory to the abduction for the Pryce girl. We want him brought in; dead or alive is up to you.”

I swore and pushed away from my desk. The other man rose to his feet as well, but I still towered over him.

“You left her for dead, and now you would toss her in prison if she’s not willing to risk her neck for you? Fuck that.”

“She broke the law.”

“I understand that, but she agreed to testify against Novak’s crew, and when she realized what Roark was up to, she brought that information and that evidence forward. She should still be considered a protected witness.”

“She is. As long as she’s useful. Make her useful, Detective. Do what I’m assuming you already have been doing—flaunt her, and show her off. Get Conner to show his hand. You won’t be out there alone anymore. We’ll put eyes on you and the girl so if he makes a move you have backup. Here’s my card. I want to be apprised of any developments in the Roark case. If I was twenty years younger and hadn’t been riding a desk for longer than I care to admit, I would handle the fieldwork on this case myself. You remind me a lot of myself, King. I know you will do what needs to be done to take care of business. Like I said, we want the same thing.”

I growled at him as he turned to open my office door. I wanted to launch myself over the desk and throttle him. “I wouldn’t blackmail a victim to get my own way.”

“It’s not blackmail. You’re already hanging the girl out there as bait. You know Roark is going to charge at her like a hungry shark reacting to blood in the water. I just gave you a friendly reminder of what exactly is at stake should emotion start to interfere with what needs to get done.”

“You make it sound like she’s expendable.” Reeve was driving me crazy, and while I didn’t agree with most of the choices she had made that led her to where she was now, she was still a person. She was still a young woman that deserved a shot at righting some of her wrongs. She was trying to help, and trying to do the right thing, and that needed to be acknowledged.

The older cop gave me a hard look. “We are all expendable. We only matter as long as we’re doing something to change the world around us, hopefully for the better, but far too often the folks that matter are changing our world for the worse. Good luck, Detective King. You’re going to need it.”

I watched him wind his way through the chaos of the precinct house and felt my hands clench tightly at my sides. I didn’t need luck. I needed a shot. One shot and I was going to bring Conner in and shut him down. I was starting to really resent that the only way to do that was by asking Reeve to offer up her elegant and lovely neck on the chopping block. It didn’t seem right even if she kept saying she knew she was doing the right thing, that she was atoning for past sins. If Roark ended up better at this game than I was, paying with her life seemed like an awfully steep price when all she had done was take an abuser and killer off the streets. Using one bad man to rid the world of another bad man suddenly didn’t seem like an unforgivable crime. I still struggled with the way she had used Dovie and how her actions had led to what was really one of the worst nights of my life. But everyone used everyone else in the Point so the penance waiting for her shouldn’t be any harsher than what was waiting for any of the rest of us.

I took the piece of scrap paper with the name of the man in Colorado the agent had left with me and poked around on the Internet until I thought I found someone that fit the description. It took a little more clicking and two calls to the wrong number before I connected with a man named Alby Jones. He sounded like he smoked twenty packs a day and seemed totally disinterested when I explained that I was a detective looking for information on a possible murder suspect. He was going to hang up on me until I mentioned that I knew he had been in the service; it was the key to opening up the communication door.

He went on and on about his various tours of duty. Regaled me with his heroics and tales of war. I listened patiently because as long as he kept talking I could guide him where I wanted him to go.