“In any case,” Villiers went on after a pause, “when I saw the badges there, well. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t want to disturb them until I’d thought things through. I shut the drawer and went outside, walked around the block.” His face was somber. “When I went back thirty minutes later to retrieve the badges and place them into evidence, after I’d made sure they weren’t recorded in the scene-of-crime reports, Walsh was back in his office, smiling at me like he knew exactly what I’d found. I knew I’d never see those badges again. I did go back when I got the chance, of course, but even the fake bottom of the drawer had been removed. No evidence at all. Stupid of me to not have taken them as soon as I found them, of course. I blame myself.”
“No,” I insisted. “This wasn’t your fault. But couldn’t you—couldn’t you go to Internal Affairs?”
“And say what? Make an accusation with no evidence, against one of the NYPD’s senior officers? No. I decided I should bide my time, wait for him to make another mistake.”
“And hope he doesn’t kill another cop in the meantime?” I said bitterly. “And what about me? If it’s him, he set me up to take the blame for it. I can’t just wait around for Walsh to kill someone else and plantmoreevidence against me.”
Villiers hesitated, then moved forward in his seat as though leaning in might persuade me better. “Can’t you reconsider? Let me call you a lawyer, right now. We can negotiate the terms of your surrender and—”
“No. I’m sorry, sir. I really am. But I intend to get justice, and I can’t do that sitting in a cell while I hope to make bail.”
“I’llput up your damn bail.”
I snorted. “Yeah. Figure of speech, sir. You know they’d never give an alleged cop-killer bail.” I stood. “But thank you for telling me this,” I said sincerely. “It helps.”
“What do you plan to do next? Please don’t tell me you’ll just turn up at Walsh’s house like you have mine.”
“We’ll figure something out. Angelo has a lot of contacts. Maybe one of them can help.”
The mere mention of Angelo’s name returned Villiers to anger. “I never thought it would come to this. What do you think your father would say if he could see you now, working with the same kind of scum who killed him? Your mother? Your brother?”
“Don’t,” I said sharply. “This has—this hasnothingto do with them.”
Villiers stood unsteadily, reaching out a hand to me as though he wanted to take my arm, but I was already backing away to the door. “Answer me this, Flynn. Have you slept with him yet? Or should I say—has heseducedyou yet?”
Whatever my face looked like, it answered his question without me having to speak.
“Get out of here,” he muttered. “Get the hell out.”
I did.
Chapter Thirty
Angelo
As soon as we returned to the safe house, Bax headed straight to the wall and added notes about Walsh having Hanson and Bachman’s badges.
I came up behind him to read over his shoulder. “You’ve been very quiet since you got back in the car.”
He shrugged. “Not much to say other than what I told you already.”
He’d relayed the information about Walsh having the gold shields of the slain task force officers, but he’d done it as briefly as he could. And I knew by then that it wasn’t like Baxter Flynn to be brief.
“Bax,” I began, but he moved away from me.
“I need to sleep,” he said. “We’ve been up all night.”
It was a reasonable excuse, coming up on daybreak as it was. “Do you want something to eat?” I asked.
But he shook his head. “I just need sleep,” he said again. “And listen, I’ll—I’ll take the couch. We really need to rest.”
At those words, it seemed as though my heart had been clenched by an icy grip, a cold that spread through my body, freezing every warm part of me.
“I can keep my hands off you,” I bit out, “if that’s—”
“No, that’s not—not what I… Look, I just need to sleep, and I’m gonna sleep on the couch.”
He wouldn’t look at me. I wondered again what Villiers had said, although I could guess. I’d tried to warn the kid that it wouldn’t end well, but as usual, he hadn’t listened. And yet despite my cynical worldview being proved correct yet again, there was no joy in being right. Not this time.
