28
MARRY ME
Carrera
Carrera needed to give Slash space, but he also wanted to check in with her. What had happened between her and Tosh had been intense.
He drove down a street, passed a convenience store gas station, turned right, then a left, and another right before he stopped at the gate and tapped the intercom buzzer.
“I’m here,” said the familiar voice.
“Delivery,” Carrera said.
“Name?”
“Pied Piper.”
The gate opened, Carrera drove through, and around back.
Like every other time, the metal fire door had been propped open. He and Slash unloaded the body, carried it inside, set it on the floor.
CK shook Carrera’s hand, eyed Slash. “Howdy, ma’am.”
She tossed him a nod.
After they unwrapped the body, he and CK set him on the cold slab. Slash removed the black gloves from the bag, set them on the body.
“You staying?” CK asked.
Carrera held out folded bills. “Always do.”
The door to the incinerator opened. Tosh was rolled in, the door closed and bolted shut.
“I’ll be in here.” CK walked into his office, shut the door.
Carrera sat on the nearby bench while Slash stood there unmoved.
“You want to sit with me?” he asked.
When she did, she let out a deep breath.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
She tugged off the knit cap, pulled out the ponytail, raked her fingers through her hair. “I’m doing.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“I stopped a predator,” she murmured, staring ahead. “A monster who changed my life. But… if he’d been a good man, I wouldn’t have run. I wouldn’t have met Elsa, I wouldn’t have met you. Because of him, I spend my life hunting evil.” She peered over at him. “I feel no remorse for what I did.”
He ran his fingers through her long hair, caressed her back. “Maybe it’s time to put your past behind you.”
She nodded. “Maybe it is.”
Carrera
First thing Monday morning,Carrera turned on the big screen TV in his family room. Slash sat on the sofa, G-ma by her side.Alexandra Wilde’s story was about to air on the early-morning national news show.
After the anchor introduced her, Alexandra said, “This case deserves national attention. In the past six months, seven women have gone missing from the recently-closed gentlemen’s club, The Blue Suit Club in Arlington, Virginia, just outside the Nation’s Capital.”
