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“I’m positive he doesn’t.” Then slowly, her face fell. “Damnit. I guess it doesn’t matter now that Karl’s DNA is involved. If Karl’s been arrested, then it’s only a matter of time before the detective’s show back up wanting to talk to me.”

“Which is precisely why I’m here, Amber. I need you to listen to me and if you would, please, do me this huge favor and I will forever be indebted to you.”

Amber blinked at me like she was utterly confused. “Wh-what is it?”

“My boss took me off these cases, Amber. Legally speaking, I have no business being here talking to you right now.”

“Then why are you?” she wondered.

“Because if my suspicions are correct, then Karl is being framed, Amber. Framed for a heinous crime he did not commit, and I cannot just stand back and simply do nothing. Do you want an innocent man to go to prison?”

She frowned again and shook her head.

“Neither do I. So when my boss and the detectives show up to question you, I need you to be honest with them. Tell them everything you just told me, but you cannot—whatever you do—you cannot mention I was here to any of them, especially Harley. This is crucial, Amber. If my boss finds out I was here, Karl’s done for, and I won’t be able to help him.”

More tears snaked down her cheeks, but after taking a minute to steady her breathing and really give it some thought, she outstretched her hand and offered me a sad smile.

“You have a deal, Ms. Greene.”

thirty

Phoenix

Istood back and watched, stricken and horrified while Spike, Captain Burgess, Harley, Chief, and the handful of CSIs went nuts, plundering through Karl’s things and disrespectfully hurling anything and everything to the floor like his household items were nothing but straight garbage and didn’t cost hard earned dollars to replace. I always tried to be respectful of people’s belongings while conducting a search, but any time we had a full team dispatched, there was never anything I could do.

It always ended in chaos.

Karl lived in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment, and if I was being frank, it was a rather nice spot. He had a large living room, a decent sized kitchen, and based on all the items that were now thrown along some area of the residence, Karl had pretty expensive taste. Given the inside of Charlotte’s house, the house they’d once shared together, yeah…it made sense.

And he was clean too. Insanely clean. Like the guy had massive OCD or something.

Then again, it didn’t really take much effort to keep a place tidied up when you lived alone. Trust me, I’d know. I’d been living alone since I graduated from the police academy over ten years ago.

Time passed on, and as we investigated room after room, Karl’s bedroom being the next to the last, the only thing we’d found so far was a laptop on his nightstand. The warrant demanded for all electronics as far as computers, tablets, and cell phones to be confiscated. Aside from the computer, nobody had announced finding any burner phones or most importantly, masks of any kind.

“Hey,” a familiar voice spoke to me, making me shake my head fast and look away from Spike, who was plundering through Karl’s dressers.

It was Kendall.

“Oh,” I greeted her with a slight eye roll. “Hey.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Are you?” I asked through gritted teeth. “I’m lucky Crow didn’t skin my ass alive.”

“Don’t you dare treat me like this is my fault. When I called Kendra, I told her to keep things quiet as a favor for me. Whatever went wrong, I don’t know. Maybe Crow has her phone bugged or something. At the end of the day, I did as you asked. Whatever happened after that is not on me.”

She reached inside her jeans pocket and then pulled out a hundred-dollar bill, handing it over.

“You don’t have to pay me for my help, Phoenix. I did it because I owed it to you after all these years.”

“You don’t owe me—”

“But I do, Phoenix. I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry. I can’t take it back, but I do hope that maybe we can move past all of this bullshit and at least be friends.”

She left it at that and then walked away, down the hall and into the spare bedroom. The other CSIs accompanied her as well as Harley, Captain Burgess, and Chief.

“What the hell was that about?” Spike asked, sweating horribly as he approached me.