Page 141 of Dead Man's List

He blanched. “What?”

“I said, we’ll see what the DNA says. Youdoknow about DNA, right? It’s the hard evidence that proves you killed Maria Mendoza.” Rita’s mother’s skin cells had been embedded in the crevices of the signet ring that he’d worn the night he’d beaten her to death.

Connor had been responsible for that investigation shortly before they’d been partnered up.Thank you, Connor.

Drummond took a step back, still holding her arm. “You’re lying,” he said, his voice uncertain. And scared.

She smiled up at him. “Whatever makes you feel better. Next time you rape a child, use a condom.”

“I did,”he gritted out as his free hand balled into a fist and headed for her face.

But she saw this one coming. Catching his arm and simultaneously wrenching her own free, she spun him around and kicked his legs out from under him.

Drummond fell to the pavement with a thud hard enough that she might have felt sympathy if she hadn’t hated him so much.

“You’re under arrest for assaulting a police officer,” she said as she cuffed him. “And hopefully for a whole lot more.”

He was cursing a blue streak when she jerked him to his feet. Kit just let the insults roll off her. And wished to high heaven that she’d been able to record the entire exchange.

“Nice,” a familiar voice said from the shadows behind her car. Sam stepped out, clutching one of her mother’s Pyrex baking dishes in one hand and his cell phone in the other. The cell phone was pointed straight at Drummond.

She grinned at Sam, hoping that he’d recorded everything. “Were you going to hit him in the head with the dish?”

Sam shrugged. “If I had to. I figured you had things under control, but I had your back. Just in case.”

“You got it all on video?”

Sam’s smile was feral. “Every word. Even ‘I did.’ ”

Drummond began to struggle, but Kit just kicked his legs from underneath him again, dropping to kneel on his back, her knee in his kidney.

Sam looked equal parts exultant and pained, the latter most likely at the memory of the time she’d done the same thing to him.

Luckily Sam had more than forgiven her.

“He’s not as smart as I thought he was,” Connor said, casually approaching as he reholstered his gun. “I didn’t think you’d get him to admit to anything.”

“Me either,” Kit confessed, “but he’s drunk and maybe even high. Not a good combination.”

Marshall and Ashton were close behind Connor. “That was awesome,” Ashton said. “Better than television.”

That her colleagues had had her back was reassuring. She’d been certain that she’d been all alone.

Connor yanked Drummond to his feet and the three men escorted him back into the building. “Go home, Kit,” Connor said over his shoulder. “We’ll get him in a holding cell until we can fill out the paperwork. Hopefully by then he’ll be sober and fully able to appreciate what he just did to himself.”

Sam tapped his cell phone as the detectives walked away. “Just sent the video to you and Connor and to my cloud account.” He set the Pyrex dish on the hood of Kit’s Subaru. “Did he hurt you?”

She shrugged. “Nothing I can’t handle. I was hoping to at least get him for assaulting a cop. Didn’t dream he’d actually say anything useful.”

Sam gently pushed back the sleeve of her jacket and, using the flashlight on his phone, checked her arm where Drummond had grabbed her. Sam’s jaw tensed. “It’s red already. You need ice.”

I need you.Because once again this man had come to her aid. Even though she could have dealt with Drummond on her own, having had Sam with her made her too warm and happy.

She leaned into him, resting her forehead on his chest. “Thank you.”

His arms came around her, snug and safe. “You forgot to take your mother’s dishes and the coffee urn. I was bringing them out to you when I saw him grab you. I texted Connor and then started recording.”

“After you grabbed Mom’s dish to bash him on the head with.”