Page 122 of Nightshade

Stilwell disconnected. He raised his arm to throw the phone against the wall but held back at the last moment as Tash walked in.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Fine,” he said.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

He pocketed the phone.

“Do you still want me to make dinner?” Tash asked.

“Of course,” Stilwell said. “I’m already hungry.”

“Then open a bottle of wine. I need an hour.”

“Red or white?”

“Red.”

“You’re on. As soon as I’m finished in here.”

She left the room. Stilwell zipped his empty suitcase closed and put it up on a shelf in the closet, then sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to compose himself. He had to put Ahearn and Sampedro out of his mind and concentrate on the case, not on their betrayal of Leigh-Anne Moss. Because that was what it was, a betrayal of the sacred bond between a victim and those chargedwith finding justice. Stilwell closed his eyes and promised himself that he would not do the same.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, a short tone indicating a text. He pulled it out, expecting a text from Ahearn. But it was from Monika Juarez.

We’re on. He’s coming in at 10. No lawyer—yet. You’ll be here?

Stilwell typed in a short reply.

I’ll be there.

43

JUAREZ MANAGED TOreserve a private room for what she’d told Stilwell would be a “discussion” with Oscar Terranova. Stilwell reminded her that while there was no warrant or charges on the books for Terranova, he was wanted for questioning in a homicide. He said he couldn’t promise not to arrest him, depending on how the discussion went. And Juarez reminded Stilwell that he had been relieved of duty and making an arrest would probably result in an internal investigation and discipline for not abiding by departmental orders and policy.

“We’re just going to talk,” Juarez said. “And he walks out of here when we’re finished.”

“Does he even know I’ll be here?” Stilwell asked.

“I told him I had to have an investigator present.”

“But you didn’t tell him it was me.”

“No, that will be a surprise.”

“And not a good one.”

Stilwell expected Baby Head to do a one-eighty the moment he saw him in the room.

“So, what’s our best-case scenario?” he asked.

“He has to have evidence,” Juarez said. “It can’t be a he-said, he-said. We won’t even file that shit.”

“You tell him that already?”

“I did. He said he had something we’re going to like.”