But Roni was still shocked at her partner. She was still glaring at him with a baffled look on her face. “How would you know to call Brax McCrae?”

“It’s no big deal, Roni.”

“It is a big deal! How would you know to call him?”

“He asked me to call if any situation that specifically involves you got dicey. And look at us. We’ve got two dead bodies upstairs and one dead body down here. It doesn’t get any more dicey than this.”

Roni felt betrayed. She thought they were cool with each other. She never thought he would go behind her back like that. But that was why it was so hard for her to trust. “He asked you,” she said, “or did he pay you?”

Dean was offended. “He asked me, Roni. What do you take me for?”

“A snitch!”

“I’m no snitch!”

“Then why would you agree to call in my . . . friend without letting me in on it? I don’t believe this. Is everybody crooked?”

Dean knew she was projecting her pain onto him. “You know good and doggone well that I’m not crooked. So don’t even go there, Roni.”

Roni closed her eyes and then opened them again.

Dean tried to explain. “Can you imagine how shocked I was when I walked in Cap’s office and I saw Braxton McCrae standing there. He owns half of upstate New York and his father and brothers own the other half. And he’s asking me to call him if we encounter anything dicey? What was I supposed to say to a powerful man like that, Roni? No?”

“But you could have told me, Dean. I thought we were cool like that.”

“We are. We are cool. But I have a family to feed. I may be divorced, but I have custody of my children and they depend on me. I’m not letting the wrath of any McCraes come down on me and threaten my livelihood. Besides, it would be different if he was asking me to spy on you with other men or something like that. He just wanted me to make sure you’re okay. And if you weren’t, he wanted to know about it. What’s so terrible about that?”

“I’m not his child, I’m his friend. That’s what’s so terrible about it!”

“Trust me on this, Roni: That man does not think you’re his child. Bet that.”

Roni rolled her eyes. It was always about sex to them. She was just tired of all of it.

But then her look changed as she looked at Bruce’s body again. “Why did I have to dangle him out of that window?” She had anguish in her voice. “Why did I do that, Dean? Why did I do that?”

“Because he did it to you.”

“But I’m not him!” she yelled out. Then she looked again at Bruce’s lifeless body. “Or maybe I am,” she said deflatingly. “Because I sure as hell did it. Wanted to drop his ass too. But I knew I couldn’t do that.” She looked at Dean. “I didn’t mean to drop him.”

“I know,” Dean said, rubbing her arm. “It’s okay, Roni. You’ll be okay.”

“And here I am waiting for Brax to show up. Why would I do that? We haven’t called it in. What if somebody saw what happened and we haven’t even called it in?”

“Ain’t nobody around this hellhole and you know it. Come on, Roni. Get a hold of yourself. Just settle down.”

“Settle down? I’m a cop who just killed another cop and you want me to settle down?” Then she began hurrying toward their car. “Fuck this shit,” she said. “I’m calling it in!”

“Roni, wait.” Dean hurried up beside her. “You can’t do that.”

“What do you mean I can’t?”

“How would it look? We’re two black cops over here.”

Roni stopped walking and looked at him.

“Both of us were holding onto him when he fell. I’m in this too. And you know what’s gonna happen. The union never backs up black cops. They always throw us to the wolves and you know it. We’ll be on our own because just as sure as I’m standing here they’ll be glad to claim we killed BG and that suspect too. They’ll claim we killed them all. They’ll never want to blame BG, their superstar detectives, for this craziness. Never ever. BG are heroes in this community and we’re still just two black cops. We’ll be the scapegoats just as sure as I’m standing here.”

Roni was distressed. She knew there was truth to what Dean was saying. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to wait,” Dean said, “and see if a man with way more clout in this town than we’ll ever have can even the playing field for us. That’s all we want is a fair shake. We’ve got to see what he comes up with because this is bad for us no matter how you look at it, Roni. This is bad.”

Roni stood there and let out a harsh exhale. It felt as if it was New York City all over again. Just a few months later.

She slumped against the car, and then crouched down against it.

Less than fifteen minutes later, as if it had flown there, a big, black Mercedes-Maybach S-580 came zooming down the isolated road and sped into the pothole-filled parking lot of a badly dilapidated, abandoned apartment building. Brax sat behind the steering wheel amazed. Why in the world, he wondered, would they pick a dangerous-ass place like this to meet up?

Because they’re fucking cops, he thought angrily, as he got out of his car.

But when he saw Roni slumped down against their unmarked police car, looking as devastated as he knew she would, his anger subsided.