Alone in the Dark by Karen Rose Read Free Book Online Page B

the portion of the video you took in the park – where she’s still alive.’
    Marcus frowned at her. Now he was offended. ‘Do you really think I’d use a photo of her dead body, Scarlett? What kind of man do you take me for?’
    ‘A man who makes his living selling newspapers,’ she said quietly.
    Touché . He glanced at Deacon. ‘Give my best to Faith, will you?’ He dipped his head in a nod to Scarlett. ‘Detective. You’ll get those files within the hour.’
    Cincinnati, Ohio
Tuesday 4 August, 4.05 A.M.
     
    Scarlett frowned as Marcus O’Bannion disappeared from view. ‘Do you think he’ll withhold the details?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Deacon murmured. ‘Marcus is hard to read.’
    That was an understatement, she thought. Just when she’d started to figure him out, he’d gone all newspaperman on her. ‘He has another gun somewhere.’
    Beside her, Deacon’s snow-white brows lifted in a way that told her that he’d come to the same conclusion. ‘Why do you think so?’
    ‘Because there’s no way he’d bring only a knife to a gunfight.’
    ‘He had the Sig.’
    ‘In an ankle holster that he couldn’t get to that easily. The man wore Kevlar and a spy camera, for God’s sake. He expected trouble. He would have brought a bigger gun that he could have had instant access to.’
    ‘I agree, although it’s only important if he fired it.’
    ‘No GSR on his hands,’ she murmured. ‘But like you said, he could have worn gloves.’
    ‘Either way, it’s our word against his. Do you think he fired his other gun?’
    ‘I don’t think he shot Tala. If I did, I never would have let him walk away. But he could have fired on the shooter.’ She bit at her lip. ‘I don’t like that he hid another gun from us.’
    ‘Agree again.’ Deacon tilted his head, watching her a little too carefully. ‘Why would he?’
    She glanced up at him sharply. ‘You ask me like I know him. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve talked to him and still have fingers left. You know him a hell of a lot better than I do.’
    ‘But he called you tonight. Not me. Not us.’
    That was true. I knew you would help her , he’d said. But Deacon could have helped her too. He could have called us both. But he called me. Only me. That the knowledge left her feeling warm to her toes annoyed the hell out of her. ‘Because he was meeting a seventeen-year-old girl,’ she snapped. ‘He didn’t want it to look any worse than it already did. He said he knew I’d come to help her. That’s all there is.’
    ‘All right,’ Deacon said in his soothing voice, the one that grated like nails on a chalkboard. ‘Whatever you say, partner.’
    She gritted her teeth. ‘Dammit, you know I hate it when you talk like that.’
    ‘I know.’ His sudden grin cut through her irritation. Deacon had a way of defusing her temper, helping her think more clearly. Initially it had annoyed her, but after nine months of working together, she’d come to appreciate his rare gift.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, and meant it. It wasn’t Deacon’s fault she was out of sorts. She laid that firmly at her own feet. Being around Marcus O’Bannion never failed to leave her unsettled and . . . anxious. Scarlett hated being anxious. She drew a breath, found her center. None of this was about her anyway. This was about a seventeen-year-old girl on her way to the morgue. ‘I haven’t been sleeping well lately. It’s left me a bit tight.’
    ‘Uh-huh.’ Deacon’s expression said that she was fooling no one. ‘So why did he lie about his gun?’
    She replayed Marcus’s words in her mind. ‘He didn’t lie. He said, “I drew my weapon.” He never said he drew the baby gun. But if he recorded the whole thing . . .’
    ‘His gun would be caught on his cap-cam.’ Deacon shook his head. ‘Although I doubt he’d have been so free with offering us the video if it had anything incriminating on it. That he didn’t tell us about the other gun