Page 39 of Locked In Ice

The faint lines around Lane’s mouth had deepened.She’d hated having to sit in interrogation with him.She’d tried to get the man to understand that he was safe.That she had his back.

But she’d felt him withdrawing.His body had gotten stiffer and stiffer beside her.And his eyes?

Desolate.

“No need for you to walk back into a nightmare,” she added.

His gaze had been focused over her shoulder, on the cells that she knew he could already see, but at her words, his green stare shifted to her.

“Can we move this along?”Shay called.She was already inside the narrow corridor.“Your five minutes are already winding down.”

“I’m coming,” Lane said.

“Weare coming,” she corrected.She reached for his hand and laced her fingers through Lane’s.“You’re not alone any longer.Get that in your head, would you?Partners don’t abandon partners.”She rose onto her tiptoes.“They also don’t leave them alone in bed while they go for a casual four a.m.stroll, but we’ll talk about that later.”She eased back and turned around to go inside the corridor.

“They also don’t follow their partners and take clandestine pictures.”

Fine.He had a point.But… “Those pics saved your ass, so let’s just let that one pass, shall we?”The clock truly was ticking, so they’d have to revisit that issue later.And, yes, definitely, Ophelia got that Lane was pissed.But shehadprovided the man with an alibi, so maybe he could forgive and forget?

Oh, who was she kidding?She wasn’t the type to forgive and forget, so she doubted if he was, either.

She marched down the corridor, moving quickly past the empty cells.One empty cell.Two.Her fingers remained intertwined with Lane’s, and she didn’t care what Shay thought about that situation.Lane was walking into a personal nightmare, and she wanted him to know he was not alone.

Three cells.And finally…

Unlucky number four.

The cell door was open.Shay gripped the bars with one hand.“Don’t understand the purpose of this.The techs went over this place.What do you think you’ll see that they didn’t?ThatIdidn’t?”

“I won’t know until I find it.”She crossed the threshold and entered the cell, but as she crossed over, Ophelia finally let Lane go.If he didn’t want to come in after her, she wasn’t making him.

But he walked into the cell.His haunted gaze swept the scene.Went to the bars.The bed.The toilet.

How long were you locked up?He hadn’t been granted bail.He’d been deemed a flight risk by the judge.His assets had been frozen.She’d read so much of his file, but she couldn’t remember how many days and nights he’d spent in a cell, one far too much like the one they were in right then.

“Do you have any idea how many fingerprints are in this place?”Shay wanted to know.“They dusted but, hell, we all realize the results will be shit.”

Ophelia headed for the bed.The mattress had been removed.No pillows.She looked at the top bunk.Nothing up there, either.Her gaze swept the walls.Dirty.Dark.Ophelia bent to look under the bottom bunk.

Nothing there at all.

“The place was searched,” Shay said, sounding more than a little annoyed.“Don’t think your super PI self is going to turn up something that everyone missed.Hate to break it to you, but you’re not some special shining star.”

“That hurts,” Ophelia told her.“My mom always said I was a shining star.Now you’re calling her a liar.”She remained crouched beneath the bed.“Did Thomas have anything beneath his nails?He must have fought back.”

“Fibers.”A grudging response.“But I’m betting they’ll be a match for the fibers in our cop uniforms.Thatiswhat the perp was wearing.Or maybe they were just from the pillow.”

From her crouched position, Ophelia looked back at the detective.“Why are you so sure itwasn’ta cop?”Slowly, she rose.Lane wasn’t speaking, but she knew he was taking in every detail of the scene.“The local news covered Thomas’s arrest on the evening show.If it wasn’t a cop who hated what Thomas had done, then it could have been someone related to his victims.Someone who wanted justice.”

“Thanks so much for telling me how to create a suspect list.Not like I can’t do that on my own,” Shay returned with a hard narrowing of her eyes.

Right.Dammit.Ophelia’s stomach had been knotting ever since she heard about Thomas’s death.And the fact that it felt like someone was definitely trying to pin this thing on Lane…

I need as much intel as I can get.But there is nothing here.Just an empty cell.“I want to see the body.”

Shay laughed.“Playtime is over.”

“I thought we already covered that we weren’t playing.”

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