Page 36 of Locked In Ice

“Who?”Lane asked.

“The killers who get away with their crimes.You were locked up, but they’re the ones out there hurting innocents.Slicing.Torturing.Hiding bodies.Youhatethat you were punished while they get away scot-free.”

He would not take the bait she was throwing at him.

Ophelia sniffed.“Well, I certainly can’t say Iloveto have killers running around in the world and not being apprehended by the law.Not on my favorite-things list.”

“This isn’t a joke.”Shay’s cheeks splotched with pink color.

“Good.Because Lane’s not laughing.Neither am I.By the way, you’re making an awful lot of statements.Not asking questions.I don’t mean to tell you how to run an interrogation…” Ophelia winced.“But this is not it.And to think, I was impressed enough with you yesterday that I called you about the Royce Nicholson collar.”Her eyes widened.“That perp is still alive and breathing, right?”

Shay tapped her short nails on the top of the table.“Lane Lawson.”

He inclined his head toward her.

“Did you come to this town intending to hunt Thomas Bass?”

“I came to this town intending to find evidence of his guilt or innocence.”A careful answer.

“And when you realized he was guilty as sin, did you decide to punish him?”

He needed to be punished.The innocent shouldn’t suffer while the guilty get away so easily.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake!”Ophelia exclaimed.“Is this a profile that you’re trying to build?Because Lane was innocent and put in a cell, he now goes after the guilty and administers his own brand of justice?”

“Works for me,” Shay said.Her nails tapped again.

“It doesn’t work for me,” Ophelia fired back.“I’d like to see the cell.”

Lane blinked.Where had that come from?

“And crime scene pics.”Ophelia looked at her watch.“Wish you had left the body in there for me to view, but I figure he’s been taken to the morgue by now.Though, I would like to formally request a view of the deceased.”She peered expectantly at Shay.

Shay stared back at Ophelia as if she believed the other woman had lost her mind.

Meanwhile, Lane wasn’t sure what the hell to think.

No alibi.Again.Just like before.The past kept rearing its head and trying to drag him back under.Hehadleft the hotel.Ophelia had been sleeping.Looking like the sexiest fallen angel ever in his bed.

The devil tempted you to sin.

He’d wanted to sin with her over and over again.The way she’d ignited beneath his touch had blown him away.He’d been desperate for her.So far beyond rational thought and control.He hadn’t been able to stop.

He’d wanted to take and take and take…

But she’d been sleeping.

And he’d needed to put some space between them.He couldn’t have Ophelia thinking he was too—

“Lane?”Ophelia prompted.

Shit.He’d missed something.

“Just tell them where you were,” she said when he remained silent.Ophelia reached beneath the table and took his hand.Her fingers squeezed his.“I have your back.”

No, she didn’t.No one did.No alibi.Another interrogation room.Another murder.And cops looking at him as their chief suspect.He tried to pull his hand from Ophelia, but she just tightened her grip.

“Yes, do tell us,” Shay encouraged him.“Tell us how you left the hotel—alone.How you…oh, wait, let me guess…” A wide smile covered her face.“How you just ‘walked aimlessly into the darkness without a real destination in mind.’You just ‘walked as the silence surrounded you.’”

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