Page 39 of The Liar

Her jaw ticked. “A relationship.”

I held up my hands, my palms out, placating. “Purely business.”

“Of course.” She rolled her eyes. “I have absolutely no reason to doubt a thing you say.”

“It wasn’t like that.” It sounded weak, and we both knew it.

“So, what was it like?” she asked. “Tell me.”

“Sasha was feeding me information to implicate Ortez’s wife in criminal dealings.”

A light went off in her head. “She wanted the wife out of the way.”

“Exactly.” I almost grinned. This was beginning to feel less like an interrogation and more like a pair of colleagues sharing intel. I could work with that. “I promised to pass the evidence along if she gave me enough for a conviction, and meanwhile, I was triple checking everything she sent through, hoping it would give me something on Ortez himself, or the men who work for him.”

“Including the dirty cops?”

“Yes. She was an incredible source of information.” I wouldn’t say I’d liked Sasha, but I’d respected her for knowing what she wanted and going after it ruthlessly. It was a shame it had ended badly for her. I wasn’t sure who had wielded the knife, but I had no doubt it was someone from Ortez’s shadowy world.

“Do you have any idea who might have killed her?” Joanna asked, as if she’d somehow read my train of thought.

“No.” I pursed my lips. “Helena Ortez had plenty ofreason to want her out of the picture, but Sasha was a weak link in their organization as a whole. It could have been any number of people.”

Joanna tossed her hair over her shoulder and gazed out over the gardens. “Will her best friend know?”

“She doesn’t.” I must have spoken too quickly because Joanna’s eyes narrowed.

“You’ve been in touch with her since the body was found?” she demanded.

I braced myself. There was no easy way to say this. “Portia is the woman you saw me with in that coffee shop.”

She reeled back, as if I’d hit her, but then her gaze cleared. “You were holding her hand because she’d just found her best friend’s dead body?”

“That’s right.” I was relieved she’d jumped to the right conclusion this time.

“The call that reported Sloane’s body was from a male.” She tapped her chin. “Portia called you, and you informed the police.”

“Right again. Portia doesn’t trust the police. Especially not officers in uniform.” I didn’t blame her. Portia was an escort as well as a dancer, and she’d experienced how badly some cops treated sex workers firsthand.

“Why did you stay in the area?” she asked, but then nodded as if she’d answered her own question. “Because you thought Neal would pick up the case, not me.”

I chuckled. “Do you need me here at all? It seems like you’ve got this figured out.”

I regretted the quip the instant her cool gaze landed on me. Usually, she didn’t mind my teasing, but I guess that was a perk of being the man she loved. Now, I got to find out how it felt to be the recipient of her scorn.

“Tell me more about Portia,” she said, her eyes darting around, scanning the area.

We were alone.

I drew in a deep breath. Adam was going to be furious with me for sharing so much information, but I was trusting my judgment when it came to Joanna and hoping like hell she wouldn’t prove me wrong.

“I made contact with her initially, when she was brought in on solicitation charges. She works at a brothel owned by the Ortez family and one of her regular clients is the man we believe leaked information to them about the raid on their warehouse. I got the charges against her dropped and, in return, she’s been supplying me with any tidbits she learns from him.”

Joanna crossed her arms. “And has she been useful?”

“Yes, in a broad sense. She hasn’t given us anything definitive, but enough to implicate several other officers.” Now that we knew to watch them, it was only a matter of waiting for them to slip up.

Joanna took this in silently, then asked, “Was she able to tell you much about Sasha Sloane’s death?”

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