Page 37 of To Die For

She took up surveillance across the road from his hotel, finding a space on a street perpendicular to where he was staying, with her vehicle looking dead-on at the hotel entrance.

After she’d watched the place for a while, Devine emerged from his hotel, turned right, and walked down the street. Her gaze took in all of him. How he walked, how he observed all things around him. Confident but not cocky. Prepared for anything.

Just like me. Because we have to be.

She got out of her SUV and fell in behind him, but on the other side of the road. Her appearance was bulky and matronly. She found most people would never even glance at someone who looked like that, much less feel threatened by them.

Jackson knew that her years of torture had reduced her life expectancy. The doctors had suggested this to her, and she could also feel it in innumerable ways, no matter how well she ate or how hard she worked out. Her body had been taken to places no human should be forced to go, and the damage was probably irreversible. With no time to waste and enough money saved, it was now her mission to hunt down and kill everyone in her chain of command who had betrayed her and then left her to die. And as soon as Devine was taken care of, the first name on that list was going to drop.

She followed Devine to a coffee shop, where he emerged with a cup in hand. He walked back to the hotel and was standing out front waiting for something. She deduced what that was and made her way quickly back to her SUV before his rental pulled around to the front, driven by one of the valets.

A few moments later he drove off and she hooked a right on the street and took up pursuit. They drove for a while and then Devine parked in front of the Sand Bar, which was still strung with policetape. He flashed his badge and went inside while Jackson slid into an open slot across the street.

Jackson Googled the Sand Bar and scrolled down to the recent news account that detailed one Perry Rollins having been murdered inside its premises. Her pursuit of Devine had now begun.

So let the games begin. But it wasn’t really a game, was it? Not with a corpse guaranteed at the end of it.

Him or me.

CHAPTER

16

HI, BETH,” DEVINE SAID TOWalker as he joined her along one wall in the Sand Bar where she was typing on her laptop. She had on her blue scrubs and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She wore an SPD ballcap over it.

“Hey, Travis. You back for more sleuthing?” She tacked on a grin.

“Trying. I had a good talk with Braddock yesterday before I headed out of town. He’s one determined detective.”

“Yes, he is.” She paused, her expression turning serious. “Did he tell you about…?”

“He did. I’m glad they nailed the scum.”

“Steve’s boys are both off to college on the East Coast now, so his work really is his life. And he’s been a wonderful mentor to me and some of the other young detectives coming up.”

“Speaks well of him.”

“You said you went out of town?”

“Just checking into something else I’m working on. So how are things going in the Seattle cop universe? You guys holding your own?”

“Case clearance rates have fallen across the country and Seattle is no exception to that. Some of it is lack of resources, and our rank-and-file numbers are way down, just like other departments. Lots of retirements and not many recruits who want to replace them. We’re down nearly a third on our uniformed division. So everyone has to work harder and that is not good for morale, even with the bump in pay we’ve been seeing lately. But we bust our tails to get the job done.”

“They can never pay you guys enough. Look, I was going by Rollins’s apartment later to check things out. Braddock said they didn’t find much, but he told me I could snoop around. You want to come along?”

“I’m just about finished here, and Ididwant to take a look as well. We’ve been so busy here, another tech team processed his place.”

“Nothing new here?”

“Unfortunately no. Give me ten minutes and we can head out.”

“Sounds good, my rental is right outside. I can bring you back here.”

Rollins had lived in a decrepit apartment building in a crumbling neighborhood a few miles outside of downtown in an area that Walker told him was “transitioning.” What it was transitioning to, she wasn’t clear about.

“His ‘business’ wasn’t going too well, I take it,” said Devine as they walked up to the second floor, where a police officer was stationed outside Rollins’s door.

They were admitted to the apartment and stood there looking around.

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