The Loot by Schaefer Craig

Author:Schaefer, Craig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

A flood of reactions hit her at once, taking her on an adrenaline-fueled roller-coaster ride. Should she deny, argue, misdirect? Malloy just stood there with a borderline smirk on his face, waiting in expectant silence. Finally—it had only been a second or two, but it felt like a lifetime—she chose her retort.

“Are you following me, Malloy?”

He nodded at the looming stone face of the district house. “Nah, it’s my day off. Dropping by to chat with some buddies of mine. Just happened to see you across the parking lot and figured I’d say something.” He jabbed a finger at her, the smirk blooming. “Gotcha good, though. For a second, you looked like you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar.”

The tension drained from her shoulders. He doesn’t know anything, she thought. He’s just a jerk who thinks he’s funny. Good.

“You do that a lot?” she asked him.

“To everybody I meet. See, everybody’s guilty about something. You got no idea how many confessions I’ve gotten just by hinting around the edges. This one time, I used that very line on a guy we were sweating . . . Did you really think you’d get away with it? . . . and he led us straight to his stash of kiddie porn. Thing is we only liked him for a minor hit-and-run; we had no idea he was a closet pedo. He talked himself straight from a fender bender to the state pen. Shoulda seen the look on his face when I told him so.”

“You were a cop?”

“Used to be,” he said. He kept his eyes fixed on hers, studying her like he could read her life’s history on her face. “So I’ve got this theory. Everybody’s guilty, and they carry that guilt around all day, every day. Dragging it like chains. And in their heart of hearts, people want nothing more than to drop that weight. Give ’em an opportunity, and they’ll do it, even if it means looking at hard time. Lot of people would rather rot behind bars than drag those chains around one second longer.”

Charlie rested a hand on her hip. “So what are you guilty about?”

“Me?” His smirk went lopsided. “Nothing. I sleep like a baby. I’m the one honest man in this godforsaken city.”

“Sounds unlikely.”

“But it’s true. On that note, are you the kind of girl who listens to good advice?”

“No,” Charlie said, “but I’m the kind of woman who keeps an open mind.”

“Touché. Saw you’ve been palling around with Da Costa.”

She didn’t like where this was going, especially after Malloy had called Dom out at the briefing, but she kept her breath steady and her face guarded.

“I’ve been assigned to train with her, if that’s what you mean.”

“Maybe,” he said. Playing the cop again, hinting he knew more than he did. He was so good Charlie almost fell for it, but he’d already blown his ace card.

“You don’t like her very much, do you?”

Malloy’s smug smile faded, and his eyes went hard.

“There’s not a whole lot to like.

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