A short silence, followed by a sigh. ‘Reuben’s wife knew about us?’

‘Oh yeah. She trusted Burton enough to come with him willingly, but when she saw where he’d brought her, she started scratching at him, trying to make him let her go. She screamed that she didn’t want to have anything to do with the devil who had corrupted her husband. She ripped up the wounds that Marlene put on his face and cut a few new gouges of her own. So I made her some tea, laced with enough sedative to take out a moose.’

‘She drank it? After drugging Jason Jackson, she really drank something you gave her?’

‘Not voluntarily, but my knife at her throat convinced her to accept my hospitality. She settled down quickly, told me what I basically wanted to know and fell asleep. Burton’s taking her and her car to a cheap motel. He’ll dump her in a room and write an appropriately passive-aggressive email to Reuben on her phone, saying she didn’t want the kids to come home from school and find her body. Then he’ll leave her car at the motel. If Reuben had trackers put on his own vehicles like Burton says he did, and if he’s still alive, then he’ll find her car and her body soon enough. Fireworks to come, complete with Reuben’s wailing and gnashing of teeth.’

‘What did she tell you?’

‘That I was a perverted bastard who had seduced her husband into my perversions,’ Ken said. ‘She said that her PI was on to us too. I told her that her PI was already dead. That made her a little more cooperative. Burton pulled her laptop and searched her email. She’d documented what she knew and emailed it to herself. It didn’t appear that she’d sent it to anyone else. I suppose she wanted to be able to access it from anywhere in the event that she had to run or we stole her computer. She’d been through Reuben’s files that he’d locked away. She’d made a duplicate set of keys. She claimed not to have killed him, though. But she was losing lucidity pretty fast by that point.’

‘Has Sean got any leads on where Reuben and Jackson could be?’

‘None,’ Ken said. ‘No credit card usage, no plane or bus tickets purchased or cars rented. He’ll keep looking. He’s checking all the aliases Reuben’s used in the past.’

‘And if Reuben’s come up with a new alias that we don’t know about?’

It was certainly possible. Ken had several that his team didn’t know about. Just in case he had to run quickly. ‘Then we hope he trusts Burton enough to contact him. I have the only uninjured member of Reuben’s team following Burton.’

‘To make sure he actually dumps Miriam in a motel room like you told him to?’

‘Yes. They have history, Burton and Miriam. I’m not sure if it’s because he knew her back when he and Reuben were with Knoxville PD, or if they’ve gotten cozy recently. But also so that Burton will have a way back. His next task is to search Reuben’s car that I had towed.’

‘We still sending someone up to New York to follow the girl Reuben was banging?’

‘I don’t think I will. We’re running too thin in the security department. If he’s on his way to see the girl, at least he’ll be busy for a while and out of our business. If he’s left the country, Sean has the best chance of tracking him. And if he’s dead, then the problem is solved.’

‘Idiot,’ Demetrius muttered. ‘Couldn’t keep his dick zipped. What about the other two trackers that were disabled at the Anderses’?’

‘The daughter claims to have done it, but I don’t believe her. I’m about to go downstairs and give it another go. I’m not going to waste much more time on them. Especially now that we know that O’Bannion’s cozied up to a homicide detective. Dealing with them is going to be the most important thing. Did you get the gun?’

‘Yes. Anders’s girl was shot with a Ruger P89.’

‘I’ll have Decker check Anders’s gun cabinet while he’s there, to see if it looks like anything of that caliber is either missing or has been recently fired.’

‘He should look for the ammo. The Ruger was loaded with Black Talons.’

‘Huh. You don’t see BTs very often anymore except with collectors. Chip did have an extensive armory. Stands to reason he’d collect ammo too. Where did you find BTs?’

‘In my collection. I bought ’em back in the nineties, when everyone thought they were armor-piercing cop-killers. But it wasn’t true,’ he added in a dejected tone that made Ken grin.

But Ken sobered abruptly as he was struck by a thought. ‘Wait a minute. How did O’Bannion walk away from being shot at that range by hollow-point bullets?’

‘He was wearing Kevlar,’ Demetrius said.

Ken narrowed his eyes. ‘Really? Sonofabitch went in prepared. He knew the girl was trouble. How did he know?’

‘Does it matter? Once I kill him, he can’t tell anyone else whatever it is that he knows.’

‘He knew enough to track her to that alley. I told Decker to go into the office and listen to the audio feed from the girl’s tracker after he’s done checking out the Anders house, but knowing O’Bannion’s out there with a cop, I don’t want to wait that long. I’ll have Sean get started on it right now. O’Bannion may have already told people what he knows.’

‘Especially that brother of his,’ Demetrius muttered. ‘Goddamn troublemaker.’

‘No argument there. But even if he didn’t tell his brother, he could have told Bishop.’

‘I thought of that when I saw them together. So they both have to go?’

He sounded so hopeful that Ken chuckled. ‘Yes, Demetrius. Both O’Bannion and Bishop have to go. The brother too, just in case. But you can’t leave any bullets behind in any of the bodies.’

‘Got it. So who did kill that girl in the alley? Anders?’

‘No, I don’t think Chip or Marlene knew she’d gotten out. They paid for her. I doubt they’d risk their investment. But the daughter – Stephanie – knows what happened.’ Ken glanced at the security monitor. The eyes of all three Anderses were closed, exhaustion lining their faces. ‘Looks like they’re taking a nap. Time to wake them up and finish this.’

‘I’ll call you when I’ve taken care of O’Bannion. After that, his brother.’

‘Stone,’ Ken murmured, remembering all too well the newspaper headline with Stone O’Bannion’s byline – High school teacher found with kiddie porn stash. He, Demetrius and Reuben had needed to do some fast cleanup, taking risks they never would have taken had the O’Bannion brothers not come so close. ‘Make those O’Bannion boys hurt. A lot.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Demetrius said quietly. ‘I will.’

Cincinnati, Ohio

Tuesday 4 August, 12.15 P.M.

Delores Kaminsky was indeed a hugger, Marcus thought as he was dragged down into the petite woman’s embrace. And she was far stronger than she looked. He patted her back awkwardly as she held on hard.

Finally she let go and rocked back on her heels to look up at him with a smile that made him smile back. ‘It is very nice to meet you, Marcus.’

About thirty-five, she had china-blue eyes, porcelain skin and short blond curls. Standing no more than five feet tall, she resembled one of the antique dolls Audrey had collected as a girl. The enormous dog that had been watching him like a hawk since they’d approached curled up at her feet, apparently welcoming him as well.

‘Likewise, Delores. I understand that I’m the last O’Bannion sibling to have the honor of meeting you.’

Her bright blue eyes twinkled. ‘Well, we were both busy there for a few months, what with ICU and rehab. I’ll forgive you this time. Besides, you’re here now and you’ve brought my favorite homicide detective, so all is forgiven.’ She leaned up on her toes to whisper loudly, ‘But next time, kiss her, okay? I think it’d sweeten her up.’

From the corner of his eye he saw Scarlett’s cheeks darkening from bright pink to an even brighter red. Marcus suspected his own cheeks were a bit red too. ‘If I’d known that Stone brought you flowers and candy,’ he said, ‘I’d have brought you something even better. Purely in the spirit of sibling rivalry, of course.’