We’ll meet back at Parker by seven. The deputy chief is setting something up with the DA’s office. We can work things out then. You okay?”

She nodded, slipping the three-by-five card into her notepad. Then Barrera met her eyes and offered a shrug.

“I’m sorry, Lena,” he said gently. “I’m sorry that it turned out to be Hight. I’m sorry that you got stuck with this one. I kept hoping we were wrong.”

“I’m okay, Frank. I’m okay.”

“Maybe so. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re using you. The way your last two cases played out. You’ve got capital to burn, and they’re gonna burn it.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to put this behind us,” she said.

Barrera flashed a warm smile beneath his mustache. “That’s what I told them you’d say. Now grab Rhodes and hit the road. And remember, Hight lives next door. Keep your eyes open. Be careful and be safe.”

 

6

The wall of heat hit them as they exited Club 3 AM and started down the steps. Lena glanced at Rhodes, caught his weary smile and pointed at the Crown Vic parked in the back of the lot.

“Hope the air works in that thing,” he said. “How’d you get a take-home car with all the cutbacks? You pay somebody off?”

She knew what he was up to. Next-of-kin notifications were never easy. Under the circumstances, letting Jacob Gant’s father know that his son had been murdered tonight was almost beyond the pale.

“I stole it,” she said. “Two days ago when my car died. No one’s noticed.”

Rhodes laughed. “But they will. And then a little man with a clipboard’s gonna show up and ask you for a credit card. I’m not kidding. They’re gonna charge you for the ride. The money goes to—”

Lena grabbed Rhodes’s arm and pulled him to a stop, her eyes on the Crown Vic. There was movement in the car. It was difficult to see, yet it was there in the darkness.