LITMIR.BIZ

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was no warning of his intention. One moment Cade was standing there, face grim. The next he’d leaned down, yanked LeFrenz up with one fist on the neck of his hospital gown. “You’ll show a little respect.” The words were murmured almost soundlessly, but the warning in them sent a shiver down Shae’s spine. Here was the control she’d sensed that first day from him, dangerously close to slipping. Here was the lethal intent that would drive a man from his hospital bed back to the streets much too soon.

      And if LeFrenz was even half-right, here was the reason for that sense of purpose.

      “A good cop is dead,” Cade went on. “If you have anything to report on that, let’s hear it. But don’t even think about yanking me around on this, LeFrenz. Brian Hollister got a hero’s funeral. No one in the city would even blink at the death of a two-bit drug dealer.”

      The two men’s gazes did battle, while LeFrenz’s face slowly flushed red from the stranglehold the detective had on him. When Tremaine showed no signs of releasing him, Shae put her hand on his arm.

      “Let’s give his wound a chance to heal before we inflict any further damage, shall we?” For a moment she didn’t think the detective was going to respond. LeFrenz was turning scarlet. She exerted a bit of pressure on the detective’s arm, and he slanted a look at her, the bitterness in it as sharp as a blade. Then in the next instant he released his grip, allowing the patient to drop down to the bed again.

      “You’re the doctor” was all he said.

      The pent-up breath she’d been holding streamed out of her. “That’s right. And I need to get back to the E.R. Let’s end this.”

      “You tell the D.A. I got information on the shooting, Tremaine,” LeFrenz said when he could speak again. “You tell him that’s what I’m dealing. The name of a cop killer ought to trump a dead kid, right?”

      “No one is going to believe you have something to trade on Hollister’s murder.” Shae listened in horrified fascination as the two men bartered. “Do you think you can just throw out some street gossip and beat a murder rap with it? You can’t be that stupid.”

      “I got more than that, Tremaine. I got me a personal relationship with Freddie. You ’member Freddie, doncha?” Shae saw from the look on the detective’s face that the name was all too familiar. “I’ve had me some…transactions with him.”

      “You mean you deal to him,” Cade said flatly.

      LeFrenz rolled his shoulders. “Don’t matter how I know him. Just that he came to me that night in a big hurry. Had to get out of town and he needed some…supplies before he went.”

      Cade folded his arms over his chest. “Let me guess. You set him up with a quick fix. Easier to pump a junkie for details when he’s just starting to reach for that high, isn’t it? And Freddie must have been getting desperate by the time he found you.”

      “You never know when this kind of information is going to come in handy.” One eye slid closed in a sly wink. “He was shook up, all right. Figured you both for dead. Had himself a wad of cash, too, so someone paid him off. Since cops don’t deal in that kind of money, I’m thinking the shooters did.”

      The conversation was painting an all-too-vivid picture for Shae. She could almost hear the gunfire, see the bodies crumpled on the ground. But if the words were bringing back traumatic memories for Tremaine, it didn’t show in his expression. That awesome control was back, and the rage that had briefly flared had been reined in, hidden. Somehow that evidence of his restraint was as fearsome as his temper had been.

      “Where’s Freddie now?”

      Again LeFrenz shrugged. “Split, man. Guess it wouldn’t be too healthy for him to stick around here. But before he left, he told me all about the whole thing.”

      Cade considered him for a long moment. “I’ll run it by the D.A., see if he wants to deal. But your tip has to lead somewhere before he even considers trading for it. And we’re still gonna need the name of your supplier, too, if you’re hoping to slip out of a murder rap.”

      Her beeper sounded, an insistent reminder. Shae didn’t reach for it. She was transfixed by the scene playing out before her.

      LeFrenz laughed, an ugly sound. “Now who’s blowing smoke? I give up a cop killer, they gonna give me the key to the city. You go on and call the D.A., Tremaine. Run this by him. He’ll deal. I guarantee it.” He looked at Shae then, clearly finished with the conversation. “So Angel Eyes, you gonna stay up here a while and keep me company? Fluff my pillows? Give me a sponge bath, maybe?”

      “She needs to get back to the E.R. You’ve already wasted enough of her time, LeFrenz.” The detective took her elbow and guided her of the room.

      “You come on back and see me tomorrow, Doc,” LeFrenz called after her. “You and me, we have lots to talk about.”

      Once in the hallway, she reached for her beeper, saw the E.R. number. “I have to get downstairs,” she said numbly.

      “I figured.” Tremaine was all business now. “Thanks for coming up today. There shouldn’t be any reason for you to be here tomorrow. I think Jonny will jump at whatever bone the D.A. decides to throw him.”

      He walked her to the elevator, jabbed the down button. Shae cautioned herself to keep silent. This wasn’t her business, none of it. But the questions whirling around inside her wouldn’t be quieted. “Is what he said in there true?” When Cade only looked at her, she continued, “I mean about what happened to you and your partner.”

      The doors of the elevator slid open. Before they stepped inside, she was forced nearer to him to make room for people to exit. She chose the corner opposite his at the back of the compartment and leaned against the wall as she waited for his answer.

      “It was close enough,” he finally responded. “Whether he has any more than that remains to be seen. He might just be bluffing, trying to avoid giving up his supplier’s name.”

      She studied him, but his profile could have been set in stone. No one would guess that he was talking about discovering the identity of the man, or men, who’d shot him. Who’d killed his partner.

      Something compelled her to push further. “And if he does have information about your partner’s death?” She waited for the detective’s gaze to meet hers. “What then? Will that boy who died be ignored in favor of arresting a cop killer?”

      “Unless you want to loan me that crystal ball of yours, I have no idea what the D.A. is going to go for. Whichever is the surest thing, I imagine.”

      The elevator doors opened to the E.R. floor. But Shae didn’t move. She couldn’t. No more than she could prevent the bitterness from shading her tone. “So that’s justice to you? The surest thing? Trading information for freedom with scum like that the way kids trade baseball cards?” There was a burning in her chest that was all too familiar. A helpless hopeless fury that she could never seem to completely dispel.

      He stepped out of the elevator, his voice trailing over his shoulder. “It might not pass for justice to you, Doc. But sometimes it’s the only thing we’ve got.”

      Chapter 3

      “I liked the monkeys best.” The pigtailed six-year-old at Shae’s side skipped a little as they made their way down the hallway back to her apartment. “Especially the ones with the rainbows on their bottoms.”

      “Those are baboons, honey.” Shae smiled at TeKayla’s description. “But they were funny, weren’t they?”

      The little girl nodded. “And I liked feeding crackers to the giraffes, too. Can we go back to the zoo sometime?”

      Stopping before the girl’s door, Shae rang the bell. “Maybe next month.” Noting a sulk on the way, she reminded the girl, “You wanted to go to the alligator farm next, remember?”

      TeKayla brightened

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