‘We were never lovers.’ Nikki quivered with rage. ‘And yes, I wanted to live. Who doesn’t? I just didn’t want you to be the one … I hate you!’ she blurted. ‘You’ve made my life hell, ever since this nightmare started.’
‘Me?’ Johnson sounded genuinely taken aback. ‘How do you work that out?’
Nikki looked at him, incredulous.
‘Are you serious? You tried to pin Lisa and Trey’s murders on me. You even accused me of having a hand in my own husband’s death.’
‘I didn’t try to “pin” anything on anyone,’ Johnson grumbled defensively. ‘I thought you were guilty. At the beginning anyway.’
‘Based on what?’ Nikki threw her arms wide in exasperation. ‘A hunch? Your cop’s instinct?’
‘Oh, that’s right,’ Johnson sneered. ‘You go ahead and dismiss those things. Because you understand what it means to be a police officer so well, don’t you, Doc? You being such an insightful psychologist and all.’
The dig hit home, but Nikki tried not to show it. She was glad she’d come, glad to be having it out with Johnson at last, telling him to his fat, ignorant face what she really thought of him.
‘O
h, I’ve made mistakes,’ she said. ‘I’ll be the first to admit it. I’ve made big mistakes, and I’ve paid for them, Detective. But that doesn’t make your Neanderthal, racist, sexist, homophobic worldview any less loathsome. You falsely accused me of murdering people I loved – my husband, my friend, my patient – for no better reason than that you disliked me. Why don’t you explain to me how that’s OK?’
Johnson opened his mouth to yell at her – his blood was up, as it always seemed to be around this infuriating woman – but for once he held back. Sure, he was angry. But he also wanted her, needed her, to understand him. One of them had to bridge the chasm between them.
Holding up his hands in a Let’s slow down gesture, he made a concerted effort to speak calmly and slowly.
‘OK, look. It’s true I thought you were involved at the beginning. And I was wrong about that. Even though God knows you gave me enough reason to suspect you. But you ought to know, I wasn’t lying and I wasn’t trying to frame you. I genuinely thought you had orchestrated those killings.’
‘Why? Because I held back information?’ asked Nikki, mirroring his more measured tone. ‘That’s a bit flimsy, isn’t it?’
‘It was more than that,’ said Johnson. ‘You had a motive.’
Nikki raised an eyebrow. ‘I did?’
‘Sure. Your husband cheated on you,’ Johnson explained. ‘Plus you stood to inherit everything in his will. That’s a motive for his murder. Lisa Flannagan was a mistress, and you hated that. That’s a motive for hers.’
‘And Trey?’ Nikki asked.
‘I don’t know about Trey,’ Johnson shrugged. ‘I thought, maybe he knew things about you and your husband that you didn’t want getting out there. Or maybe he covered for your husband’s affair? The fact is that all the deceased were linked to you, Doc. You had motive, you had opportunity, and you had the financial means to do it. You had the smarts, the cunning.’
‘And you didn’t like me, right, Detective?’ Nikki said bitterly. ‘An educated, successful woman, a woman who wasn’t impressed by your badge and bravado.’
‘How about a liar?’ Johnson replied, struggling not to let his anger get the better of him. ‘You lied to us about Brandon Grolsch. You said you’d never heard of him.’
Nikki flushed. ‘That’s true. I guess I … I didn’t trust you to treat him fairly.’
‘Oh, right. You didn’t trust us. And what was that – a hunch? A psychologist’s instinct?’
Touché, thought Nikki.
‘I was wrong to lie to you about Brandon,’ she admitted. ‘But that didn’t excuse you hounding me …’
‘I didn’t hound you, lady,’ Johnson shook his head. ‘I was doing my job, investigating those murders. I had reason to suspect you, but once I started looking into it, other leads came up that made me see things differently. I’d already started on the drugs angle and I was looking into Rodriguez, thanks to some of my old friends on the drug squad. It didn’t help having your man Williams trampling all over my turf,’ he couldn’t help adding, ‘interfering with potential witnesses. But I don’t like to speak ill of the dead.’
He crossed himself and Nikki decided to let it go. She had no right to get angry on Derek Williams’ behalf. If it hadn’t been for her, Williams would still be alive.
‘How did you know I’d be at the warehouse?’ Nikki asked.
‘That was lucky,’ said Johnson. ‘Goodman got sloppy. He left deleted emails on the server, and I’d already hacked into his texts. Once I interviewed the dealers on the streets in Trey’s old neighborhood and I got a sense of the turf war over the Krokodil market between Rodriguez and the Russian gangs, I knew someone in our department had to be helping Rodriguez. I suspected Goodman right off the bat, but I didn’t know for sure until the day before you showed up at the station. That was when I put the tracker on his car.’
Nikki shuddered. Without that tracker, and Johnson’s foresight, she would certainly not be alive right now.