Memory Zero (Spook Squad 1)

She slumped back in her chair. What the hell was she going to do with herself if she didn’t have work to come to every day? “What about the old guy?”

The captain frowned. “What old guy?”

“Don’t tell me you can’t find him. I know that’s impossible.”

“There was no other body besides Jack’s.”

“Surely to God you found blood. There was a ton of it all over the fire escape.”

“The only blood we found was Jack’s.”

She stared at him. How could that be possible? The kitelike monster had all but stripped the old man of his flesh. How could all that blood simply disappear?

It couldn’t. Not unless someone had cleaned it up. Someone like the man who’d saved her life, perhaps. But why would he do that? Did he actually want her framed for murder? Foreboding began to beat in time with the ache in her head.

The captain cleared his throat softly. “We notified Suzy of Jack’s death.”

Sam frowned at the sudden change of topic.

“She’s not happy,” he continued softly.

“Well, gee, I wonder why?” She didn’t bother trying to hide the sarcasm in her voice. “Might it have something to do with the fact that her husband of three and a half years turns up dead after he’d been missing for weeks?”

“Dead because you shot him.”

That wasn’t what she’d meant, and the captain knew it. And though guilt rose, she determinedly pushed it away. Guilt wasn’t a luxury she could afford right now. Not when she was up to her neck in trouble and sinking fast. “How did she take it?”

“Her reaction was interesting, to say the least.”

God, what had Jack’s bitch of a wife said about her now? “Interesting how?”

The captain smiled slightly. “She said you and Jack were having an affair. That you’d been casual lovers for some time and that you’d finally given Jack an ultimatum—leave Suzy, or you’d kill him.”

She stared in disbelief at the captain. It was evident by the look in his eyes that he didn’t really believe it. But others might. She and Jack had been close. Hell, most of the people in their squad had presumed they were lovers—a notion that seemed to gain more credibility every time she and Jack denied it. And yet nothing could have been further from the truth. The fact was, she rarely saw Jack outside of work.

“You know that’s not true, Cap.”

“Do you deny having a fight with him the day he disappeared?”

How could she deny it when half the station had probably heard it? “That was over prisoner treatment.”

“And degenerated into some serious threats.”

She frowned. Even now, she had no idea what that fight had really been about. Jack had been edgy, strung out, all day. But when he’d started beating on a suspect, she’d stepped in—and he’d turned on her as swiftly and as violently as a snake. “I didn’t threaten him. You can check the vid tapes, if you like.”

“We have, and you’re right—the threats didn’t happen then. According to Suzy, they happened later, on the way home.”

Suzy would say that, because Suzy hated the thought of anyone else being close to Jack. As far as Sam was concerned, it was a hatred that bordered on an obsession. Why, she had no idea.

“Since Suzy wasn’t in the car, she can’t actually say what Jack and I did and didn’t talk about.”

“She said Jack told her.”

“And I could say Jack told me the sky was green, but would you believe it?”

A smile lifted one corner of his thin lips. “No.”

“Then it’s her word against mine. You choose who you’d rather believe.”