Devil Woman

Chapter 17

Ivan

Blake called me last night and said he needed to talk to me about something. I was tired, drained from Kevin's funeral, and tired from the fight I had with Nyra. I told him we could meet at the coffee shop a few blocks from my house and was now sitting in the far corner waiting for him. He walked in wearing his police uniform, and I waved him over. I handed him his cup of coffee, and he sat down.

"You know how Kevin was stabbed in a mugging?" I nodded. "I don't think it was your usual mugging." He started and leaned in closer. "There was so much overkill, and Finley's Bar is a cop bar. Only an idiot would kill and rob a cop next to a bar filled with cops. Right?" 

"What are you getting at? You suspect foul play?"

"They haven't released this to the media outlets yet, but they found something in his throat."

My brows furrowed in confusion. "In his throat?"

He pulled out an evidence bag that contained a crisp and clean note. "See how clean it is?

Whoever shoved it down his throat covered it with some clear protective bag, so it didn't break down by digestive enzymes or be splotched with blood and be difficult to read. No, he wanted us to find it and read it." He spanned his hand on the bag and scooted it toward me.

'This is how dirty rats die.'

"Average cop slur is pig, yet he used rat?" I asked as I examined the note. "This is tidy, premeditated maybe, and the killer took his time shoving it down his throat. Yet he went and stabbed Kevin ten times in the chest. Overkill isn't common in muggings. Also, the weapon of choice is usually a gun and not a knife. Were there any other weapons found on the scene?"

"Yes, a knife, but this is where it gets weird. The knife isn't the same knife used on Kevin. It's a knife that went missing in evidence two years ago. It's a case Kevin worked with his partner. Do you remember? The one with the underaged prostitute with the rape and overkill. It was because it went missing that the judge closed the case and dismissed the killer."

I took off my hat and ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. I leaned forward. "So what? Kevin is a dirty cop?"

He sighed in exasperation. "I don't know. He could have just left the knife, and we would have put two and two together, but it's like the note was placed as a warning. A rat is someone who snitches. I think Kevin was deep in blackmail, and he was going to snitch on whoever it was."

"Is there any evidence on his work computer?"

"The entire hard drive of the computer at the precinct and at his house has been wiped clean off. I went with forensic agents to sweep through his house and found nothing. Not a single print, not even a partial print.

Even his safe was cleaned through. We found a key taped behind a broken cement piece of his wall in his kitchen that led us to a safety deposit box, but it was empty. Someone got there before us, and I'm betting it's the same person he was going to snitch on."

He tapped his fingers hard on the table and put the bag away in his pocket. "Captain gave me and Miller this case. It's lowkey. No one knows we're even investigating it."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I need your help. I don't trust anyone else in the office. If someone like Kevin was dirty, who knows who else is? Please, come back. Captain wants you back, too. Just think about it. Okay?" He stood up, and I did too. He clasped my shoulder, and I gave him a stiff smile.

"I'll think about it."

Last night, I had a strange gut feeling that Nyra was going to raid my apartment when I was at the club. I knew her men didn't trust me, and with how I snuck into her house, they were probably curious to find out who I was, who I really was.