“So, even if you do something bad for a good reason, you automatically get a reservation at the Fire and Brimstone Inn?”

“Actually,” Garrett said, “you might be able to help us out. Seems the only person who might know where Grant Guerin might be is your new BFF Parker. He was Parker’s CI back in the day, and some think he still is. But he’s not talking.”

“Parker was a cop?”

“He started out there.”

“Parker certainly likes to play by his own rules, doesn’t he?” My mind raced with all the implications. “Okay, first we have to stop this walking corpse from killing my uncle. Then I can worry about what to do with his sentence.”

Reyes smiled. “That was kind of already the plan.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t in on it then.” I started to leave to pay Parker a visit when I stopped and turned back to my husband. “Any more secrets? You know, while we’re on the subject.”

“None that I can think of.”

“Good to know.” I needed to catch Parker by surprise. And how better to surprise him than by showing up at his house at 3 A.M.?

I walked back to Reyes and pulled his mouth down to mine. He tasted like fire and salt and lime.

“Don’t wait up.”

Garrett called out as I stalked out and closed the door. “But I got taquitos!”

29

Would someone please poke holes in the lid of my jar?

—T-SHIRT

I pounded on Parker’s door for ten minutes before he opened it, as furious as I’d ever seen him. He hadn’t bothered closing his robe, and his light blue boxers didn’t hide much. You’d think he’d be blond there, too.

“Nick?” a woman said from the dark room beyond him.

“Go back to bed. I’ll be there the minute I have Mrs. Davidson arrested.”

“You wear socks to bed?” I asked.

“What the fuck, Davidson?”

“I need to know where your CI, Grant Guerin, is.”

“How the fuck should I know?”

“Fine. Educated guess. Where, in your humble opinion, might he be?”

“You have thirty seconds to get off my property.”

“Come on, Parker. I just got your college buddy off a murder charge and saved your ass from prosecution for obstruction of justice and whatever else Joplin could’ve thrown at you. He would have nailed your ass, and you know it.”

“I have no idea where Guerin is,” he said.

I scooched my mouth to one side in disappointment. “Just when I think you’re all noble and shit, you do something stupid. How do you think I’m so good at what I do?”

He shrugged, frustrated and tired.

“I know when someone is lying, and I need to know where Guerin is.”

“So, you’re like a human lie detector. Interesting. Is this about the warrant? That UC was dirtier than my CI any day of the week. Even if I did know, I wouldn’t tell the likes of you.”

“Look, we can continue to work together, or we can end our business relationship right here and now. Your call.”

But that meant nothing to him, and I realized something as we stood there. He thought I’d killed my own child. How else would one explain the hostility? He really was noble in a messed-up way. He was willing to go to jail for his friend for a perceived imbalance in the world. He wouldn’t tell the cops where Grant Guerin was because the whole thing was unfair and/or unlawful in his mind.

Then again, I didn’t give a shit. Guerin was going to kill my uncle. A good man. And Parker knew where he was. This was going to take some doing. I stepped past him and into his not-so-humble abode.

“I’ll have you arrested,” he threatened.

“You already said that. Keep up, Parker.” I wondered if I should just tell him the truth. Of course, after finding out a Colombian drug baron wanted to eat me, I figured I should reevaluate how many people we let into our little circle.

“Okay, I’m going to give you a choice. Tell me where Guerin is or I’ll tell Joplin the whole story.” It was a cheap shot, but I was willing to risk a dent in my rep.

Parker, however, came unglued. The man had issues.

He got in my face and jabbed an index finger at me. “How dare you come into my house and threaten me, you little bitch. You think I don’t know about you? You think I’m not going to nail you and your uncle to the wall?”

“My uncle?”

“Way too much shade in your neck of the woods, Davidson. Shady dealings don’t get much more shadowy.”