The Profiler Read online

  “So when he thought he was top shit for uncovering what Jude was up to, well, I had to step in, ya see. You gotta understand that, Angie. I have a family to take care of. I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Like hell you didn’t!” I yell, and my voice carries across the backdrop of the building’s metal frame. Distant from this ironclad yard, I hear the familiar gust of a subway train rattling on its rails, coming closer to our location.

  “Course I didn’t. He knew I was turning an eye to Judas and what those twits were up to, ya see. If I’d a let him, your father would have nailed my ass, too. And, eh, I couldn’t let that happen.”

  I scuttle across the corner to make it to the next side of the building, edging my way to Cain. I’ll have to keep my mouth shut now, or he’ll expect me to come from this angle.

  I keep my breath quiet as I think of the many times Cain said great things about my father, encouraging me to find my place in the field. All along, this past week, I believed every word he said, and valued him as a mentor. Right before my eyes, this man I trusted and grew to appreciate was guilty of taking my father’s life.

  Between all his words of bullshit, with all his false pleasantries as he acted suitably as a mentor, he was watching his own back, ensuring that whatever I learned on this case would not break his silence.

  If Severo couldn’t see behind Cain’s well-dressed facade all these years, after working with him on the Violent Crime Task Force and spending social time with this two-faced man, how was I ever supposed to uncover the truth when I didn’t even know what to look for?

  Moving cautiously across the rain-slicked ground, I take a few steps closer to where Cain is hiding.

  “Kiddo, I’m sorry you had to find out about this. I fully intended to keep this a secret. Hell, my freedom depended on it. Such a shame we couldn’t shut Judas up before he blabbered to you. That bastard was never much good for anything. Still, I’m sorry for your loss. I’m sure you’ll understand I had no choice in the matter.”

  The lights from surrounding cruisers sprinkle the transit yard’s outer limits, filtering past idle train cars and metal wreckage.

  “Angie? I’m sorry, kiddo. If it means anything to you, your father put up a good fight.”

  This statement ignites my blood as I flip my body around to face the side of the building where Cain is leaning. I aim, and when my trigger is set, he faces me, looking proud and pleased with himself.

  “You’re a good kid, Angie. Put your gun down.”

  My eyes zero in on Cain, my hands centered in front of me as I grip the trigger. “You lied to me about knowing my father, Cain. All week you lied about everything. I don’t like liars. Not one bit.”

  He steps in front of me, and as I steady my grip, I aim my gun, but he begins to run back across the tracks, knees high in the air as he leaps through the metal traps. I chase after him, firing as he runs from me, but he pivots and returns the gesture tenfold.

  I feel a sting of heat burn through my flesh, and from the blood below my right knee, I know I’ve been hit.

  “You’re a bad shot, Cain,” I say, steadying my balance onto my left leg. I step forward, my right muscles burning, as I make it closer to the foul agent.

  “You’re not so bad.” He grasps his left arm, his handgun still intact.

  A gust of wind raises debris from the yard, and beneath my feet, the earthquake of vibrations pose an interesting option for my punishment of Cain. But I leap across a set of tracks, hurtling myself onto him as I roll us out of the way while a subway train barrels past at top speed.

  “Angie!” Severo’s familiar voice skips to me between the cars, and though I don’t turn to locate him, I flinch at the sound. Cain takes this opportunity to roll away from me and knock my weapon from my grasp.

  “Angie, kiddo, it’s so sweet that you care,” he says, dusting himself off after the save I made on his life.

  “I wasn’t about to let a train take all the fun out of my job, Cain.”

  As he fumbles to grasp on to me and aim his gun, I leap and roll him to his back, then deliver a forceful uppercut to his cheek. There is something bittersweet in this moment as I fight back against the one human being I thought would boost my career since my father’s death. Man, did I have it wrong.

  Cain shoots but doesn’t hit me as I straddle him and roll backward, onto my spine, and peel him along, with my knees braced around his neck.

  “This is nice,” Cain mocks, and I squeeze my knees together despite the pain coming from my lower limb. With this motion, I bring his face closer to my abdomen and I send a fierce jab to his head, knocking him hard enough to draw blood.

  I wriggle from under him, stepping on his gun and kicking it to the right, where Severo and the approaching squad officers run to meet us.

  “That’s my girl, Angie,” Cain mutters despite the discomfort. “You sure have it. Your father would be so proud.”

  “Cain, you are one sick bastard,” I say, my left foot propped on his stomach, pressing into the wound I see my gun has made.

  “Angie, kiddo. Don’t blame me. Blame your father. That son of a bitch should have kept his eyes closed and his mouth shut. Just the way I left him and his bleeding throat. Silent.”

  With my weight balanced on my right leg, pressing into his wound, Cain arches his neck up to stare me down. I focus my eyes on my prey and say, “That’s precisely how I’m leaving you, Cain. Say good night.” Shifting my weight to my injured right foot, I send a powerful kick into Cain’s temple.

  “Holy shit, Angie,” Severo says breathlessly, sliding up to me. The squad is right behind him, and they soon center in on Cain and me.

  “It’s true, Carson. He killed my father.”

  The detective peels me away from Cain, who is covered in blood and mud, though I know he’ll survive. I wouldn’t have it any other way. They’ll pile on enough lengthy sentences that he’ll never see the light of day again.

  “You okay?” Severo asks, lending an arm for me to balance my walk while keeping the pressure off my wounded leg.

  Not knowing what words there are to express this release of tension, this discovery of truth, or the reality that my father died trying to set right the wrongs of this pathetic, lying agent, I do nothing but shake my head as the tears well in my eyes. For the first time since my return to New York, I weep in memory of my father.

  Severo removes his coat and places it on a wooden rail post, urging me to sit. His face is flushed, no doubt from running after me.

  My head, feeling swollen with tension, lifts enough for me to look him in the eyes. “Are they okay?” I ask, wanting to know how my family is doing.

  “They’re fine. We got them out and they’re doing fine.” The detective rubs my knee, as though the pressure will wipe away this moment of distress. “And the church is okay, too. There’s some damage, of course, but not enough to worry about. Your family will be just fine, Angie.”

  This news is a relief to hear. I don’t know how I would endure it if something awful had happened to any one of them, including Denise, who has proved to be so much part of our family. With the newly acquired knowledge pertaining to my father’s death, there will be more healing for us all to embrace, but this time around, I will not shut out my father’s significant other.

  Severo reaches to brush my messy hair away from my face, and I look into his caring eyes, thankful he has been a great support this week. “Sorry about the Jeep.”

  “What about it?”

  I shrug and offer a weak grin, figuring whatever damage has been done can always be fixed. “Let’s just say you won’t be giving me your keys again anytime soon.”

  “I don’t know about that,” he says, wrapping a portion of his jacket up around my legs, keeping me steady as he blots at the blood. “Captain says you’re a pretty slick driver, the way you tailed after Cain.”

  “What can I say?” I look into his eyes, a grim smile creeping across my face. “My father taught me.”

  C
hapter 20

  “Mi porti del vino!” Severo’s mother calls out, following after Antonio to bring wine to the table, as we settle in for a small gathering in the comfortable atmosphere of La Costa.

  The Closed sign is hanging from the doorknob, as the family wanted a private affair on this quiet night. December has officially kicked in, and as though the weather needed to enforce that notion, snow is silently sprinkling down, making a very pretty sight against the vibrant patio lanterns decorating the café exterior.

  “It’s just so lovely to meet you all,” Maria says, peering around the dining room as she addresses my entire family.

  Uncle Simon and my grandmother sit across from me, beside Antonio and Maria, and even Denise is here, placed next to Severo’s sister Frances as we mingle in this quaint situation. All the members of Severo’s family I met at his niece’s birthday are gathered around the table, and between his relatives and mine this has to be the largest, most pleasant social event I have been to in years.

  “Thanks very much for inviting us,” I say, passing the tossed salad to the detective. “I think, finally, things are starting to settle down.”

  “Then what now?” Maria hands a platter of baked ziti toward her mother, who gleefully digs in to fill her plate.

  “Now I go back to working on getting field experience. With this piece of the puzzle put behind me, knowing the strange truth of what really happened to my father, I can seriously focus on my career.”

  My grandmother reaches a hand across the table and I accept her soft squeeze as she looks over the surrounding family. “My Angela already has focus on the future. She’s such a sweet dear, and I always knew she’d be just like her father. Joshua was a good man, and he did a stunning job of raising this girl.”

  “She certainly knows how to kick some butt out there,” Severo says, and I elbow him in the ribs as he leans in closer to me, from his chair beside mine. “It’s true. Cain obviously didn’t know who he was up against.”

  Antonio passes a bottle of red in my direction and asks, “What’s going to happen to him?”

  I fill my glass and then Severo’s, while relaying the best news I’ve heard all week. “He’s being shipped off and will likely do more than one life sentence, I’m happy to report. Same goes for Judas, though I doubt the system will buddy them up in the same facility. There’s too much history with those two to let them be cellmates.”

  The detective offers me a cheer, so we clink glasses politely and then I gently swirl the crimson liquid in its glass. Raising it to my lips, I let the nutty undertone slide across my taste buds.

  There’s no denying it’s been hard to take in all that’s occurred since I returned to New York. Uncovering what happened to my father, and coping with the recent revelation of my mentor’s true intentions, I’ve had more emotions running through me than I know what to do with. Now that I have a clean slate, though, I am able to start anew and embrace my time and purpose back in my hometown.

  Uncle Simon dons a wide smile as he leans toward one of the Severos sitting beside him. “My Angie is going to do what her papa did, and she will make us all so proud.”

  Maria and Antonio look to me for an explanation, so I fill them in. “Even after this, it’s still my intention to work toward profiling with the National Center for Analysis of Violent Crime. Virginia won’t wait for me forever.”

  Maria’s eyes move to Severo, and I watch his reaction as he meets her subtle glance. “Hey, it’s where she belongs. She’s got the right mind for it. Trust me on that.” He focuses his eyes toward me, and they soften a little in the ambient light. “The center will snap you up in a heartbeat. If they know what’s good for them.”

  Admittedly, I have considered the weight of my decision to keep on track with the profiling program. Things between the detective and me may be heating up, but I can’t lose sight of my career ambitions.

  Besides, I still have years of work to do before NCAVC will even look at my application. Who knows? It could be a decade before I leave New York. If Severo is still in the picture when that time comes, we’ll figure out the destination together.

  “For now I’m more focused on what’s going to happen for me in this city.” I look to Severo’s mother, who is wide-eyed and attentive, hanging on to the English words with intensity. “They need to find me a mentor replacement. Plus, I have to fill in the blanks for Internal Affairs with the whole Cain episode, not to mention see to it that kid who was originally and wrongfully charged with my father’s death gets his leave and proper apologies. That’ll be fun.”

  “The worst is over.” Severo raises a glass in salute, and his family follows suit.

  “Amen to that,” I say, mimicking his movement. His cell phone drills and on the second ring he retrieves it, so I turn my attention back to Maria.

  “Thanks again for the dinner invitation. It’s really nice to get our families together and have you get to know one another. It almost feels like the holidays.”

  With a giggle, she raises a serviette to dab her lips before speaking. “My brother says you very rarely sit down for a proper meal. I thought it’d be nice for your family, too, now that you’re all in the city. You know we’ll have to do it often. Family is very important to us, and to you, I see.”

  “Maybe someday we can do it at my place,” I offer, as my grandmother makes a surprised face. She knows me and my cooking skills too well. “Once I finish unpacking, that is.”

  “What makes you think you’ve got time to unpack?” Severo asks, dropping back into the conversation. He slides his phone into his jacket pocket as he stands up from the table. “You’re still looking to get some field experience, aren’t you, Agent?”

  I feel my brows instinctively arch as I hear these words. “You know I am. Anything interesting?”

  As I pull away from the table to join the detective in another night of unknown action, his lips curl and his teasingly smug expression fuels my adrenaline. “Let’s just say I hope you’re full,” he says, holding the door open for me as we wave good-night to our families. “You won’t have much of an appetite after we get through with this one.”

  Maybe not, but my curiosity is certainly hungry for more.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-6206-9

  THE PROFILER

  Copyright © 2005 by Lori A. May

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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