Читать книгу While Others Sleep - Helen R. Myers - Страница 16

As soon as the coast was clear, Blade joined Lefevre in the parking lot and asked, “What was that all about?”

“You tell me.”

He wasn’t admitting to anything until he had to. “What are you talking about?”

“I can’t decide whether you were hoping she’d shoot me or if you were hiding from her.”

Blade knew better than to respond to either part of that observation. “You know, the less I’m recognized around here the safer it is for everyone.”

“It looked like you were hiding from her.”

“Never met her before. What’s your beef with the woman anyway?” He knew Lefevre usually salivated over the long-legged type, and Ms. Cody Security had the figure to be a Las Vegas showgirl.

Beneath his neatly trimmed mustache, Lefevre’s mouth twisted into a sneer. “Campbell Cody is poison. Got one of our guys killed—her partner. My wife’s stepbrother. It happened a short while before you arrived, though people talk about it even today.”

“Now that you mention it, I do remember hearing something.” But back then he’d been preoccupied with his own misery, and with learning a new job. What intrigued him was the intensity of Lefevre’s anger. Maybe Campbell Cody deserved it, but for someone who didn’t work too hard at hiding that he cheated on his wife, Alan Lefevre seemed somewhat overzealous. “So, she was a cop?”

“Please. More like a bitch with a gun. Greg found out the hard way.”

“Her partner?”

“Yeah, Greg Gerrard.”

“What happened?”

“She didn’t watch his back when she should have. She turned chicken, that’s what she did. Talks a tough game, but I wouldn’t trust her to cover my ass against a toddler with a water pistol.”

Blade thought about last night. She’d seemed pretty dedicated to him. “Why do you suppose she was here? If she knows she’s not welcome, she took a big risk.”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Only—” he checked his watch and made a face “—not now.”

“Yeah, I have to get moving, too.”

“You owe me.”

Lefevre pointed a finger at him as though punctuating the statement made it written in stone. Blade merely raised his hand, letting him wonder if the gesture signaled an agreement or farewell. It didn’t matter; the detective was in his issued sedan and gunning the engine. Seconds later, with tires spinning on the still-damp asphalt, he pulled into traffic and sped away.

Grateful for the reprieve from the inquisition, Blade started for his truck, only to see a white SUV with a light bar on top pull around the corner of the building. Impressed with Campbell Cody’s nerve, Blade ducked behind the van nearest his truck and watched her pause while a young African-American woman in uniform ran out of the building and got into her truck.