Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
“Who is Livvy?” Reeves asked.
“She’s a friend,” Ink said. “She was attacked and Maya stopped to help her.”
Reeves nodded. “That sounds like Maya. She seems to think she’s indestructible. The other night dispatch received calls from some concerned members of the public about a cop being abusive toward a young woman. She was lucky there were people willing to put their neck out for her. Because it’s going to get to the stage where people will be too scared to speak up and that’s when the city gets into real trouble.”
“Everyone will start to fear the police rather than seeing them as a place of safety and order,” Ink said.
“It’s already happening,” Stone added. “People are scared. It’s mostly happening in the poorer areas, but the filth is spreading.”
Reeves winced. He probably didn’t like hearing his fellow police officers labeled as filth. But that’s what they were. Attacking a young woman on her own?
Matthieu clenched his hands into fists.
That wasn’t happening.
So are you going to do something about it?
Merde.
This wasn’t his plan. He’d agreed to the meeting because he considered Ink a close . . . colleague.
But he’d also planned to refuse to get entangled in this, to leave Billings and head off somewhere else.
For some reason the image of the young woman he’d just seen outside entered his mind. What if a corrupt cop pulled her over and attacked her, tried to threaten her, demanded that she give him a blow job in return for not arresting her on false charges?
Fils de pute.
He didn’t like the idea of that at all.
“What happened to her?” he asked. “The young woman.”
“That’s the weird part. It was Maya,” Reeves said. He shook his head. “Of everyone in this city, you’d think she would be protected, off-limits. But Vince, the asshole cop, was manhandling her for no reason. That bastard probably thinks he’s untouchable because the Chief likes him. But it makes no sense. If Maya would just tell her father about what happened . . .” Reeves broke off, sounding frustrated.
“You don’t think she will?” Stone asked.
“No. She said that there was no point, that he wouldn’t believe her. I don’t know what Vince was planning on doing with her once he got her into his car, but he wouldn’t have taken her back to the station. The Chief might be a lot of things, most of them bad, but even he couldn’t ignore his daughter being arrested.”
Putain.
What the fuck had that bâtard been planning on doing to her? That made him feel ill. But why wouldn’t she go to her father? Would he really take the bâtard’s side?
“He was trying to force her into his car?” Stone asked, sounding disgusted.
“That’s what it seemed like. She wouldn’t tell me much.” Reeves shook his head. “More sass than sense.”
“So you think that the Chief of Police will hire us to protect his daughter?” Ink asked.
“Like I said, I’ve been pulled into the case because I’m now partnered with his son. I suggested that he think about hiring her a bodyguard. And he liked that idea. He asked for recommendations.”
“I thought he’d assign a cop to her,” Ink said. “If he’s corrupt, then he won’t care about using taxpayers’ dollars to keep her safe.”
“He has money,” Reeves told him. “His first wife, who died of cancer, came from money. She was the mother of his children. He married his current wife about ten months after she died.”
“Merde,” Matthieu muttered. He didn’t usually speak French out loud. He’d worked hard to get rid of his accent when he’d been in the Special Forces. But it did sometimes peek out at inopportune times.
“He might still choose to use a cop to protect her, but I don’t know how that’s going to go based on her interaction with Vince the other day. He’s growing less and less popular with the general population so he might move cautiously with this.”
“Any ideas on who is threatening him?” Ink asked.
“There are so many possibilities,” Reeves replied. “He can’t understand anyone threatening him or his family. Thinks he shits rainbows or something. He believes it’s someone he arrested trying to get revenge. I think it’s likely someone his cops have mistreated.”
“You do think there’s a real threat, though?” Stone asked.
“After someone attempted to run him off the road it’s being taken more seriously. I think he’s far more open to protection now. I’m going to suggest you guys to him. A local business should hopefully appeal. I just need you to convince him to give you the job. That way you can get close to Maya and perhaps the Chief.”
“All right, we’ll think about it and I’ll be in touch,” Ink said.
Reeves didn’t look happy with that reply, but he nodded and left. Stone escorted him out.
Ink turned to Matthieu. “What do you think?”