I rolled my eyes, but I did as he asked. With slow, exaggerated movements, I reached into my jeans pocket, pulled something out, and set it on the table between us.
The gold tube of Heartbreaker lipstick glinted in the sunlight streaming in through the storefront windows.
Tucker stared at the lipstick a moment, then arched his eyebrows again. “And why would you think that belongs to me? I am many things, Gin, but I am not into women’s makeup.”
I sat back and crossed my arms over my chest. “Because you set this whole thing up, you sneaky son of a bitch.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I snorted. “Oh, that’s rich coming from you.”
Tucker crossed his arms over his own chest, mimicking my hostile posture. “Please. Enlighten me.”
“I’ll readily admit that I have the world’s worst luck,” I said. “But I thought that it was a very strange coincidence that I found a woman’s body at Northern Aggression the very same night that I went there looking for a missing girl. I really should have known by now that there are no coincidences. Especially where you’re concerned.”
Tucker kept staring at me.
“You see, I heard that little chat you had with Damian Rivera in his office several nights ago. You were telling him to clean up his mess—or else—but you weren’t talking about Rivera’s habitual drunkenness and DUIs, were you? You were talking about the fact that Bruce Porter was a serial killer and the police had discovered a pattern to all these pretty blond girls being murdered and dumped all over Ashland. Care to tell me which one of the cops on your payroll tipped you off about the Dollmaker investigation?”
Tucker didn’t say anything, and his face remained as impassive as ever, so I continued.
“But you knew that I was there and that I was listening to every single word that you and Rivera said, since I’d left the window open on my way out of the office. Given your freaky vampire senses, you probably heard me out on the roof too. And Rivera royally pissed you off when he mocked you about being reduced to the Circle’s errand boy. But Rivera was right about how powerless you were compared with him. You couldn’t act against Rivera yourself. Not openly. Not without the rest of the Circle’s approval. So you decided to use me to do your damn dirty work for you.”
My accusation hung in the air between us like a storm cloud crackling with lightning, and I could almost see the wheels turning in Tucker’s mind as he debated how to respond.
“While I’m highly flattered that you think that I’m some sort of genius criminal mastermind, I really have no idea what you’re talking about, Gin.” Tucker tapped his fingers on the table. “I certainly didn’t tell Bruce Porter to kidnap and murder all those poor women.”
“No,” I said. “But you were the one who drew my spider runes on the dead girl Porter dumped at Northern Aggression.”
Tucker’s fingers stilled, and surprise flashed in his eyes before he could hide it. He hadn’t thought that I would figure it out. I’d been right when I felt I was trying to solve two separate but connected puzzles. One had been figuring out that Porter was the Dollmaker. And the other one was about Tucker giving me the one clue that had led me straight to Rivera.
“Now, I don’t know exactly what happened. If you followed Porter from the mansion that night and realized that he was dumping a body at the nightclub, or if you found out about the dead woman some other way. But you wanted to get rid of Porter and Rivera, and it was too good an opportunity to pass up. So you drew my spider runes on that dead girl’s palms, knowing that someone in the police department or coroner’s office would recognize the symbols as my personal rune. You also realized that Bria would find out about the marks sooner or later, that she would tell me, and that I would be pissed off enough to investigate.”
Tucker didn’t say anything, but his mouth quirked up into the faintest smile. That was all the confirmation I needed.
“But you still had another problem to solve. Porter had been very careful, and nothing linked him or Rivera to any of the victims. You had to point me in that direction somehow, so you decided to leave a little clue behind for me to find.” I tapped my fingernail against the top of the gold tube. “A very expensive brand of lipstick that you somehow knew that Porter used in his ritual.”
Tucker eyed the lipstick, but he still didn’t say anything.
“But then you had another problem. Where to leave the lipstick so that I would find it. You checked with your sources, probably the same cop who tipped you off about the Dollmaker investigation, and you heard about Elissa Daniels. You realized that Porter had grabbed her and was going to make her his next victim. Now, I don’t know if you found out that she was Jade’s sister or if you just followed me back to Jade’s house when I drove her home from the police station. But that night, you broke into Jade’s house, getting as far as opening the kitchen door. I imagine that you were going to leave the lipstick behind somewhere in the house for me to find. But I heard you creeping inside, and since you couldn’t afford to be seen, you slipped away.”
He tipped his head at me. “It seems that I’m not the only one with good hearing.”
I ignored his compliment. “But you still needed to plant the lipstick somewhere. So I imagine that you started following me around, waiting for your chance. Somehow you realized that I was heading back to the scene of the crime at Northern Aggression. You managed to get there ahead of me, and you finally planted the lipstick for me to find. But once again, I almost caught you, and you had to leave in a hurry. But you didn’t really care, did you? Because you knew that I would find the lipstick and that I would trace it back to Rivera. Then one thing would lead to another, and I would most likely kill him and Porter and solve all your problems for you.”
A faint smile lifted Tucker’s lips. “That was the idea, although Damian almost ruined everything by sending his men over to Ms. Jamison’s home. I didn’t realize that he had his own sources in the police department or that he would be smart enough to send his men over there to destroy any files she had. Still, you killed them in the end, and the men were another link back to Damian, so it all worked out for the best.”
The gold tube of Heartbreaker lipstick glinted in the sunlight streaming in through the storefront windows.
Tucker stared at the lipstick a moment, then arched his eyebrows again. “And why would you think that belongs to me? I am many things, Gin, but I am not into women’s makeup.”
I sat back and crossed my arms over my chest. “Because you set this whole thing up, you sneaky son of a bitch.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I snorted. “Oh, that’s rich coming from you.”
Tucker crossed his arms over his own chest, mimicking my hostile posture. “Please. Enlighten me.”
“I’ll readily admit that I have the world’s worst luck,” I said. “But I thought that it was a very strange coincidence that I found a woman’s body at Northern Aggression the very same night that I went there looking for a missing girl. I really should have known by now that there are no coincidences. Especially where you’re concerned.”
Tucker kept staring at me.
“You see, I heard that little chat you had with Damian Rivera in his office several nights ago. You were telling him to clean up his mess—or else—but you weren’t talking about Rivera’s habitual drunkenness and DUIs, were you? You were talking about the fact that Bruce Porter was a serial killer and the police had discovered a pattern to all these pretty blond girls being murdered and dumped all over Ashland. Care to tell me which one of the cops on your payroll tipped you off about the Dollmaker investigation?”
Tucker didn’t say anything, and his face remained as impassive as ever, so I continued.
“But you knew that I was there and that I was listening to every single word that you and Rivera said, since I’d left the window open on my way out of the office. Given your freaky vampire senses, you probably heard me out on the roof too. And Rivera royally pissed you off when he mocked you about being reduced to the Circle’s errand boy. But Rivera was right about how powerless you were compared with him. You couldn’t act against Rivera yourself. Not openly. Not without the rest of the Circle’s approval. So you decided to use me to do your damn dirty work for you.”
My accusation hung in the air between us like a storm cloud crackling with lightning, and I could almost see the wheels turning in Tucker’s mind as he debated how to respond.
“While I’m highly flattered that you think that I’m some sort of genius criminal mastermind, I really have no idea what you’re talking about, Gin.” Tucker tapped his fingers on the table. “I certainly didn’t tell Bruce Porter to kidnap and murder all those poor women.”
“No,” I said. “But you were the one who drew my spider runes on the dead girl Porter dumped at Northern Aggression.”
Tucker’s fingers stilled, and surprise flashed in his eyes before he could hide it. He hadn’t thought that I would figure it out. I’d been right when I felt I was trying to solve two separate but connected puzzles. One had been figuring out that Porter was the Dollmaker. And the other one was about Tucker giving me the one clue that had led me straight to Rivera.
“Now, I don’t know exactly what happened. If you followed Porter from the mansion that night and realized that he was dumping a body at the nightclub, or if you found out about the dead woman some other way. But you wanted to get rid of Porter and Rivera, and it was too good an opportunity to pass up. So you drew my spider runes on that dead girl’s palms, knowing that someone in the police department or coroner’s office would recognize the symbols as my personal rune. You also realized that Bria would find out about the marks sooner or later, that she would tell me, and that I would be pissed off enough to investigate.”
Tucker didn’t say anything, but his mouth quirked up into the faintest smile. That was all the confirmation I needed.
“But you still had another problem to solve. Porter had been very careful, and nothing linked him or Rivera to any of the victims. You had to point me in that direction somehow, so you decided to leave a little clue behind for me to find.” I tapped my fingernail against the top of the gold tube. “A very expensive brand of lipstick that you somehow knew that Porter used in his ritual.”
Tucker eyed the lipstick, but he still didn’t say anything.
“But then you had another problem. Where to leave the lipstick so that I would find it. You checked with your sources, probably the same cop who tipped you off about the Dollmaker investigation, and you heard about Elissa Daniels. You realized that Porter had grabbed her and was going to make her his next victim. Now, I don’t know if you found out that she was Jade’s sister or if you just followed me back to Jade’s house when I drove her home from the police station. But that night, you broke into Jade’s house, getting as far as opening the kitchen door. I imagine that you were going to leave the lipstick behind somewhere in the house for me to find. But I heard you creeping inside, and since you couldn’t afford to be seen, you slipped away.”
He tipped his head at me. “It seems that I’m not the only one with good hearing.”
I ignored his compliment. “But you still needed to plant the lipstick somewhere. So I imagine that you started following me around, waiting for your chance. Somehow you realized that I was heading back to the scene of the crime at Northern Aggression. You managed to get there ahead of me, and you finally planted the lipstick for me to find. But once again, I almost caught you, and you had to leave in a hurry. But you didn’t really care, did you? Because you knew that I would find the lipstick and that I would trace it back to Rivera. Then one thing would lead to another, and I would most likely kill him and Porter and solve all your problems for you.”
A faint smile lifted Tucker’s lips. “That was the idea, although Damian almost ruined everything by sending his men over to Ms. Jamison’s home. I didn’t realize that he had his own sources in the police department or that he would be smart enough to send his men over there to destroy any files she had. Still, you killed them in the end, and the men were another link back to Damian, so it all worked out for the best.”
