The 9th Girl (46 page)

Warner hung his head.

“Turns out, she did,” Kovac said. “You know,
Doctor,
she wasn’t dead.”

He waited for Warner to look up at him, his expression a mix of suspicion, confusion, and panic.

“She may have been almost gone,” Kovac said. “I hope so. But she wasn’t dead when you poured that acid on her face. The autopsy showed she had both inhaled and ingested it. You need to know that. You need to think about that. Every damn day for the rest of your miserable life.”

Warner turned gray. Sweat rolled down his face and he began sucking in gulps of air.

“You watched your girlfriend murder her child,” Kovac said. “You took the girl’s body into the garage and poured acid on her face while she was still alive.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” he said, getting up from his chair. “Doesn’t that doctor’s oath you take say do no harm? I guess maybe you didn’t read that part.”

Kovac left the room, closing the door on the sound of Michael Warner vomiting.

Tinks stood in the hall, leaning back against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest. She looked as disgusted as he felt.

“I need some air,” he said.

“Me too.”

They went out on the steps on the south side of the building. The sun was shining its weak winter glow, too far from the earth to be of any real good to Minnesota in January. Liska shoved her hands in the pockets of her purple wool blazer and hunched her shoulders up to her ears. Kovac flipped the collar of his sport coat up, a token defense against the wind. He dug a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it.

“Does that get rid of the taste?” Liska asked.

He shook his head. “No.”

They stood in silence for a moment.

“Why do you think she kept the video on the phone?” she asked.

Kovac shrugged. “She probably didn’t realize what she had. The girl never says anything about the camera running. She would have just been standing there holding the phone in her hand . . . Julia said she wasn’t very good with gadgets. By the time she picked that phone up after everything that happened, the screen was probably blank. . . .”

They went silent again as both of them played the whole thing through in their heads for the millionth time.

“They’ll go away for a long, long time,” Tinks said at last.

“How long is long enough?”

“There’s no such thing.”

Kovac took another long drag on the cigarette and blew a stream of smoke toward the sky. “Gotta hope there’s a special place in hell.”

“At least we get to say we sent them there.”

“That’s something.”

“Is it enough?” she asked. “I don’t know, Sam. I look at this—Julia Gray took the life of the child she brought into the world and threw it away so she could have what she wanted. I look at my boys, and all I want is to spend time with them. We know better than most people, it can all be gone with one bad decision, one wrong turn off the freeway.”

Kovac gave her a long look. “Are you gonna leave me, Tinks?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t know what to do. I just know these are years I don’t get back with them. There are no do-overs.

“I love what I do,” she said. “And I love the people I do it with. But I love my boys more.”

“You’re gonna do what you need to do,” Kovac said, one side of his mouth curving upward. “I might not like it, but what else is new?”

“You’ll be miserable without me.”

“I’m miserable most of the time with you,” he teased.

She squinted her eyes down to mean little slits and punched him on the arm as hard as she could.

“Ouch!”

He pinched out his cigarette and threw it away.

“Before you leave me, let’s go have a drink for Penny Gray.”

Liska nodded and sighed. “All she ever wanted was to be accepted.”

“I guess that’s what we all want deep down,” Kovac said.

“I accept you, Kojak,” she said, mustering a little humor. “In spite of your many flaws.”

“That’s big of you, Tinker Bell,” he said. “I accept you too. I mean, who else would have us?”

They turned and started back inside, mutually frozen.

“Hey, partner,” she said. “After we get that drink will you go with me somewhere?”

“Sure. Where?”

“I want to get a tattoo.”

Kovac chuckled and put an arm around her. “That’s my girl.”

•  •  •

For a complete list of this author’s books click here or visit
www.penguin.com/hoagchecklist

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

Every four years I donate a special opportunity to the fundraising auction for the United States Equestrian Team Foundation: the chance to appear as a character in one of my books. Proceeds from the auction go to help fund our Olympic equestrian team.

The winner of the 2012 auction was Ullrich Kasselmann of Performance Sales International. Based in Hagen, Germany, P.S.I. is renowned as one of the largest and most famous auctions of international quality show horses in the world. Mr. Kasselmann himself is a longtime fixture in the horse business as a top rider, trainer, and supporter of the industry. My thanks to Mr. Kasselmann and everyone at P.S.I. for their incredible generosity in supporting the USET Foundation. And to Dr. Ulf Möller, also from P.S.I., happy birthday from Betsy Juliano!

For the purposes of the story, Mr. Kasselmann is playing the part of Minneapolis Homicide Captain Ullrich Kasselmann. Dr. Ulf Möller appears as assistant chief medical examiner of Hennepin county. And P.S.I. has become Performance Scholastic Institute. Sorry there wasn’t a horse to be seen in this book!

My cup runneth over with generous people this time around. I also need to thank Mr. Kevin Boyle, who purchased the same privilege for his fiancée, Marysue Zaytoun, with the proceeds going to the American Heart Association. I hope Marysue enjoys her fictitious stint as Nikki Liska’s wonderful neighbor!

A
UTHOR’S
N
OTE

In
The 9th Girl
,
fifteen-year-old Kyle Hatcher both experiences bullying and crusades against it, supporting the acceptance of others regardless of race, religion, interests, or sexual preference. Kyle’s hero and role model is real-life hero and role model, Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts welterweight champion of the world Georges St-Pierre.

GSP, as he is known to fans around the world, is the shining example of what a champion should be: dedicated, driven, hard-working, generous, a gentleman, and, above all, respectful of himself and others.

As a boy growing up in Saint-Isidore, Quebec, Canada, St-Pierre experienced bullying on a daily basis. As one of the most famous mixed martial artists in the world today, he now works through his Georges St-Pierre Foundation to bring awareness and solutions to the epidemic of bullying in contemporary society.

Please visit GSP’s website, www.gspofficial.com, for more information on his foundation and for links to other excellent sources of information on fighting the good fight against bullying, such as www .stopbullying.gov, www.bullying.org, and www.stompoutbullying.org.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

Tami Hoag’s novels have appeared on national bestseller lists regularly since the publication of her first book in 1988. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages worldwide. She is a dedicated equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage and is an avid fan of mixed martial arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She shares her home with two English cocker spaniels in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Find Tami Hoag on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TamiHoag

and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TamiHoag.

Or at www.tamihoag.com.