Mercy for the Damned Read Free Page A

answers,” she replied brusquely, taking a good look around my small living room instead of taking a seat.
    “Alright, let’s hear the questions.”  Her attitude started to get to me a little; she acted like I had something to hide.  Okay, I realize I did have something to hide, but she could hardly know that, could she? 
    “When was the last time you saw Detective Ben Gates?”
    “Oh, that’s what this is about?”  I couldn’t help the note of relief that crept into my voice and she picked up on it right away.
    “Why, did you have something else you think the police want to talk to you about?”
    “No, I just thought you already had everything you needed from me.  I already talked to a detective… um, Rogers I think it was, after Ben disappeared.” 
    “So?  The last time you saw Detective Gates?” she prompted. 
    “Right, like I said before, I haven’t seen him since we broke up.  He came to my work, I’m a bartender at Eden.” I paused to make sure she was tracking with me, but she seemed to be familiar with who I was, and my relationship to Ben.  “We talked and decided to end the relationship, and I haven’t seen him since.”  Not a lie… though I knew exactly where he was.     
    “Just like that?”
    “Just like what?”
    “You two talked and ended the relationship.  Why did you break up with him?” 
    “Not that it’s any of your business, but we hadn’t been seeing much of each other and… I started seeing someone else.”  Also not a lie, though I left out the part about him being possessed by a psycho fallen angel.
    “Who?”
    “Why is this relevant?”  I didn’t really want to bring Adam into it.
    “Your ex-boyfriend drops off the face of the Earth the same night you break things off with him?  I want to talk to your new guy.”
    Shit.   “He’s not around right now.”
    “Where did he go?”
    Shit, shit, shit… I couldn’t tell her about Adam, it was way too suspicious that he’d disappeared around the same time as Ben.  Then there was the whole fact that I had no idea where he lived or even what last name he used.  “I meant he’s not here right now.  It’s still a little new, so he doesn’t really stay over,” I lied glibly. 
    “What’s his name?”
    “His name?”
    “Yes.  He’s got a name, doesn’t he?”
    In a moment of panic, I settled on the one person who I knew could think on his feet enough to handle a little heat from the cops.  “Parker, Parker Davies.” 
    “Address.”
    I had no idea what Parker’s home address was, so I gave the address for the club.
    “Wait… isn’t that where you work?”  Detective Santiago flipped through the pages of her little notebook. 
    “Yes, Parker owns the place.”
    “You’re sleeping with your boss?”
    I opened my mouth to protest the question again, but decided it was easier to admit to being a cliché.  “You can’t help who you fall in love with.” It was impossible to keep the forlorn note from my voice, though it had nothing to do with Parker. 
    “Right.”  There was no inflection to her tone, but I could tell she wasn’t too keen on women who dumped their cop boyfriends to shack up with their bosses.  “Police were dispatched to this building for shots fired that same night.  Did you hear anything unusual that night?”
    The other detective hadn’t asked me that.  “I remember hearing the sirens, but I was already in bed, so I wasn’t sure what it was all about.”
    “Alone or can your boss corroborate that?”
    “Alone, he was still at the club.”  It gave me no alibi, but there were bound to be people at the club who remembered Parker being there that night.
    “Gates’ car was spotted here the night he disappeared.”
    “Yeah, he gave me a ride home.”
    “But then you broke up and he left.”
    “Right.”
    “Why was it still here when the cops arrived later?”
    My palms started to sweat.  “I have no idea, maybe he went for a walk to cool