Page 50 of Black Heart

Ignored Tristan’s muttered curse when someone knocked on the door and opened it to find Rosemary standing in the doorway with what could only be described as a smug smile on her face.

“Detective Black, Hank would like a word with you,” Rosemary said, making everything in Marty go still.

Oh, God...

Somehow between work and Tristan’s bitchiness, she forgot all about her father and the likelihood that he would find out about everything that had transpired over the weekend.

This was bad, very bad.

She needed to speak with her father before he spoke to Tristan. Hell, she hadn’t been this nervous since she’d crashed her father’s truck back in high school. If she was this anxious, she couldn’t imagine how nervous Tristan must be. It was his ass on the line, after all.

Maybe she should talk to him before she spoke to her father to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. Her father was an intimidating man and had scared off more guys than she could count. She needed to handle this before things got out of hand and-

“Tell him that I’ll be right there,” Tristan drawled, standing up and grabbing a file before heading to the door, looking calm and relaxed for some reason.

“Your father would like to speak with you as well,” Rosemary added before she walked away.

Marty stepped in front of the door, blocking it. “Maybe you should let me talk to my father first.”

“It’s not necessary,” Tristan said, gesturing for her to go.

“Not necessary?” Marty repeated, dumbfounded. “It’s very necessary. The man is going to be pissed.”

Tristan merely shrugged as he stepped past her and headed towards her father’s office. She followed after him, feeling the eyes of everyone in the pit watching her. She really wasn’t looking forward to this. In fact, she’d planned on speaking with her father about everything over lunch at his favorite pizza place. She would have explained everything and, if that failed, she would have begged her father to stay out of it and let her handle things. Unfortunately for Tristan, she’d worked through lunch and obviously missed a golden opportunity because her father was about to kill him.

“Have a seat,” her father said tightly when they walked into his office.

Swallowing hard, she did just that. This was so wrong. She was a grown woman and she should be able to talk to her father, but apparently, she was pathetic.

“I need to speak with you, Hank,” Tristan said, getting to the point. On behalf of the butterflies in her stomach, she could have kissed the man, but she quickly reminded herself that was what got them into this mess in the first place.

“What do you have?” Hank asked, sighing heavily as he held out his hand for the file in Tristan’s hand.

“It might not be anything,” Tristan said, handing over the file before taking the seat next to hers.

“But you don’t think so,” Hank said, throwing Tristan a questioning look as he opened the file.

“I think all the cases are connected,” Tristan said, leaning back in his chair and looked relaxed while she sat there trying not to fidget. “If you look over my notes, you’ll see that all fifty-eight of the women I’ve selected for this were last seen near restaurant supply stores or high-class restaurants.”

“How far back does this go?” Hank asked, dropping his gaze to the folder.

“Twenty-two years.”

“No bodies?” Hank asked as he continued to look over Tristan’s notes.

“No, and none of them have been seen since. No calls, letters, or sightings.”

“Have you contacted the detectives on these cases?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

Tristan sighed heavily. “They have no new leads and they don’t have the manpower to look into this.”

“Neither do we,” Hank said with real regret lacing his tone. “We’re backed up as it is, Tristan.”

“My main focus is on my current cases, Hank, but I really think this deserves some attention as well.”

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