Polar (Book 2): Polar Day by Julie Flanders Page A

guilty about smoking now while she was in his, but after the irritation of the airport he needed a cigarette.
    “I don't think so either,” Tessa said, wrinkling her nose. “Why the hell did you have to take up smoking just when you became my partner?”
    “I actually took it back up before I became your partner. You're the one who kept saying I needed to cut back on my drinking. And I did. But I need some kind of vice. Come on.”
    “If you quit smoking once before you can do it again.”
    “I quit because Caroline hated it and I wanted to marry her more than I wanted to keep smoking.” Danny inhaled a long drag from the cigarette and blew the smoke out the window. “But she's not around to care anymore, is she?”
    “She'd be disappointed if she was, I'm sure.”
    “I can't worry all that much about disappointing dead people. Let's get back to Torrance,” Danny said. “You know if there's one thing I hate talking about it's Caroline.”
    Tessa thought to herself that as far as she could tell there were plenty of things Danny hated talking about beyond his murdered wife, including everything about his previous life in Chicago. Not to mention his near murder at the hands of Aleksei Nechayev. And Nechayev himself, for that matter. Danny had consistently clammed up at even the mention of his name ever since his rescue from Nechayev's Arctic house of horrors.
    “Earth to Tessa.”
    Tessa heard her partner's voice and turned to look at him. “Sorry. I was just lost in thought for a minute I guess.”
    “What were you thinking about?”
    “How Nick Torrance was a victim of colossal bad luck. This is the worst case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time I've ever seen,” Tessa said, lying.
    “Yeah, I agree there.” Danny paused as he waited for the red light in front of him to turn green. “You think the killer knew Max Fugate?”
    “Possible. I wouldn't be surprised. You?”
    “My gut tells me he did,” Danny said. “But I have nothing but my gut to back that up. I just feel like he started with someone he knew and was watching. Then he moved on to a random stranger for his big coming out party.”
    “I have the same feeling.”
    “So what now?” Danny asked.
    “There's still the gay link.”
    “Yeah.” Danny glanced at the clock on his dashboard. In spite of what felt like days in the airport, it was still only 2:00 in the afternoon. “You want to go check out that reverend with the church that has its members standing on street corners carrying signs about gays burning in hell? What's his name again?
    “Richard Phillips.”
    “Right. From all I read he’s a real fire and brimstone kind of guy and he hates gays above all else. Why don't we run by his church and see if he's available to chat with us?”
    “I guess so. But this whole line of thinking doesn’t ring true to me.”
    “Honestly I don’t disagree with you. It’s shoddy police work and we’re grasping at a very thin straw.”
    “If we’re operating on the assumption that Nick Torrance was a stranger to our killer then how would he have known the man was gay? It doesn’t add up.”
    “It doesn’t. But maybe we’re wrong that Torrance was a stranger. And besides, we don’t have anything else, do we?”
    Tessa shrugged. “True enough. You know where the church is?”
    “I know it's on Merrill Street. But if you're asking if I know how to get there I know you're being a smartass.”
    Tessa laughed. “I admit it, I am. But I think you should know your way around our city better by now.”
    “Why when I've got your as my personal GPS? Tell me where to go. And I don't mean hell.”
    Tessa chuckled again and gestured towards the windshield. “Turn left at the light,” she said. “It's only about ten minutes from here.”
    “Great. I can't wait to meet the Reverend Phillips.”
    ****

Chapter 19
    The Reverend Richard Phillips slumped in his chair at his New Church of God office and groaned at the stack of paperwork in