Gavin should have been apoplectic at the sight of Sadie being rescued, but somehow he wasn’t. Instead of visions of prison and recrimination, Gavin saw a challenge like no other. A strange energy washed over him.

Finally they would know about him. Sadie would tell of the man who came to her salon, the man named Kevin. And with that, the game would be on.

They would come for him like hunters in search of prey, chasing him over a terrain of his choosing, his skill matched against theirs. He had been preparing for this test his whole life, and now that it had arrived, it excited him to his core.

The time had come to test his long game, march out onto a new and vastly more complex battlefield. He had imagined this moment a thousand times, prepared for it. Now he would face off against a true adversary, a detective, someone worthy of his prowess. And if he remained calm and executed his moves with intelligence, his victory would be as sweet as heaven’s own honey.

The first move in this new game would be to dismantle what little remained of his evening with Sadie Vauk. Gavin Spencer had a long night ahead of him.

Chapter 9

It was Detective Niki Vang’s turn to get the coffee that morning, which she bought at the Park Café, a cafeteria in the bowels of the Hennepin County Government Center—this even though her partner, Matty, wrinkled his nose at anything that wasn’t Starbucks or Caribou. As she waited for her order, she spotted a familiar face, smiled, and gestured for the man to join her in line.

“You coming or going?” Niki asked.

George Devlemnick rubbed his eyes, heavy with exhaustion, and cleared his throat with a light cough before he spoke, a habit she remembered from the days when she worked with him in the Sex Crimes unit. “Just finishing up a long night,” he said. “Worked a prostitution sting.”

“All night? Must have been a big haul.”

“Nothing more than usual, although we did snag a man of the cloth. Said he was only there to spread the gospel of repentance. You know, ‘Go forth and sin no more.’”

“I take it that didn’t fly?”

“He brought his own condom.”

Niki stepped up to the counter and placed her order. “If it was just a sting, why’re you still here? That should have wrapped up hours ago.”

“We had a curveball thrown at us.”

The woman behind the counter brought two coffees. Niki thanked her and waited with George as he ordered.

“Actually,” George said, “it was nearly a case for you guys. A security guard over at Hennepin Island fished a girl out of the river. Found her washed up on the rocks.”

“Alive?”

“Barely.”

A cog clicked somewhere in the back of Niki’s mind. “Tell me more.”

“Woman. Early twenties. Groggy as hell. We tried to get a statement, but she couldn’t focus. We’re having the dayshift go back to give it another try this morning.”