When it comes to crime, homicide detective Jake Carrington plays for high stakes . . .
Assigned a missing persons case, Lieutenant Jake Carrington investigates a local Mob boss. The trail goes cold, but the Mafioso isn’t taking any chances, and soon the heat turns up from another quarter. Turns out there’s more than one dangerous suspect . . .
Kyra Russell is drop-dead gorgeous and Jake is only human. But despite their mutual attraction, Jake’s suspicion deepens when he learns about her gambling problem—an addiction that cost her both husband and son. Even more disturbing is Kyra’s day job. She runs a crematorium—and it’s tied to the Mob. Now Jake will have to navigate a firestorm of treachery to get to the truth . . .
Previously published as Burn in Hell
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Books by Marian Lanouette
Jake Carrington Thrillers
All the Deadly Lies
All the Hidden Sins
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
All the Hidden Sins
A Jake Carrington Thriller
Marian Lanouette
LYRICAL PRESS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
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Copyright © 2018 by Marian Lanouette
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First Electronic Edition: July 2018
eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0477-2
eISBN-10: 1-5161-0477-3
First Print Edition: July 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0478-9
ISBN-10: 1-5161-0478-1
Printed in the United States of America
This book is dedicated to my amazing sisters, Cathy, Theresa, Brenda, and in loving memory of Florence, for believing and encouraging me to follow my dreams.
Love you all!
Chapter 1
“What’s bothering you about the file, Jake?” Sergeant Louie Romanelli, Jake’s partner, asked.
“There’s nothing in it.” Jake held out one piece of paper with only the initial information jotted down in chicken scrawl. “I can’t find the CSI’s report or lab reports, or for that matter, any interview reports. Stack’s a seasoned detective. After two weeks of investigating a case there should be more in the file.”
“So he screwed up,” Louie said.
Jake studied his partner. He had an inch or two on him. Louie’s olive complexion, dark eyes and hair was the complete opposite of his brownish-red hair and green eyes. They’d been best friends since childhood and partners for the last twelve years. He didn’t trust another soul as he trusted and respected Louie.
“No, it’s more than that. Something’s off. I’m going to run with this one and shadow Stack and his movements.” He shouldn’t be discussing personnel issues with Louie.
“What, he’s purposely not trying to close the case?”
Instead of responding, Jake stared Louie down.
“Son of gun! Are we going to find ourselves in another dirty cop case?” Louie asked.
“We might. You can stay clear of this one in case it is. That way when the shit hits the fan it won’t land on you.” As if Mondays weren’t hectic enough, now he’d have to deal with Detective Stack.
The invisible “Wall of Blue” shunned the good cops by treating them as traitors for turning in a bad one. It didn’t make sense. But he wasn’t going to worry about it. He hated dirty cops. They gave the whole force a bad name.
“No, I’m your partner. We investigate together. Why the hell did they give you the Missing Persons’ Department to begin with?”
“It’s a temporary assignment I was told, while the brass interviews for a new lieutenant for the department.”
Jake had his hands full. His recent promotion to lieutenant of the Homicide Department was enough to keep him working thirty-six hours a day. Now handling Missing Persons, he’d need to invent a forty-eight-hour day.
“Do you want to update me now or later?”
“Later. I need to get a handle on it. Why don’t you run with the other case for now. And when you stop by with LJ tonight, I’ll fill you in.”
Jake wasn’t going to speak about it here. He hoped Louie understood. Lately, the walls seemed to have ears. After Louie left his office, Jake spent the rest of his day looking through Missing Persons’ personnel records. He wanted to familiarize himself with all the detectives from the department. But mostly, he wanted to see what opinion Carl Stack’s retired lieutenant had about the detective. As acting lieutenant to the Missing Persons’ Department he had to understand who was reliable and who wasn’t in a pinch.
Next on his list, he had to review the cases of his own men in Homicide. Brown and Lanoue had closed their recent vehicular homicide case, but were still working the school shooting. He’d given his approval last week for them to bring in and start interviewing all of the students of interest in the hopes of shaking something out of the tight-lipped kids. From the team’s reports on the incident, the victim had been a saint—straight-A student, class president, honor society pledge, and he held a job to boot. In his experience, all you had to do was dig deeper to get the shine to fall off. Only this time it hadn’t. Thurston Crandall’s secrets were rooted so deep down that a backhoe hadn’t unearthed them.
Jake hit the intercom. “Brown, I don’t see Crandall’s parents’ interview in the file.”
“It should be there. I’ll be right in, LT.”
Kirk Brown walked into his office. At five-feet-eleven, Brown wore his brown hair in a military cut. He looked on the young side of his thirty-one years until you looked into his brown eyes. Jake handed him the Crandall file. While Kirk shuffled through it, Jake picked up Burke’s file on the suspicious death of an elderly woman. Al’s conclusion was the same as the one he’d come to: the woman hadn’t died of old age. Someone had helped her along. Best bet was the sole heir who was knee deep in