Courting Suspicion. Kimberly Dean

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СКАЧАТЬ call in the detective unit early.

      ‘Solicitation, huh? You guys running a sting?’

      ‘No, we were called in because of the B&E.’

      Josh frowned. ‘Who broke in? The pimp?’

      Simons looked at his notebook. ‘TMI News. They’re one of those paparazzi news shows.’

      The dull ache in Josh’s head intensified. He was starting to catch on now. It wasn’t what had happened that was causing the uproar. ‘Who is it?’

      Someone he knew? Someone from one of his other cases trying to make a bad situation worse?

      ‘Senator Gunderson. The news guys swear he’s here with a prostitute.’

      Ah, hell. That explained the extra personnel. Whenever you brought a political player into a case, things got messy. Like sewer-system messy. He knew. He was DC Metro PD. He’d had interactions with the Capitol Hill types before, but it had been a while. He didn’t want to get within a hundred feet of a stinker case like this.

      But the kid was even less well equipped to deal with it.

      Josh sighed. ‘You did good calling me.’

      Everything needed to be handled by the book. All I’s needed to be dotted, and all T’s crossed. Not only did they have a political player, the press was already on the scene.

      ‘Walk me through it.’

      Simons nodded feverishly. Colour was starting to come back to his cheeks. He flipped his notes through several pages. ‘The senator and his … date … rented the room around midnight. Not much later they were interrupted in the middle of … you know … doing the deed by two guys with a camera.’

      Josh glanced at the door and doorframe for Room 740. They didn’t seem to be damaged. ‘How did they get in?’

      ‘I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far yet.’

      ‘Who called it in?’

      ‘A few of the other guests on the floor. Apparently the news guys weren’t quiet.’ Simons jerked his thumb at the man in the hotel uniform. ‘Hotel management then called us.’

      ‘Did they tell you the guy was a senator?’

      The cop confirmed with a nod. ‘Gunderson checked in under his own name. I don’t know much more than that. We just got the groups separated.’

      ‘All right.’ Josh rubbed the back of his neck. It was awfully strange for a politician to check in under his own name if he was with a prostitute – unless he was well known and knew people could identify him anyway.

      Personally, he’d never heard of the guy. He must be doing a bang-up job on Capitol Hill.

      Weren’t they all?

      ‘Oh, and one more thing,’ Simons said. ‘The senator is running for re-election.’

      Shit. There went Josh’s hope of getting back to bed any time tonight.

      ‘Let’s see what everyone has to say.’ Political prima donna or not, the crime scene process was the same. Josh shook off his tiredness as he started to look over everything. Simons was on his heels, but they both stopped to take a better gander at the door. There weren’t any signs of impact or tampering, just normal wear and tear.

      ‘Hey, you,’ somebody inside the room called. ‘You in charge here?’

      Josh’s eyes narrowed on the scruffy-looking duo. They had to be the so-called reporters. One was wearing a ragged old George Washington University hoodie, ripped jeans and rundown tennis shoes. The other had floppy hair and a bad neck twitch. He kept jerking it around to get his hair out of his eyes. Hoodie carried a GoPro camera in his hand. It didn’t give the duo the appearance of ‘real’ reporters, but the camera was cheaper and probably more portable than the larger units professional news crews carried.

      ‘I’m Detective Morgan. I’ll be handling the investigation.’

      ‘Finally! Lance Durquist from TMI News. We caught them on film – dead to rights – the senator and his lady of the night.’ The reporter lifted his camera and started shooting again. ‘What can you tell us, Detective? When will the senator be hauled in front of a judge to pay for his crime?’

      ‘Turn that thing off,’ Josh growled.

      He didn’t have to ask twice.

      Hoodie looked nervous. ‘Arrest them, and we’ll get it on the morning web news.’

      Like that was an incentive.

      The reporter thrust out the camera. ‘Just watch it. It explains everything.’

      Josh accepted the camera that was being offered to him, handling it carefully. He looked over the buttons and dials and hit rewind. The video came with audio, and more than one head turned when it started playing again. Grunts and sexy little feminine cries fill the airspace. ‘Sorry,’ he muttered.

      Damn technology.

      He hit rewind again to take the video all the way back to the beginning.

      ‘I want that video burned.’ A deep baritone voice rang out from the next room. ‘They broke in here. That’s private.’

      Josh wasn’t interested in the porn show. He’d get to that in a minute. For the time being, he wanted to see how Hoodie and Bieber had gotten access to the room. It didn’t take long to find out. They’d begun recording out in the hallway. He passed the camera to Simons when he got the information he needed. ‘Bag that.’

      ‘Yeah.’ The guy in the hoodie nodded and high-fived his floppy-haired friend. ‘All right.’

      The two were grinning as if they’d just caught the next Watergate scandal on tape.

      The guy who’d been on the phone in the hallway didn’t find it as funny. He was now inside the room. ‘You can’t use that. It was obtained illegally. My client will fight it.’

      The lawyers were already on the scene, too. Fantastic.

      ‘And – as I was about to say,’ Josh said pointedly, ‘arrest them.’

      ‘What?’ Hoodie squeaked.

      ‘Ah, man.’ Bieber jerked his head to try to see as the cuffs were put on. When that didn’t work, he had to reach up with both hands to get his hair out of his eyes.

      Simons read the duo their rights. ‘You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney …’

      Hoodie’s face turned red with outrage, and he talked right over the cop. ‘You can’t stop the flow of information, man. This guy is running to represent the American people. They have a right to know that he’s not only screwing the system, but whores, too.’

      Josh heard the gasp from the next room.

      ‘Watch СКАЧАТЬ