Scene Of The Crime: Who Killed Shelly Sinclair?. Carla Cassidy

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СКАЧАТЬ Three

      He’d been vaguely surprised when Olivia had agreed to come to his home to talk, but as he pulled into the driveway he punched the garage door opener that would open both sides of the double garage and she apparently understood that he intended for her to pull in next to him.

      No need for anyone to see her car parked outside his house. It was one thing for them to be seen together in an official capacity, but another altogether for them to be together in their off-duty hours.

      The last thing she would want was any kind of gossip to start up about her, and there was no reason to invite it by being careless at this point in time.

      When she was parked inside and out of her car, he punched the button to close the doors behind them. “Call me paranoid,” he said when they were both out of the cars. “I just think it best if people don’t know we have any kind of a relationship outside of work hours.”

      “I appreciate it and I agree.”

      When he opened the door that led from the garage into the kitchen, he was grateful that by nature he was a neat and tidy man. He didn’t have to worry about errant boxers dangling off light fixtures or beer bottles lined up like soldiers awaiting a trip to the trash. He gestured her to the round oak kitchen table and then moved to the counter to make a pot of coffee.

      “Nice house,” she said as she sat. “Big for a man who told me he has no desire for a wife or a family.”

      “Thanks, it really is more than I need but it was a foreclosure and I couldn’t resist the great price. It needed a little cosmetic TLC, and I’ve managed to finish it all up.”

      The coffee began to brew and he turned and leaned against the cabinet to face her. “Don’t worry, I didn’t buy it with ill-gotten gains.”

      “That never crossed my mind. From reading the records, I know that you and Josh Griffin were instrumental in the arrest of Trey Walker and Jim Burns.”

      “It was mostly Josh. Savannah had been attacked and Josh hunted through the underground tunnels to see if he could find any evidence. What he found was an entrance that led up to Walker’s garage filled with meth.”

      “So you trust Josh.”

      “With my life,” he replied easily. “He and I are not only fellow deputies, we’re also close friends.” He had the ridiculous impulse to walk over to her and pull off the clasp from the nape of her neck that held her beautiful long hair captive.

      He turned back to the cabinet and pulled out two cups. “Cream or sugar or both?” he asked.

      “Just black is fine,” she replied. “What about Emma Carpenter? Is she a good deputy?”

      It was obvious this private meeting was just as she’d indicated it would be, an opportunity for her to pick his brains about his coworkers. He poured their coffee and then joined her at the table.

      “Emma is a hard worker. She’s thoughtful and meticulous and I’d trust her under any circumstances.”

      Olivia cupped her hands around her coffee mug. “I’m just trying to get an idea of the people who work here for the department. The employment files were relatively inadequate as far as any notes of discipline or commendations anyone might have received.”

      “For the most part we’re a good team,” he said.

      “For the most part...” she echoed with a raise of a dark brow.

      Daniel sighed. “I don’t want to believe that any of the other officers had anything to do with the drug-trafficking issue.”

      “I sense a but on the end of that sentence.”

      He smiled ruefully. “But there are a couple of men I don’t completely trust.”

      She leaned forward and he caught a whiff of that lilac fresh spring scent that had once driven him half-mad with desire for her. It still affected him on a visceral level, evoking unwanted memories of the night they’d shared.

      “Who don’t you trust?” she asked.

      He watched her lips move and remembered the fiery kisses they’d shared. He mentally shook himself and focused on the topic at hand. “I don’t want you to think that I’m some kind of snitch, but you do have a right to know potential problems within the department.”

      She took a sip of her coffee, her eyes dark and unfathomable over the rim of the cup. “Give me names,” she said as she lowered her cup back to the table.

      “Ray McClure. He was very close to Walker, but insists he had no idea what was going on when it came to the drugs flowing in and out of town. He also seemed particularly eager to point a finger at Bo for the murder of Shelly.”

      “I’d already identified him as an issue,” she admitted. “He’s lazy and borders on insubordination. Do you think he might have had something to do with Shelly’s murder?”

      “I doubt it. I think he was just following Trey’s lead in proclaiming Bo guilty in order to please Trey and to not have to do the work of a real investigation.”

      “Who else?”

      Daniel thought of all the men he worked with on a daily basis. “Randy Fowler isn’t somebody I’d trust to have my back. He works the night shift and he recently moved his mother into a fairly pricey nursing home in Jackson. He’d bitched about the cost for months before he moved her, but now suddenly he’s not complaining anymore.”

      “Was he particularly close to Walker?”

      Daniel shook his head. “Not that any of us noticed, but he and his wife were friendly with Jim Burns.”

      “Is there anyone else that you can think of?”

      “Not really. I’ve worked with these men for years, and in most cases I grew up with them. Ray McClure is a local. He was a surly and lazy kid who never changed. As far as Randy Fowler goes, he isn’t a local, but was hired in from Tupelo about six years ago. He keeps himself a bit distant from the other men.”

      He took a drink of his coffee and eyed her intently. “Are we ever going to talk about that night in New Orleans?”

      She froze and a faint pink color filled her cheeks. “I was hoping we wouldn’t.”

      “I think we need to. I feel like there’s a snapping gator between us in the room every time we’re together,” he replied.

      She took another sip from her cup and carefully set it back down on the table. “That night in New Orleans was completely out of character for me. I had recently lost my partner to a domestic altercation gone bad. I didn’t want to be at the conference in the first place. I went to the bar to be alone and drown my grief in booze.”

      “And then I showed up.”

      For the first time since the day she’d arrived at the station in her official capacity, she smiled. The beauty, the memory of that smile punched him in the stomach.

      “Yes, and then you showed up and you were charming and easy to talk to and suddenly СКАЧАТЬ