Darkness Calls. Caridad Pineiro

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ lawyer sat calmly as Hernandez advised them on Latimer’s concerns and his willingness to cooperate in any way he could, including presenting himself in the late afternoon for questioning. The lawyer nodded, confirming each of Hernandez’s statements.

      Ruggiero must have taken fashion tips from an early Godfather movie—his brown hair was ruthlessly slicked back with gel and his silk suit was shiny, the oily sheen in keeping with the unctuous smile he had given her when they met. He had on an overpowering cologne that made her nauseous, as did his tight, ferretlike smile.

      “My client will do everything in his power to cooperate,” Ruggiero replied in seemingly sincere tones, and she wondered how he could lie so easily. Latimer clearly had something to hide, and this man was here to help him do so.

      “Tell me, Mr. Ruggiero. Does your client’s idea of cooperation include attempting to restrain a federal officer?” Diana countered, and gave the man some credit when he had the grace to blush.

      “A misunderstanding, Agent—”

      “Special Agent in Charge, Mr. Ruggiero,” David corrected him.

      Diana shot her partner a glare, hating that he had paraded her title. In her book, titles alone didn’t earn respect. She addressed the lawyer calmly, her tone brooking no disagreement. “If your client doesn’t appear by this afternoon, he’ll leave me no option but to issue a warrant.”

      “My client has rights—”

      “And it’s well within his rights for us to ask him to answer a few questions. If he feels uncomfortable, he has the right to counsel and to refuse to answer. In which case, we’ll charge him as the suspect and hold him for additional proceedings,” Hernandez answered calmly, attempting to stop further disputes. “Do you think your client can come by this afternoon, at let’s say…”

      Hernandez stopped and glanced at Diana to continue. “Four o’clock would be fine,” she confirmed.

      The attorney nodded, rose and walked out the door.

      After he was gone, Diana let out a stinging Spanish expletive. Hernandez whistled beneath his breath. David coughed uncomfortably.

      “Well, what does he think we’re going to do? Chinese water torture or boiling in hot oil? The last thing we want is to lose a suspect due to a technicality,” she said hotly.

      David shrugged. “You and Latimer got off on the wrong foot last night. Maybe that worried him.”

      “And speaking of that, Diana, I understand from your reports that you and this suspect had a physical altercation. One in which you may have suffered a possible injury?” Hernandez glanced at a file as he spoke.

      “Has anyone here checked you out?” he continued.

      “I planned on going down—”

      “As soon as we are done,” Hernandez instructed, and then quickly launched into a discussion of the case and their plan of action for the interrogation of Latimer.

      Diana took a deep breath, her headache having intensified during the interview. She hoped Latimer wouldn’t mess around with them. They needed his cooperation at the club. But something told her that even though he hadn’t been on the up-and-up with them, it had nothing to do with the killings. He was hiding something else. Something more…personal.

      When Hernandez dismissed them, she rose and followed David from the office, the pounding in her head intense and almost debilitating.

      “Diana?” David asked as he noted her discomfort.

      She nodded and forced a smile. “A bad headache. And even if Hernandez hadn’t ordered it, I’d be heading to Maggie’s, anyway, to have her check me out.”

      David smiled a broad ear-to-ear grin at the mention of the staff physician. “Mind if I tag along?”

      His eagerness was a balm. She had long hoped that her friend Maggie would get together with her very nice, but slightly inept partner. “Sure.”

      “Great,” he said, and followed her as she walked down the hall and to the elevator.

      Chapter 4

      Diana entered Maggie’s office and found her friend at her desk, reviewing a file. Diana stopped and David nearly ran into her back. She shot him a look over her shoulder, telling him to cool it. “Hi, Maggie. Came by for a quick checkup,” she said.

      Maggie rose and slinked her way around her desk. She had the kind of walk women envied and men drooled over. With her five-foot-ten-inch height and slim build, she looked more like a model than a physician. “Heard you had a small altercation,” she said, and then leaned forward, to take a better look. “I can see you had more than a little physical contact.”

      Diana shrugged it off, but David piped in from behind her, “She was out cold for about five minutes.”

      Diana glared at him again and he backed off, taking a seat on the sofa in Maggie’s office.

      “Thanks, David. At least one of you has some sense,” Maggie said with a smile that had David blushing in response.

      Maggie skewered Diana with her sharp gaze. “You and I obviously need to talk about what happened.”

      Diana didn’t argue and followed Maggie into the examining room, where she jumped up onto the table and waited as Maggie slipped on a lab coat, grabbed some things and walked over.

      “Were you really out for five minutes?” Maggie questioned as she plucked a penlight from her jacket pocket, flipped it on and shined it in Diana’s eyes. Like last night, Diana pulled away from it.

      Maggie shut it down and placed her hands on her hips. “Sensitivity, huh? Bet you have a monster of a headache, as well.”

      “Yeah, and a little fuzziness every now and then, but don’t worry. Another doctor took a look at me last night and said it was a mild concussion,” she reassured.

      Maggie harrumphed, reached out and gently applied pressure to the area on Diana’s cheekbone and jawline where Latimer’s forearm had connected. Diana winced, but the pain was minor. “This doctor let you go home without—”

      “She gave me instructions and my brother dutifully woke me every few hours. Needless to say, I’m a little wiped today,” Diana complained.

      Maggie said nothing else, just grabbed a pad and wrote out a prescription. She roughly tore it off and handed the slip to Diana.

      Diana eyed the paper with confusion and a little trepidation. “You’re not going to say anything? Not going to warn me about—”

      “Doing something as stupid as taking on a man twice your size and failing to go to a hospital like any reasonable person should have? No, of course not. You’re a big girl, right? You know exactly what you’re doing.”

      “Mama Maggie, I appreciate your concern—”

      “You’re as pigheadedly macho as any of those men out there, Di. And that’s not a good thing,” Maggie said as she began her tirade again. “And what kind of doctor—”

      “Her СКАЧАТЬ