Bad Thoughts Read Online Free PDF Page A

Brady called out, “she had a hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy.”
           “Yeah, I know,” Shannon answered without turning back. “It’s a company benefit. Her husband wasn’t involved with it.”
           “It’s still motivation. Find out if he’s having financial problems, or better yet, a girlfriend. Do your homework. Then talk door-to-door search to me.”
           Back at DiGrazia’s desk, Shannon was asked if he was ready to visit some freaks.
    * * * * *
           John Roper was soft-looking, round, and mostly bald with a few wisps of blond hair scattered on his head. He had a pockmarked complexion, and a thin, affable smile. Nine years earlier he had drugged a young woman in a bar in Providence, got her to his car, and then held her captive for four days in the basement of a condemned building. During those four days he sexually assaulted her and terrorized her with a straight-edge razor. One night while sleeping he left the razor edge down against her throat. Somehow, even though both her hands and feet were bound, she was able to free herself with it. John Roper was arrested and later sentenced to a minimum of twenty years. In August, the State of Rhode Island paroled him and he relocated to Revere, Massachusetts.
           He was the third sex offender Shannon and DiGrazia had tried to visit. The first one, a twenty-four-year-old who had raped a couple of teenage girls while a juvenile, was living with his mother in Arlington. The mother insisted her son was with her the previous night, got belligerent, and threw the officers out. They talked with a few of her neighbors, none of whom could confirm the mother’s story. The general feeling they got from their talks was the son wouldn’t have had the initiative to get to Somerville by himself.
           The next person on their list turned out to be in police lockup in Boston, arrested two weeks earlier on a narcotics charge. Now they were with Roper at the auto garage where he worked, and Roper seemed nervous about it, rubbing his hands against his overalls and forcing an overly affable smile. He asked whether they could question him someplace else.
           “What’s wrong with right here?” Shannon asked. “Your boss must know you’re an ex-convict?”
           DiGrazia said, “He probably does, but I bet he doesn’t know what you were in for, does he, John? If he’s got a wife or daughter he might feel differently about having you around his garage.”
           “Come on, guys, there’s a doughnut shop across the street. I’ll buy you a couple—”
           “Are you trying to be funny?”
           “No—”
           “I think he was trying to be funny,” Shannon said.
           “Come on,” Roper pleaded, “I’m trying to start a new life here. I’ve been paroled—”
           “By Rhode Island,” Shannon observed. “I don’t think Massachusetts had any say in it.”
           “I bet you’re right,” DiGrazia agreed. “So, John, why’d you pick our state to settle in?”
           “My sister lives here. I’m staying with her—”
           An older man with large, grease-stained hands and a cigar stub stuck in his mouth had walked over to them. He asked whether anything was wrong.
           “We need to ask your employee some questions,” Shannon said.
           “What about?”
           “About a crime that was committed last night.”
           “What type of crime?”
           “A woman was abducted.”
           “And you think John’s involved?”
           “From his criminal record we need to talk to him.”
           Alarm showed in the older man’s eyes. He looked quickly at Roper and then away from him, settling on a spot near his feet. “I had no idea,” he murmured to no one in particular, his voice dropping to a hoarse whisper. “I better leave you officers