Dying to Kill (Angel Delaney Mysteries Book #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

best friend.
    Angel left Candace at the van and hurried over to talk to Nick, relieved to be handing the problem over to the authorities. After a quick hug she filled him in. “Mrs. Jenkins asked me to come out. I thought maybe he’d beaten her up, but . . .” She nodded toward the house. “He’s dead.”
    Nick groaned, his feelings apparently echoing her own. The last thing they needed in the small coastal town was another murder.
    “It gets worse.” Angel ran a hand through her thick curls still damp from the earlier downpour. “She cleaned the place up.”
    “That’s just great.” He rubbed his neck. “Did she shoot him?”
    Angel shrugged. “I don’t know. Says she didn’t. She claims she went shopping and picked her kids up from school, then came home and found him. She seems to think he killed himself—at least that’s the story she told me.”
    “You don’t agree?”
    Angel shook her head. “He was stretched out in a recliner, watching a baseball game.”
    Another vehicle pulled in, Bo Williams, a sheriff’s deputy. Behind him came an ambulance, Dr. Bennett, the medical examiner, and two people in a white SUV. The place was beginning to look like a used car lot. Bo and Nick began setting up the crime scene, roping off the house with yellow tape. A man and a woman stepped out of the SUV. The OSP insignia blazoned on their navy blue caps and coveralls indicated they were from the Oregon State Police crime lab. They were wearing black boots and carried their evidence-gathering equipment in aluminum cases.
    “You must be Angel Delaney.” The woman stretched out her right hand as they fell into step beside Angel. “I’m Jill Stafford, and this is Terry Bartlett.”
    “Hi.” Angel shook the extended hands in the order they were offered.
    “Detective Riley has been telling us about you.” Terry winked. “Nice to finally meet you.”
    “Thanks. It’s nice to meet you too. What has Riley been telling you?” She grinned. “On second thought, I don’t think I want to know.”
    Jill chuckled. “It wasn’t what he said so much as the way he looked when he said it. You’ve made quite an impression on him.”
    Callen had made quite an impression on Angel as well, but she didn’t say so. She walked as far as the door and debated whether or not to stay with Candace to lend moral support.
    Nick took over as lead and asked Bo to keep an eye on Candace until he could question her. “Angel,” he said, putting an arm across her shoulder, “I’d like you to come in with us. I need you to go over things with me again. Tell me exactly what happened.”
    “Sure.” Relieved not to have to stay with the widow, she put on the shoe coverings he handed her then followed him inside. The lab techs had already begun processing the crime scene, with Terry taking photos and Jill making preliminary assessments.
    While watching the medical examiner check out the body, she told Nick again what had happened, then added, “I just don’t think Phillip Jenkins would kill himself. Not just because he was watching a game. He was too . . . arrogant and self-assured. That night I came out on the domestic violence call, he didn’t seem the least bit repentant. He was more upset about our being there and interfering than he was about hurting his wife.” She glanced at the television screen that was still turned to a sports channel. “Look at the food and beer and the recliner. He was all set up to enjoy the game, not to kill himself.”
    “Was he here alone?” Nick asked.
    “Candace didn’t mention anyone else being here. You’ll have to ask her.”
    “What do you know about the family?” Nick hunkered down beside the medical examiner to get a closer look at the head wound.
    Angel told him about the domestic violence call, when she’d first met Phillip and Candace and their three children. “One of the kids called us. The oldest one, I think. By the time I got here, things were under control. Candace