Hall, Jessica Read Online Free PDF

partner's face. It was
starting to look permanent. "You want to do the prelim report first?"
She was hopeful; J. D. was a much better typist than she was—plus their witness
probably needed a few minutes to compose herself.
    "No." When the doors opened, J. D. steered Sable to the
left, toward the corridor of interrogation rooms, offices, and cubicles that
made up the Division of Homicide.
    So he wanted to get right to the interview. Not a bad idea,
considering the feeding frenzy the press would descend to as soon as they heard
Marc LeClare was dead. "Want to run this by the captain first, in case
this turns out to be a murder?"
    J. D. paused, long enough to make Terri realize something was
definitely wrong.
    "No." He went toward the first available room.
    She'd known something was up, back in the Quarter, but
J. D. was too good a cop to ignore procedure. She caught his arm. "Hey.
Why don't we ask Hazenel and Garcia to take this one? I got that vacation time
coming up, and they still owe us for catching that leather-bar shooting last
month."
    He didn't bat an eyelash. "No."
    Sable watched their exchange, tensed but silent.
    Terri swung a hand toward the room. "Go in and sit down, Ms.
Duchesne. We'll be with you in a minute." As soon as the witness had
crossed the threshold, Terri shut the door and got between it and her partner.
"You want to tell me exactly what is going on here?"
    "I know her."
    "Oh, yeah, I figured out that much. Who is she?"
    "Someone I knew back in college." He stared through the
frosted glass panel, his dark eyes tracking the movements of Sable's shadow.
    Terri took out a cigarette, and then remembered that the building
had a strict no-smoking policy and scowled. "Okay. Here's the deal: The
victim was your father's best friend, and you went to school with the only
witness we've got. That spells conflict of interest in large capital letters
underlined three times." When he didn't respond to the joke, she got
serious. "We have to give it over to Hazenel and Garcia. Let them handle
it."
    "No."
    "She's young and beautiful; Marc LeClare was old and rich.
Doesn't take a genius to figure out that equation—are you listening to
me?" She prodded his chest with a finger. "You can not screw
around with this girl, J. D. The captain will have your testicles for
breakfast."
    "I'm not screwing—" A passing detective gave them a
curious look, so J. D. leaned in and lowered his voice. "I'm not
screwing her, and she wasn't screwing Marc."
    "And you know this how? Through your secret psychic
powers?" Terri sighed. "Jesus, for all we know, she could have
done LeClare and set fire to the place."
    "Before or after she conked herself in the head?"
    She shrugged. "Maybe trying to find parking pissed her off.
I've been tempted to slam my head into the windshield a few times, looking for
a space."
    He didn't laugh, the way he normally would. "Someone tried to
kill her, Ter. I'm not letting her out of my sight. Got it?"
    She'd never seen him like this. Not even around Cort when both of
them were having a crappy day. "Sure. I got it." She stepped to the
side and swung a hand at the door. "But I'm doing the interview with
you."
    He dragged a hand through his short black hair, spiking it.
"Terri—"
    "Don't even go there, J. D." If he was going to make a
damn fool of himself, she'd be there to cover his ass. "I don't care how
cozy you two were back at Tulane. She's a witness to an arson and possibly the
murder of our future governor. Her face will be on the front page of every
newspaper in the state by morning. You want to be listed as the detective in
charge of the case, or the embittered ex-boyfriend?"
    He grabbed the knob and nearly yanked the door off its hinges.
"I question her."
    "Knock yourself out, pal." Terri stalked past him.

Chapter Two
    Their witness had seated herself at the conference table inside
the interview room. It felt a little stuffy, so Terri opened a window before
asking Sable if she wanted anything to