Justice for None: Texas Justice Book #1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

ass—” Bastrop began, but Jack cut him off with a wave of a bony hand.
    “We’re well inside the city limits, Laroy,” Jack pointed out. “And the Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have a homicide team, anyway.”
    “They do now,” Erath butted in. His voice was nasal and choked with gravel. A Yankee, probably Chicago. “You’re looking at it.”
    Bastrop shook his head. “The STU don’t investigate murders, they commit them.”
    The deputies lined up behind Laroy grumbled at that, but Laroy just laughed, though, like his smile, the laughter never reached his eyes.
    “This is a dump site, Jack, not the murder scene. We have solid information that the homicide occurred outside the city limits.” Laroy replied.
    Jack shook his head. “There’s too much blood here for that to be true,” he said. “Corpses don’t bleed.”
    Laroy shrugged, “Maybe she died here, but she was shot somewhere else.”
    “Where?” Jack asked.
    Laroy shook his head. “I can’t do that, Jack. You know the rules. This is a continuing investigation. That information is on a need to know basis.”
    “All you need to know is how to read a map,” Bastrop said. “Why don’t you get your girlfriends over there,” he shot a nasty look at the four deputies, “and go back to the sticks? There’s probably some livestock out there that need a body cavity search.”
    “Son of a bitch,” one of the unformed deputies, a tall man with a vampire’s complexion and deep acne scars, said as he took a step forward.
    Laroy waved him back and started to say something in reply, but Victoria jumped in before things went too far.
    “This isn’t the place for this conversation, Laroy,” she interjected. “Preserving the integrity of the crime scene is the top priority. Jurisdictional debates belong downtown. We need to clear all nonessential personnel. I don’t want to have to explain this in court.” A defense counsel could take a confrontation like this, a dispute over evidence and factual information, and twist it right into a conspiracy theory that might set a murderer free. Victoria wasn’t willing to take that risk, no matter whose toes she stepped on.
    Laroy cocked his head in her direction. “Preserving the integrity of the crime scene,” he echoed. “Tell me, how do you intend to explain your presence out here in court, counselor?”
    “Explain what?” Victoria asked, instantly on her guard. “Jack called me before I left the house this morning. I stopped by on my way to the office. Jack thought we had another serial murder, maybe Randall Rusk’s partner. But, considering the victim, her murder is more likely related to her affiliation with the Confederate Syndicate—”
    “You don’t know that,” Erath cut her off. “First it’s serial killers and then it’s bikers. The girl ain’t even in the freezer yet and you got it all figured out.” He shook his square head. “And the most likely suspect, your husband, ain’t even on your list.”
    Victoria’s jaw dropped. Though she knew, as Jack had pointed out, that Valentine would be considered a suspect, Erath’s accusation still caught her flatfooted. A startled, “What?” was all she managed to say; so much for courtroom composure.
    “You heard me,” Erath replied like a bully on the playground.
    Victoria blinked, shook her head and asked, “Are you seriously suggesting that Valentine killed Abby Sutton?”
    “I ain’t suggesting it, I’m flat-out saying it. He already shot her once. He would have gone to prison for it if you hadn’t pulled the plug on the case.”
    Victoria’s jaw snapped closed so fast she almost took off the tip of her tongue, but she quickly regained her composure. She had had a lot of practice in courtrooms facing murderers and rapists.
    “Are you accusing me of misconduct?” she asked icily.
    “You were the prosecutor assigned to the case,” Erath replied.
    “ No one was assigned to the case because there was no case,”