Marcie's Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

lights and directed her to sit in one of the visitor’s chairs next to a desk while Orton telephoned Deputy Chief Branham.
    When Branham arrived he had his own look at Karen’s identification and then waved off the two officer s, who trooped out the front door to resume their shift. “We gave him his phone call this afternoon. I thought he called his lawyer.”
    “I’ll try not to be too insulted by that,” Karen said.
    “You work with him, do you?”
    “ Sure enough .”
    “Doing what?”
    Karen looked disgusted. “Homicide investigation. C’mon, he already told you all that . D on’t play fucking games . He’s a twenty-year decorated veteran who’s a genius on top of it and y ou’re holding him o n a case of mistaken identity . You need to release him right now and get your ass after the guy who actually throttled your vic .”
    Branham spread his hands. “That’s Chief Askew’s decision, and he can’t be reached until tomorrow.”
    “Can’t be reached? What kind of bullshit is that?”
    Branham paused for a minute. He ran the tip of his tongue over his bottom lip, looked at his hands , and then smiled faintly . “It’s almost ten thirty in the evening and it’s definite ly a pleasure, Detective Stainer, but you’ll have to excuse us if we’re a little small - town around here.”
    “Sure, whatever. Just spring the l ieutenant and we’ll rock on down the road .”
    The smile faded a little. “As I said, that’s Chief Askew’s decision and the earliest he’ll consider it is tomorrow morning. His wife was just brutally murdered, Detective. Surely you understand.”
    “Yeah, I heard, but not by the guy in your cell.”
    Branham shrugged . “You’re probably right. But you know how this works. One step at a time.”
    “I want to talk to him.”
    “Five minutes,” Branham said. “No touching, no physical contact of any kind , don’t try to give him anything.”
    She had to be content with standing on the other side of the cell door while Branham watched from the end of the corridor. “Christ, Lou, the other guy better look worse than you do .”
    “Not worse, just uglier,” Hank replied. “Thanks for coming.”
    “No problem. You know how I love to drive.”
    “Was Sandy okay with it ?”
    Sandy was John “Sandy” Alexander, Karen’s fiancé. He was a special agent in the Glendale field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. So far their relationship had lasted almost three years, which was something of a record for Karen, and in May they ’ d become engaged and move d in together to see how it would go. It was a calculated risk, since they both owned firearms and neither was afraid to pull the trigger, but so far they were still living together and no one had been killed or wounded .
    “He’s got plenty of stuff to keep himself busy,” Karen replied . “I barely see him these days. He’s taking a bunch of courses at Quantico.”
    “Well, I appreciate it.” Hank went over the situation in more detail than he’d been able to give her on the telephone. “Eyewitness inside the kitchen at the back of the bar saw a guy who looked like me pass by the window close to the time she was killed ,” he finished . “ He went outside a few minutes later and saw me get in my car and drive away. I haven’t seen his statement, that’s just putting the pieces together. So there’s another guy in the mix who looks like me, because I didn’t go around to the back of the place.”
    “They have any ideas who it might be?”
    Hank shrugged. “They’re not interested. I look l ike me, and that’s good enough . T he fact their witness failed to make a positive ID isn’t slowing them down much at this point .”
    “Christ.” Karen shook her head. “So is the kitchen guy a witness or isn’t he? He saw you but he didn’t see you ? What is this, amateur hour?”
    Branham cleared his throat noisily at the end of the corridor.
    “Patience is apparently a virtue,” Hank