Shay O'Hanlon Caper 03 - Pickle in the Middle Murder Read Online Free PDF

psychological thriller—a horrifying thriller that involved the love of my life—instead of calmly looking at the hard facts of a real-life case.
    “The operation went off without so much as a hiccup. We went in, busted a bunch of assholes, including Krasski. They were in the midst of—” Tyrell’s face hardened. “God, it was awful. Anyway, we rounded up everyone. Not one person got away. JT and I had Krasski between us. We escorted him outside. And as we tried to stuff him in the car, he said something to JT. I missed it, and JT hasn’t repeated it to this day.” Tyrell closed his eyes. “She lost her freaking mind. With Krasski’s hands cuffed, she beat the shit out of him. I needed help to pull her off him, and by then the damage was done. She put him in the hospital with a broken jaw and cracked ribs and I can’t even remember what else. She nearly killed him. Goddamn it, the asshole deserved it.”
    Tyrell slumped back in his chair. His gaze was locked over my shoulder as he relived the memory. “JT was suspended. The case we worked so hard to make against Krasski fell apart.”
    Holy shit. “What about the others you arrested?”
    “They were charged and most of them went down. But the number-one man was free. Once he healed up, the bastard could start up the whole thing all over again. JT was furious with herself. Talk about a boatload of trouble. She had to take anger management classes, do some other Internal Affairs crap.”
    “She’s usually so in control. I can hardly imagine her on a rampage. If she snapped … I can totally see where it’d be next to impossible to stop her.” I stared at Tyrell. “She blamed herself, didn’t she?” I knew JT well enough to understand that it would drive her beyond crazy that she was the reason a no-good criminal walked.
    “Yeah. She ran herself through the wringer. When she came back to work, even I wasn’t sure she was ready. While she was off, she decided it was her personal vendetta to nail the bastard somehow. Whatever it took, on the books or not. So she started following him on her days off, showing up at places he frequented. She wouldn’t say anything to him. She’d just be there, make it obvious she was on his ass.”
    “Jesus.”
    “Soon things started to escalate. She became even more obvious. She’d pull him over with our unmarked car, harass the hell out of him. Started getting in his face.”
    “Oh my God,” I whispered. This was a JT I didn’t know. Why didn’t she ever tell me any of this? I thought she loved her job, fully believed in what she was doing.
    “Krasski wasn’t stupid. He went to one of the watchdog groups that pull the police brutality card during trials. Got them all fired up. Wound up taking out a harassment restraining order on JT.”
    I could hardly believe my ears. A criminal had been allowed a restraining order? On my JT?
    “Part of the order was if JT were to come within a hundred feet of Krasski, she’d be arrested. Basically, her career would be toast. I think the order’s expired by now, though.” Tyrell heaved a huge sigh. “So that’s an abbreviated version of what’s probably the worst thing JT has ever been through professionally.”
    I was still reeling over the fact that a badass hooligan had taken out a restraining order against JT. It was really hard to believe she’d never said a word about it to me. I could almost feel her pain, her shame, the incredible frustration she must have felt.
    Tyrell said, “She tried to do what she could to prevent him from returning to the crap he’d been doing, but it was all just one huge cluster that spiraled into chaos.”
    “She had every reason to want to kill him. I get that. But, Ty, do you think she really could’ve done it? That she could completely lose her mind? I would never believe she’d be capable of doing that.” Right?
    Tyrell shrugged. “I don’t know, Shay. I do know she’s worked like hell to put this whole fucked-up nightmare