Splashdown: A Christian Contemporary Romance with Suspense (Dangerous Series Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

with Mrs. Jergenson?”
    Lynn sat back on the sofa. “No.” 
    “No? So, how did you know the deceased?”
    “Through Sharee.” Why did he keep asking the same questions? Was the man trying to irritate her?
    The other detective leaned away from the wall. “You don’t work with Mrs. Jergenson. Where do you work?”
    “At Representative McCloud’s office. I’m his Administrative Assistant.”
    Both men eyed her in silence for a moment. Detective Carpenter chuckled.
    “What?” Lynn asked. “You don’t like his politics?”
    Neither man said anything. Richards wrote in his book again. “How did you know where this tent city was?”
    “Sharee has taken me there a few times.”
    His head moved in Sharee’s direction. “You still work for Downtown Ministries?”
    “Yes.”
    “Tell me about Victoria Lawson.”
    “Victoria’s husband abused her.” Lynn interrupted. “Physically. She was running for her life.”
    His head swung back her way. “She said that?”
    “Yes. I picked up Sharee from work one day when her car was in the shop. Victoria came into the office, and she shared the whole thing with us.”
    The detective’s focus shifted to Sharee. “She said specifically that her husband abused her?”
    Sharee sat forward. “Yes. Most of the homeless share their stories sooner or later. Victoria said she’d run away when her husband threatened to kill her. He…he has friends in law enforcement, so the only place where he might not find her was among the homeless. Or at least that’s what she thought.”
    “How long had she been here?”
    “Not long. Just a couple of weeks. At first, she asked lots of questions, but then she kind of settled in.”
    “Questions? About what?”
    “Just about others in the camp. She was nervous, I think. Anyway, she had questions about the other people that were there.”
    “Anything specific?”
    “We talked about the children a lot. She felt sorry for them and wondered if any were alone.”
    “Were they?”
    “Some come and go, but mostly they’re with family. If they are alone, when we go there, they hide. They don’t want to end up in the system.”
    “Did she have anything else to say about her husband or anyone else she was afraid of?”
    “She asked us not to give her information to anyone, which we don’t anyway.”
    “Did she show you a picture of her husband?”
    “No. She said he would hire someone to look for her.” Sharee glanced at Lynn. “She and Lynn hit it off.”
    Lynn nodded. “She liked to get her mind off her situation, I think. She asked a lot about my job and what was going on there.”
    “There’s no missing person report for a Victoria Lawson.”
    Sharee sat forward. “That’s not surprising. Many of the homeless give us fictitious names. Sometimes we’re not sure they even remember their real name.”
    Lynn drew an impatient breath. “Her husband wouldn’t file one anyway. She was running because he’d beaten her up and threatened to kill her. Which he did.”
    The detective’s eyes bored into hers. “The deceased’s injuries were from blunt force trauma. In a hurricane, that might not indicate murder.”
    Lynn narrowed her eyes. “I was told it was murder.”
    “No, Ms. Stapleton, you told the deputy on the scene it was murder.”
    “That’s not true.”
    His eyes darkened. “Not only is that true, but as soon as he arrived, you said you knew who the victim was.”

Chapter 6
    A day later, John dropped the last fence post into the hole he’d dug. Pedro Gonzalez filled it with wet cement. They shoveled sand around it. When both men stood back, their eyes followed the line of fence posts down the edge of the church property, past the pond and stand of cypress.
    John nodded. Back-breaking work, but they’d needed to do it today before the earth dried again. The damp earth made for easier digging than sandy soil that kept falling in on itself. Now the worst was done—like the hurricane. Three days ago, he fought