The Trials of Nikki Hill Read Online Free PDF Page B

special smile, huh?” Goodman asked. “Naw. Just a smile.”
    “You’re a good-looking young man,” Goodman said.
    “Woman smiles at you, what do you think?”
    “Lots of women smile at me,” Jamal said. “That don’t
    mean I’m gonna go beat ’em to death.” “What makes you think she was beaten to death?”
    “I saw the way her body looked. I just assumed—”
    “You were saying that lots of women smile at you, Jamal.
    But you don’t beat ’em to death.”
    “Right. I mean, of course I don’t.”
    “What made this one different?” Goodman asked. “What? Huh?”
    “Like you said,” Morales pushed him, “the others you
    didn’t beat to death. Just Maddie Gray.” “What? Shit, that’s not what I said. I didn’t beat anybody.”
    “Detectives—” Burchis began.
    “Well, there’s... wha’s her name? Irma.” “You twisting everything. I didn’t touch Madeleine Gray.
    Didn’t touch her, understand? Didn’t really know her. Didn’t beat her. Sure as hell didn’t kill her.”
    Nikki’s steno roommate tapped her on the shoulder and waved good-bye. Her replacement was taller but otherwise the same—a drone doing her job in the hive.
    In the interrogation room Morales once again took Jamal through his whereabouts on the previous night, going hour by hour. Lawyer Burchis blustered that the questions had been asked and answered.
    Nikki was yawning when the door to the room opened and a tall familiar figure limped in. He glared at her, nodded as if he’d achieved a goal he’d set for himself, and gestured for her to remove the headset. “You can go, Hill,” Raymond Wise said. “I’m taking over.”
    Wise, who had retained his position as head deputy district attorney during two administrations after Tom Gleason’s death, had reestablished their relationship her first day back from Compton. She’d bumped into him in the hall.
    “Hi, Ray,” she’d said. “Want to go grab a hot dog?”
    “I never expected to see you here again,” he had told her. “If Joe Walden had bothered to consult me about it, you wouldn’t be here now.”
    “Kehoe asked you about me?”
    “He did,” Wise had said, “and, while I kept our filthy little secret, I could not in good conscience recommend a foolish and naive young woman who plainly didn’t have what it takes to make the hard decisions.”
    She’d flashed him a wry smile. “Well, your man Kehoe is long gone and I’m back. And if you try fucking with this foolish and naive young woman, you’re going to wind up limping a lot more than you do now.”
    The memory of that moment brought a smile to her lips as she looked up at Wise, standing before her in the drab room at Robbery-Homicide. “I’ll take over now,” he repeated. “You can go.”
    “Joe Walden wants me here,” she said.
    “What Joe wants,” Wise replied sharply, “is for that dirt-bag to be put away for the rest of his antisocial life. The only way that’s going to happen is for you to hand over the earphones and let me start making my notes.”
    “I was given an assignment, Ray. If you want to hear what’s going on in the interrogation room, I suggest—”
    She was going to suggest that Wise try to talk Wasson into parting with another headset. But she was interrupted by the arrival of the district attorney.
    He looked particularly formidable in a double-breasted dark blue suit that accentuated his broad shoulders. He raised a curious eyebrow at Wise and said, “Ray, what are you doing here?”
    “Nikki’s been at it for several hours,” Wise replied almost sheepishly. “I thought I’d spell her. Let her get some of her own casework done.”
    “That was thoughtful of you,” Walden said wryly. He turned to Nikki and asked, “Anything new?”
    “Jamal Deschamps told the detectives that he’s suffered from blackouts for a number of years. Possibly the result of drug use in his teens.”
    “A fugue-state defense?” Wise said, shaking his head. “That’s