Vanish: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel Read Online Free PDF

What was wrong with the air-conditioning anyway? Why didn’t anyone else seem to be bothered by the heat?
    “When is your baby due, Detective?”
    Jane paused, wondering where this was going. “My baby was due last week,” she finally said. “It’s late.”
    “So back on February third, when you first encountered my client, Mr. Rollo, you were—what? About three months pregnant?”
    “Objection,” said Spurlock. “This is irrelevant.”
    “Counsel,” the judge said to Quinlan, “what is the point of your question?”
    “It has to do with her earlier testimony, your honor. That Detective Rizzoli was somehow able to subdue and arrest my clearly able-bodied client in the stairwell all by herself.”
    “And the state of her pregnancy has what, exactly, to do with this?”
    “A three-months-pregnant woman would have a difficult time—”
    “She’s a police officer, Ms. Quinlan. Arresting people is her job.”
    Way to go, Judge! You tell her.
    Victoria Quinlan flushed at the setback. “All right, your honor. I withdraw the question.” She turned, again, to Jane. Regarded her for a moment as she considered her next move. “You said that you and your partner, Detective Frost, were both at the scene. That you and he made a joint decision to enter apartment two-B?”
    “It wasn’t apartment two-B, ma’am. It was apartment two-
E.
”
    “Oh yes, of course. My mistake.”
    Yeah, right. As if you aren’t trying to trip me up.
    “You say you knocked at the door and announced that you were police officers,” said Quinlan.
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “And this interaction had nothing to do with why you were originally in that building.”
    “No, ma’am. It was just a coincidence that we happened to be there. But when we determine that a citizen is in danger, it’s our duty to intervene.”
    “And that’s why you knocked at apartment two-B.”
    “Two-E.”
    “And when no one answered, you burst through the door.”
    “We felt a woman’s life was in jeopardy, based on the screams we heard.”
    “How did you know they were screams of distress? Couldn’t they have been the sounds of, say, passionate lovemaking?”
    Jane wanted to laugh at the question, but didn’t. “That was not what we heard.”
    “And you know that for a fact? You can tell the difference?”
    “A woman with a bloody lip is pretty good evidence.”
    “The point is, you didn’t know it
at the time.
You didn’t give my client a chance to answer the door. You made a rush to judgment and just broke in.”
    “We stopped a beating.”
    “You’re aware that the so-called victim has refused to press charges against Mr. Rollo? That they are still together as a loving couple?”
    Jane’s jaw squared. “That’s her decision.”
Dumb though it is.
“What I saw that day, in apartment two-E, was clearly abuse. There was blood.”
    “Like
my
blood doesn’t count?” said Rollo. “You pushed me down the stairs, lady! I still got the scar here, on my chin!”
    “Silence, Mr. Rollo,” the judge ordered.
    “Look! See where I hit the bottom step? I needed stitches!”
    “Mr. Rollo!”
    “
Did
you push my client down the stairs, Detective?” asked Quinlan.
    “Objection,” said Spurlock.
    “No, I did not,” said Jane. “He was plenty drunk enough to fall down the stairs all by himself.”
    “She’s lying!” said the defendant.
    The gavel banged down.
“Quiet, Mr. Rollo!”
    But Billy Wayne Rollo was just building up a head of outraged steam. “She and her partner, they dragged me into the stairwell so no one would see what they were doing. You think
she
could arrest me all by herself? That little pregnant
girl
? What a crock of shit she’s telling you!”
    “Sergeant Givens, remove the defendant.”
    “It’s a case of police brutality!” Rollo yelled as the bailiff hauled him to his feet. “Hey, you people in the jury, are you stupid? Can’t you see this is all made-up shit? These two cops kicked me down the fucking