Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 50823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Conrad tapped his fingers on the tabletop. “Why didn’t Deputy Gunn report the shots if they happened before his murder? Is there a chance he fired his own weapon?”
Excellent questions.
“The holes came from a forty-caliber pistol,” Barrow said. “Not his police-issued gun or anything registered to him.”
So…why kill someone with something as unpredictable as drugs when you had a perfectly good silenced gun you’d proven you weren’t afraid to use?
The agent slid a series of other photos their way. “As I shared with you a bit ago, the deputy received threats in purple envelopes. He put together a file on the six individuals he suspected. We aren’t sure if other files were taken by the perpetrator.”
She remembered spotting those purple envelopes before spying the body. Jane leaned forward and peered at the names on Josh Gunn’s list. Took her a while, but she finally managed to decipher her and Conrad’s names in the deputy’s messy scrawl.
Sheriff Moore took another sip of his tea and placed his mug on the table. “Before you ask, the others include his neighbor Hugh Garfield, reporter Ashley Katz, bartender Thomas Bennett, and an alleged crime boss Josh referred to only as the Gentleman.”
Barrow flicked the man an irritated glance, as if he’d said too much. Interesting. The agent hoped to hide details from a former colleague.
The sheriff shrugged, all what are you going to do, fire me?
Jane examined each photo and frowned. Oh, wow. The perpetrator used magazine cutouts to spell different messages. Old school, and very creepy.
Drop out or bleed
You aren’t wanted here
Enjoy your final days
Your a dead man
You can’t hide
“Well, whoever did the deed needs an immediate grammar lesson. Seeing that travesty of language actually hurts me inside, and I’m insulted anyone considered me the culprit, even for a second,” Jane stated. “I mean, really. Your a dead man? Without an apostrophe R E? And as you can clearly see, those threats lack any kind of pizzazz. Had I sent him anything, I would have used glitter glue and fabric swatches and threatened to fish out his organs with a knitting needle.”
Conrad rubbed his free hand over his mouth, as if masking a laugh. “Since you’re asking us for help, it’s safe to say Gunn’s files supplied no real evidence against us.”
“That’s correct. We believe his only reason for including you both centered around his fear of losing the election. However, there is credible evidence pointing to some of the others.” The sheriff lifted a cautionary finger. “Don’t forget, we aren’t sure if other files exist. The killer could have taken them on the way out.”
“I’m going to proceed as if they didn’t. For now.” Jane would concentrate on the known persons of interest.
She let different scenarios roll through her mind. What if there were two perpetrators? One with a gun, one with drugs. The two could have worked together or separately.
Or, what if a single perpetrator used the gunshots to send investigators down a rabbit hole, wasting time and resources? What if the shots happened first but failed to hit their target, so the killer snuck in the drugs?
Her frown returned. The sheriff mentioned a bartender as a fellow purple envelope suspect. Intoxication could explain missing a man and hitting a wall, right?
To start her interrogations with him or Ashley Katz, the Headliner reporter?
During the previous murder investigation, Ashley had shown herself to be combative and willing to cross any line to develop a story. Plus, she tended to use all caps when sending texts, a sure sign of a cold, withered heart.
“What was his rationale for suspecting Ms. Katz?” she asked.
“Greed,” Sheriff Moore said. “The deputy claimed she printed a fake story about him planting drugs on Thomas Bennett, the bartender, in order to arrest him. Josh hired a lawyer and was putting together a lawsuit to sue her for millions.”
Jane remembered the article in question. The journalist had shredded Deputy Gunn’s character, which had been deserved if true. But how better to get out from under a lawsuit than murder?
She tapped her chin, thoughtful. “Well? Did the deputy abuse his power?”
“Not to my knowledge.” Lines furrowed across the older man’s brow. “We brought in an outside oversight team to pour through his files and speak to anyone who’d issued a complaint against him in the past three years. The investigators found no hard evidence to fully substantiate the reporter’s story, and she never gave up her source.”
No “hard” evidence? Did they find soft evidence then? And who was this mysterious source? Thomas Bennett himself?
“The oversight team spoke with Bennett, who Josh arrested for drug possession,” Sheriff Moore continued. “In the file, he—Josh—mentioned using Bennett as his CI. Apparently the bartender secretly works for an emerging mobster known as, you guessed it, the Gentleman, and Josh hoped to identify other members of the gang.”