A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter Read Free Book Online

everyone looked at him.
    Jeffrey asked, 'What is it?'
    Brad spoke with a mixture of apprehension and apology. 'I saw Tessa picking up some stuff on the way up the hill,' he said.
    'What kind of stuff?'
    'Trash and things, I guess. She had a plastic bag, like the kind they give out at the Pig.' He meant the Piggly Wiggly, the town's grocery store. Thousands of people shopped there every week.
    Jeffrey forced himself not to speak for a few seconds. He thought about the piece of plastic he had found in Tessa's hand. The scrap very well could have been the torn handle of a plastic grocery bag.
    Jeffrey asked Brad, 'Tessa found the bag on the hill?' noticing for the first time how much trash littered the area. The college grounds crew spent most of their energy maintaining the land closest to the college.
    They had probably not cleaned up out here all year.
    'Yes, sir,' Brad said. 'She just kind of picked it up and started putting some stuff in it while she walked up the hill.'
    'What stuff?' Jeffrey asked.
    Brad stuttered again, something that happened only when he was nervous. 'T-trash, I reckon. Wrappers and cans and stuff.'
    Jeffrey tried to moderate his tone with Brad, mostly because for some reason the stutter made his own anger boil back up. 'You didn't think to go up there and ask her what she was doing?'
    'You told me to stay with the witness,' Brad reminded him. Another blush crept up his pasty cheeks. 'And I… uh… didn't want to interfere with what she was doing up there. You know, pp-personal stuff.'
    Jeffrey told Matt, 'Put that out on the radio. Dark clothes, maybe carrying a white bag.'
    'You think he stole the trash?' Lena asked, skeptical.
    Matt cupped his cell phone to his ear and walked a few feet away to carry out Jeffrey's orders. Frank was looking down at Lena, but there was no telling what he was thinking.
    Jeffrey saw Chuck taking his time walking up the hill. When the other man stopped and bent to the ground, Jeffrey tensed, but Chuck was only tying his shoe.
    When Chuck reached them, he said, 'I was staying with the body. Securing the scene.'
    Lena ignored him, asking Jeffrey, 'You think this is connected?'
    Jeffrey could tell from Frank's expression that, with all that had happened, he was only now considering the question. The old cop would have gotten to it eventually, but Lena was leaps and bounds ahead of the more senior officers on the squad. Her quick mind was the thing Jeffrey missed most now that she was gone.
    Lena repeated, 'There's got to be some kind of connection.'
    Jeffrey shut her out, and not just because Chuck was taking all of this in. Lena had chosen to stop being a cop seven months ago. She was not part of Jeffrey's team anymore.
    He told Frank, 'Let me see the suicide note.'
    'It was under a rock at the end of the bridge,' Frank said. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of notebook paper. Jeffrey did not have it in him to reprimand Frank for not putting the note in an evidence bag. Both of their hands were bloody enough to stain the page.
    Jeffrey glanced at it, his eyes not really focusing.
    Chuck put his hand to his chin in a thinking pose.
    'You still think he took a swan dive on his own?'
    'Yeah,' Jeffrey said, staring at the college security guard. Chuck was a walking sieve where secrets were concerned. Jeffrey had heard him gossip about enough people to know that the man could not be trusted.
    Frank backed up Jeffrey, explaining, 'A killer would have stabbed him, not pushed him off the bridge. They don't change their MOs like that.'
    'Makes sense,' Chuck agreed, though anyone with an ounce of intelligence would have asked more questions.
    Jeffrey handed the note back to Frank, saying, 'When a team gets here, you take the other side of the river. I want a fingertip search if we have to. You understand?'
    'Yeah,' Frank told him. 'We'll start at the river and go to the highway.'
    'Good.'
    Matt had finished his calls and Jeffrey gave him another