B007GFGTIY EBOK by Simon Wood Read Free Book Online Page A

the record. The son of a bitch was dealing weed and he planted it on me when our dorm got raided. I had to bust my ass to prove it was him and not me.”
    Santiago let the vehement denial bounce off him. He’d seen this act a thousand times. He’d get Rice to dig a little deeper. Hayden could be clean, then again…
    “OK, Mr. Duke. No offense intended. I do have to pursue every avenue.”
    “Yeah, right.”
    Time to switch gears, Santiago thought. “Why did you cut the body down?”
    Hayden looked back at the bridge. “Shane was hanging over the road. Every passing vehicle would have clipped him. Cutting him down was the humane thing to do.”
    Santiago stared at the low bridge. He doubted an 18-wheeler would make it underneath. “How’d you get him down?”
    “I drove my car underneath him to support his body, climbed on the roof, cut the rope, and lowered him down onto the ground.”
    “Couldn’t have been pleasant. Especially since he was a friend.”
    “It wasn’t.”
    “What did you cut Shane down with—the knife he used on you?”
    “I have a box cutter in the car.”
    “You’re very practical.”
    Realization lit up Hayden’s eyes. Santiago had lost his element of surprise. Hayden knew he was being tested. He’d be wary now. It didn’t bother Santiago. Liars gave themselves away in other ways.
    “Put it down to my engineering background.”
    “I need to get this on the record,” Santiago said. “I’d like you to return to my office and make an official statement. Please follow us, Mr. Duke.”
    Santiago and Rice walked Hayden back to his car before getting into their own. Rice led the two-car procession back to their home base at the Civic Center.
    “You think he’s lying,” Rice said.
    “He’s definitely holding something back,” Santiago said. “That’s for sure.”
    “Do you think he pushed Fallon?”
    “Don’t know. It may have been a drug party gone bad. I won’t know until I’ve squeezed Mr. Duke a little harder.”

    It was still dark, but it no longer felt like night by the time Hayden left the sheriff’s office in San Rafael. The dashboard clock said it was 4:16 a.m. He’d be lucky if he got an hour’s sleep before he had to leave for work. That was if he could get to sleep at all. He felt like skipping work, but he knew that as a contractor it would be unprofessional for him to take a sick day.
    The roads were clear and he tried pushing the speed but found he didn’t have the energy for it. Santiago and Rice had taken all he had to give. The interview had taken hours and Santiago had kept pressing the possible drug element because of that damn bogus drug arrest, instead of dealing with the situation at hand. He was supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but it was never that way with the cops. Guilt first and last, regardless of the facts.
    The grilling took him back to when the campus cops had busted him. Once they found the drugs, it had been game over. There was no further investigation needed. He was guilty. It was an attitude shared by everyone at the school, except for Shane. He and Hayden had teamed up to prove his innocence by getting a video of Paul buying and selling drugs. Even with this cast-iron proof, the cops were reluctant to change their stance, but they did. Hayden had never trusted cops after that, and Santiago had done nothing to restore his faith in law enforcement.
    Eventually, Santiago had backed off, let him sign his statement and go. Hayden took no comfort in the move. It felt like a trap. Santiago was giving him all the rope he needed to hang himself. It was a wasted tactic. There was no rope. He had no involvement in tonight’s tragedy other than being a witness. The only question that needed answering was why Shane killed himself, and no crime was attached to that tragedy.
    Though Hayden didn’t trust Santiago, he also blamed himself for his treatment at Santiago’s and Rice’s hands. They’d picked up on his reticence and