Detective Wade Jackson Mystery - 02 - Secrets to Die For by L. J. Sellers Read Free Book Online Page A

strikingly pretty even though her eyes were swollen from crying. It occurred to Jackson that the caseworker must have known Raina, at least casually. Now she looked distressed. “Where’s Josh? Is he okay?”
     
    “He’s sleeping. This way.” Jackson moved quickly down the hall, and Martin matched him stride for stride.
     
    “You haven’t questioned him yet, have you?”
     
    “No, I was waiting for you.”
     
    “Good. I want to take him home with me for now. You can talk to him tomorrow.”
     
    Jackson stopped in his tracks and turned to her. “This can’t wait. A young woman was been brutally raped and killed. I need to know if Josh saw anything.”
     
    Martin spoke slowly, as if Jackson might be a little dense. “If Josh witnessed a crime, he’s undoubtedly traumatized. He needs time. He needs to feel safe and secure. You’ll get better information if you wait.”
     
    Jackson held back a groan. “I need to know now, before I interrogate his father, if Raina came to their house last night. I won’t press for details. I just need to know if she was there.”
     
    Martin’s hands went to her hips. “Raina was Josh’s friend. He cared deeply for her. But Bruce and Cindy are his parents. Josh will be conflicted. Don’t force him to make that choice right now. He’s likely to protect his parents.”
     
    Shit . There had to be a way to do this now. “What if we bring in a child psychologist?”
     
    Martin shook her head, finally losing patience. “No person worthy of the title will come in tonight and help you interrogate an eight-year-old boy. They’ll tell you what I’m telling you. Let him sleep for now. Then talk to him tomorrow after he’s accepted the idea that he’s not going back to his parents’ house and that it’s okay to tell the truth.”
     
    They stood, locked in silent disagreement. Jackson tried to think about his daughter in this situation. What would he want for her? He would want Katie to talk to the police. What if she had to speak out against her parents? How hard would it be for her? She had already been through that to some degree while covering for Renee’s drinking all those years.
     
    “You win,” he said finally. “I want him here at 10 a.m. tomorrow.”
     
    Martin nodded. “I’ll call you when Josh is ready.”
     
    After carrying the sleeping boy out to Martin’s minivan, Jackson went back to his desk and typed his notes into a Word document. Typing did not come easy to him, but it was a necessary skill and he had forced himself to adapt. As he went though his scribbled notes, he realized he’d forgotten to ask Martha Krell about Raina’s flat tire. Bruce Gorman as a suspect made the question almost moot. If Gorman had driven Raina’s car to the observation point, the technicians would find a piece of him in the car. That trace evidence, plus all the circumstantial factors, would make the case against him. The assault with the vibrator was the one thing that didn’t fit as neatly into the scenario as Jackson would have liked. Then again, maybe it did. Maybe Gorman had been enraged and tried to rape Raina, but couldn’t get it up. So he’d assaulted her with an object as punishment for his impotence.
     
    Jackson keyed Bruce Wayne Gorman into the CODIS database and waited for the upload. He was looking for anything he could find in Gorman’s file to use as leverage, to break him down and get a confession. A confession meant a plea bargain, which saved the DA a lot of trouble.
     
    There it was at the top of the screen. Gorman, who was new to the Eugene area, had been charged with rape in Washington when he was twenty-two. The charge had later been dropped because the girl had recanted her story. Another assault against a woman five years later had never made it to court either. So Gorman liked to beat and rape women, then intimidate them into not testifying. Was he the serial rapist ? His DNA results would put him away if he was.
     
    Jackson almost