Identity Crisis by Eliza Daly Read Free Book Online Page B

bogus charge; ain’t gonna be no different this time.” He glanced around. “Where is that prick anyway? I ain’t saying no more without my lawyer.”
    Like this punk could keep his big yap shut for five seconds. Ethan shrugged. “You know your rights. You should also know murder is a lot harder to get off on than some petty drug charge. Especially now that you’re an adult. You’re screwed.” Ethan relaxed back in his chair, a victorious grin on his face.
    Eduardo paled, shifting nervously in his chair.
    “Too bad you’re going to prison just when you got your big break, taking Javier’s place. Guess that’ll all change anyway once Javier returns. Unless of course he goes away for murder.”
    Eduardo looked intrigued by the thought of being Javier’s successor, but said, “I ain’t no snitch, unlike the losers you work with.” Eduardo spit at the two-way mirror, behind which stood three cops. “Ain’t like you cops are ever gonna bust one of your own anyway. You all stick together.”
    The fear of an inside snitch had been clawing at the back of Ethan’s mind. But who was to say Eduardo wasn’t just trying to save his ass? Because when he’d started shooting off his mouth, he likely hadn’t realized what the info was worth.
    “Go on,” Ethan said.
    “What’s in it for me?”
    “Besides not letting it get around that you were talking to cops and turned on your gang leader, I’m much more interested in busting a cop who killed a witness and one of his own than some gangbanger shooting one of
his
own. We could make a deal.” But Javier was still going down.
    Eduardo leaned in, his nervous gaze skittering around the room, like Javier might be ready to burst through the door. “Now this ain’t got nothing to do with Javier, but word on the street is some guy called some guy and handed this bitch over on a silver friggin’ platter. Guy was clear he didn’t want no witnesses. Way I heard it, he was more interested in offing them cops than that bitch.”
    If Eduardo had indeed heard it right, which likely he had since it’d come straight from Javier, the marshals, rather than the witness, had possibly been the targets. Maybe not as far as Javier was concerned, but for whoever had given him their location. Who would have wanted Roy dead and what was the motive? Another case Roy had been working on?
    What if Roy had learned that Andrew Donovan had resumed his life of crime and Donovan or his partner had killed Roy? Then the partner had taken out Donovan? Ethan would check Roy’s phone records for the months preceding his death to see if he’d had any contact with Olivia’s father or possibly this unknown partner.
    Or, what if Ethan had been the target? Maybe the killer didn’t realize he wasn’t there when he blew up the place. Who the hell would be after him? But it was a bit too coincidental that Roy and Donovan were murdered just months apart.
    Either way, Roy’s death just got a helluva lot more complicated.

Chapter Seven
    Olivia knelt in front of her “mom’s” grave, brushing a finger over the white silk petals stained with dirt and watermarks from the rain. According to her dad, daisies had been her mom’s favorite flower. Yet, he’d also claimed her mom was buried there. The headstone read
Annette Doyle
, but it was either a Jane or John Doe, or nobody, that Olivia had been sharing her life with for the past twenty-two years. She wanted to believe this her dad’s idea, not the U.S. Marshals’. That he’d been compassionate enough to realize she would need a memorial to visit.
    She’d been seven when she’d first visited this spot. Her nanny, Maria, rather than her dad, had taken her to the cemetery when Olivia kept questioning where her mom was and why she couldn’t see her. Her dad had never talked much about her. Olivia knew she’d died of cancer. That was it.
    Maria had been the closest thing to a mom Olivia had ever known. Then one day, Maria had taken Olivia shopping