Revenge of Innocents by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg Read Free Book Online

here, we’re going to have to clear everyone out except for the stiffs.”
    Carolyn cut her eyes to him. “One of those stiffs was my best friend.”
    “Sorry,” Hank said. “It’s been a long day. Tomorrow we need you to go through all of Veronica’s cases, everything in the past three or four years.”
    “Four years! Do you have any idea how many cases our people handle?”
    “There’s still a chance it could be the probationer she mentioned to you this morning,” he told her. “We didn’t find any signs of forced entry, but it isn’t that hard to get into a motel room. The guy who rented it with a stolen credit card may have left early that morning and accidentally left the door ajar. Then this Phillip Bramson could have snuck in with the intention of fooling Veronica into believing he had a right to be there.”
    “Did Brad Preston send you the information in his file?” Carolyn asked, running her fingers through her hair.
    “Yeah,” Hank said. “Bramson hasn’t shown up at work for two weeks. He also didn’t pay the rent on his apartment, so his landlord locked him out four days ago. Veronica’s file indicated she placed a number of phone calls to him. There was also a notation that she suspected he was using narcotics again. He could have found out she was looking for him, and arranged to meet her at the Motor Inn.”
    “It’s possible,” Carolyn said. “What happened to Veronica’s gun?”
    “We have it,” Hank said. “It may turn out to be the murder weapon. We found it in a Dumpster at the rear of the motel.”
    Carolyn scratched a patch of dry skin on her arm. “Veronica hated guns. He must have overpowered her. She was always afraid of something like that. She believed we were safer without guns. Not just people in law enforcement, but private citizens as well. Veronica thought if you bought a gun and kept it in your house, instead of your defending yourself with it, someone would use it against you.” She paused, thinking. “If Bramson was strung out, he would never have agreed to see Veronica. He had drug terms. If he tested positive, he was looking at a certain prison term. In reality, she could have violated him for not showing up at his job. He may have lured her to the motel to kill her.”
    “Why didn’t he just abscond?” Mary interjected.
    “Addicts don’t act rationally,” Hank reminded her. “He may have thought he could con Veronica into thinking he was clean. When she didn’t buy it, he impulsively grabbed her gun and shot her.”
    “But why would Bramson threaten me and my family?” Carolyn asked. “Not many murderers would risk showing up at a county facility only hours after the crime, particularly if the victim was in law enforcement. And how did he find out so much about me?” She turned to Hank. “I doubt if Bramson took a tour of my house. It doesn’t make sense. Junkies look and act like junkies. My real estate agent never brought anyone to the house without screening them.”
    “You must know more than you think you know,” Mary told her, exchanging tense glances with Hank.
    Had she already put it together? Carolyn asked herself. Mary Stevens was one of the sharpest women she’d ever known. Her father had been a high-ranking officer with the LAPD. When he was killed in the line of duty, Mary had tracked down his murderer, then relinquished a lucrative position in the private sector to become a cop. Her statement had struck too close to home. If the detective had somehow sniffed out the truth about Tyler Bell, Carolyn’s future was at stake. Instead of going on her honeymoon, she could end up in the county jail.
    “I have to go,” Carolyn said. “I’ll be on my cell if you need me.” Seeing Hank about to say something, she cut him off. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to throw my gun away. In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve already killed one murderer. I don’t need any more notches on my belt, but I’d welcome the chance to shoot this