Sawyer by Delores Fossen Read Free Book Online Page A

wall. “Murdered,” he repeated. “Who the hell did that to her?”
    “I asked you first,” Sawyer fired back.
    “Well, it sure as heck wasn’t me. I love her. I wouldn’t have killed her.”
    Sawyer looked down at the notes he’d been reading. “According to your rap sheet, you were arrested for assaulting her not once but twice. Doesn’t sound like love to me.”
    “I slapped her around, yeah. And she deserved it. That woman’s got a smart mouth on her.” Willy stopped, shook his head. “ Had a smart mouth,” he corrected, groaning. “She sure as heck didn’t deserve to die. How’d it happen? How was she killed?”
    “We’re still trying to determine that.” It was a lie. She’d been shot point-blank in the head, but Sawyer kept that detail to himself. Best not to give a suspect too much information because Willy could use it to concoct an alibi.
    Despite his warning, Cassidy stepped into the hall. “My brother’s Bennie O’Neal. Do you have any idea where he is?”
    Willy’s eyes instantly narrowed. “Bennie O’Neal,” he repeated like profanity. “He’s the no-good louse that April was cheating on me with. I warned both of them that it wouldn’t be a pretty sight if they kept it up.”
    “So you threatened them,” Sawyer concluded. He was detecting a pattern here, and he got in front of Cassidy to stop her from moving closer to the man.
    No more narrowed eyes. Willy no doubt realized that wasn’t the right thing to say to a lawman, especially since he was now a murder suspect. “I got a right to protect what’s mine, and April was mine.”
    Sawyer doubted that, and he asked a necessary question he didn’t really want to ask this thug. “What about the baby?”
    Willy’s mouth tightened. “What about it?”
    “You did know that April was pregnant?” Sawyer prompted when Willy didn’t add more.
    “I knew.” And that’s all he said for several moments. “April said the kid was mine. Wouldn’t believe her without one of those paternity tests. April’s not real good on telling the truth. So, she said she’d do the test they do on unborn babies. But if she had it done, she never showed me the results. Probably because the kid wasn’t mine.”
    Or maybe because April hadn’t wanted Willy in her and the baby’s life.
    Sawyer tipped his head to Bree and then the supply cabinet. “We’ll need to verify what April didn’t tell him.” And he didn’t especially want to leave Cassidy alone with this piece of work while that happened.
    “I’ll get a DNA swab kit,” Bree volunteered, moving out of the reception area and down the hall.
    “Now, wait a minute,” Willy challenged. Bree didn’t stop. She continued toward the supply cabinet. “If April’s dead, so is the kid, right?”
    “No.” Except Sawyer didn’t know if that was true or not. He was assuming the baby that the kidnappers gave Cassidy was April’s child. But maybe she wasn’t.
    “Are you saying she had the kid already?” Willy pressed.
    Sawyer settled for a nod.
    Willy cursed and his hands went back on his hips. “Then, the kid’s not mine. Can’t be. April and me have what you call an on-again, off-again kind of relationship. Nine months ago, we were definitely off.”
    “Then, how the devil do you still consider her your girlfriend?”
    “Easy. We got back together about six months ago. Things stayed hot and heavy for about a month, and then she lit out again after telling me she was pregnant.”
    Willy’s gaze shot to Cassidy. “And I figured that’s when she went to your slimeball brother.” More cursing. “If that was his kid, if April got knocked up by another man, then she deserved to die.”
    And that just spelled out Willy’s motive for murder.
    “You killed her,” Cassidy concluded. “Did you do something to my brother, too?” That time, Sawyer wasn’t able to hold her back, so he followed her to the front of the building.
    “I didn’t kill nobody,” Willy snapped. “But if