The Kept Woman (Will Trent 8) by Karin Slaughter Read Free Book Online

out. Harding was at least two-fifty, maybe more. Collier’s arms were shaking from the effort of keeping him tilted up.
    Sara changed into a fresh pair of gloves. She reached into Harding’s back pocket and pulled out a thick nylon wallet. TheVelcro made a ripping sound when she opened it. She called out her findings. ‘Ticket stubs, receipts for fast-food places, betting slips, two different photographs of a naked blonde courtesy of BackDoorMan.com. Some business cards.’ She looked at Collier. ‘You can put him down, but be careful.’
    Collier groaned as he settled the body back to the floor.
    ‘You’re going to want to see this.’ Sara passed one of the business cards to Faith. Will recognized the full-color logo. He had seen it countless times on documents turned over by Marcus Rippy’s sports management team.
    ‘Motherfuck,’ Faith muttered. ‘Kip Kilpatrick. He’s Rippy’s manager, right? I saw him on TV.’
    Will looked at Amanda. She had her eyes closed like she wished she could wipe the man’s name from her mind. Will felt the same way. Kip Kilpatrick was Marcus Rippy’s manager, head lawyer, best friend and all-around fixer. There was no legal proof, but Will was certain Kilpatrick had used his thugs to pay off two witnesses from the New Year’s Eve party and intimidated a third into silence.
    Sara said, ‘I hate to make things worse, but the doorknob missed Harding’s jugulars and carotids. And his esophagus. And pretty much anything else that matters. There’s no blood in his mouth or nose. There was very little bleeding from the spindle, just a trickle that’s dried down the side of his neck. He doesn’t have any other significant injuries. This blood, or at least this volume of blood, isn’t from him.’
    ‘What?’ Amanda sounded more exasperated than shocked. ‘Are you certain?’
    ‘Positive. The back of his clothes wicked up blood from the floor, and the swipe of blood on his shirt is clearly from someoneelse. His major arteries are intact. There are no significant wounds in his head, torso, arms, or legs. The blood you see in this room is not from Dale Harding.’
    Will felt surprised, and then he felt stupid for being surprised. Sara had read the scene better than he had.
    ‘So whose blood is it?’ Faith asked. ‘Ms. La Mer?’
    ‘It seems likely.’ Sara stood up carefully so she wouldn’t lose her balance.
    Amanda tried to make sense of the information. ‘Our missing woman hit her head on the stairs, then she left her bloody footprints as she ran across the balcony, and then what?’
    ‘There was a violent struggle between two people in this room. There are signs of high-velocity spatter on the ceiling, which suggests that an artery was punctured, and as I said, it wasn’t Harding’s.’ Sara walked over to the far corner. ‘We’re going to need some alternate light sources because the graffiti is so dark, but can you see this swipe along the wall? That’s from someone’s hand, and the hand was covered in blood. The shape and span are small, more like a woman’s.’
    Will had noticed the smeared line of blood before, but not that it ended with a visible set of fingers. They reminded him of the finger-shaped bruises on Keisha Miscavage’s neck.
    Amanda told Sara, ‘There were no unsolved shootings last night. Are we talking stabbing, then?’
    Sara shrugged. ‘Maybe.’
    ‘Maybe,’ Amanda repeated. ‘Wonderful. I’ll tell the hospitals to maybe look out for an unexplained stabbing with a serious head injury.’
    ‘I can do that.’ Collier started typing into his phone. ‘I got a buddy works the precinct at Grady Hospital. He can check with the ER pronto.’
    ‘We’ll need Atlanta Medical and Piedmont, too.’
    Collier nodded as he typed.
    Faith said, ‘Sara, back up a minute for me. The doorknob didn’t kill Harding, but he’s obviously dead. So what happened?’
    ‘His bad choices happened. He’s morbidly obese. He’s unusually bloated. His eyes