Trespass by Marla Madison Read Free Book Online

been assigned to a significant case, one that was a possible murder. Madison Chapman, who remained unconscious, was still in the ICU and not expected to pull through. He couldn’t begrudge the opportunity just because he had only gotten the case when the other detectives realized it might be linked to the dirty-sheet cases. He refused to use the “cum case” moniker the other detectives used. Not that he was prudish when it came to profanity, he just didn’t think the vulgar term for semen should be linked to an actual case.
    When the techs were going through the Chapman house after finding Madison Chapman at the foot of the stairs, they had discovered an open bed with stained sheets exposed in the guest room on the first floor. The Chapmans hadn’t left it that way. Madison’s friend insisted that Madison had been sick the night of the party and definitely hadn’t gone home to hook up with a guy.
    The lead detective, a surly, fifty-something man toying with early retirement, had been visibly disappointed when Haymaker told him that he had been assigned as Brian’s second-in-command. Detective Francis Lukaszewski, Franco to his cronies, had a large, slightly overweight frame and a face with a carnivorous grin that faded to a scowl when he heard the news that he would be playing subordinate to Haymaker.
    Too damn bad, Brian thought. He was as good a detective as any of the others, even if they had a few years on him. He intended to make the most of the new assignment. The camaraderie he felt the day he delivered his partner’s baby on the conference room table had been short-lived and led to a coarse discussion of who had gotten the best view of her lower half. Between her screams and her swearing, Tasha had threatened death to anyone who ogled her “stuff.” As far as Brian was concerned, his partner had no “stuff.”
    Earlier in the day, he and Lukaszewski questioned the friend who had found Madison Chapman at the bottom of the stairs. Cassie Cantwell hadn’t been able to tell them much. Madison left the party she and Cassie had been at the night before because she was coming down with the flu. Cantwell was adamant that Madison hadn’t been drinking, which test results had proven true. They would have to wait longer for the tox-screen results to find out if there were drugs in her system.
    Madison didn’t have a boyfriend, but on the night of the party she was waiting for Rodney Johnstone, a boy she had been hoping to hook up with. According to Cantwell, the guy had been invited to the party, but he never showed. They hadn’t located Johnstone yet; he lived at home and was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Between his classes and his part-time job, his mother told them, he was often hard to locate. She gave them his schedule so they could catch him at the campus as he left his last class.
    The Johnstones lived across the street and three houses down from where Norman Teschler’s house had exploded. An irrelevant connection? Probably, but Haymaker planned on going back to the neighborhood and asking new questions.
    Lukaszewski had dumped the paperwork on him and then left to get a sandwich. Brian usually brought a lunch, opting to save money and eat healthier than the junk food so readily available near the station.
    “Detective Haymaker?”
    He looked up into the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. A vivid blue, or were they purple? Either way, they were exotic eyes on a slim woman with high cheekbones and skin the color of a Florida suntan. “That’s me,” he answered. “And you are?”
    “TJ Peacock,” she replied and flipped open a wallet to show him a private investigator’s license.
    Her eyes went steely the minute she exposed her creds. Brian had an ominous feeling when he shook her small but surprisingly strong hand; there was more to TJ Peacock than an intriguing pair of eyes.

Chapter 10
    M adison Chapman died the next morning from her injuries. Unless her autopsy proved