You Belong to Me by Karen Rose Read Free Book Online Page B

logical mind. And she doesn’t have a protocol broom stuck up her ass like some of the other MEs.’
    Hyatt shook his head. ‘You paint such pretty pictures, Stevie. What about her private life? Boyfriends, irate fiancés? Any reason to think this could be personal?’
    Stevie frowned. ‘I don’t think she’s involved with anyone. But I don’t know her outside work. She’s kind of a private person.’
    JD didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath. Not involved. That was good. ‘I got that as well,’ he said. ‘She figured out that the victim wasn’t the man she knew because his feet were too small. Which she knew because she’d cared for the old man’s feet this winter when he wandered out of his house without shoes. But she didn’t want to tell me that. I had to pry it out of her and I’m not sure why.’
    Hyatt frowned. ‘That doesn’t make sense. Find out why. If she was squirrely about revealing that, she could have other secrets, ones that might be reason enough to set her up to find a body. So does she know the vic? What’s his name?’
    ‘Christopher Jones,’ Stevie answered. ‘Trask removed the cheek implants and called it in while we were waiting. She says she’s never heard of him.’
    Hyatt’s gray brows lifted. ‘Did you believe her?’
    ‘Yes,’ JD said, probably a little too quickly, earning him a sharp glance from Hyatt. Feeling his face heat, he shrugged. ‘I saw her expression when she thought she knew the guy. I don’t think she’s lying.’
    Stevie nodded her agreement. ‘She’s cooperating, Peter. We don’t have any reason to think she had anything to do with this.’
    ‘Other than being set up to find the body,’ Hyatt said sarcastically. ‘Which is just a tiny little detail. What do we know about the vic?’
    ‘Lives in Columbia,’ Stevie said. ‘We’re going out there after we brief you.’
    ‘So Mr Jones was a doctor?’
    ‘No,’ JD said. ‘A divorce attorney, which bothers us.’
    ‘Divorce attorneys bother me too, every month when I write two alimony checks. But I suspect you’re more bothered that your dead attorney wore a med school ring.’
    ‘And a Rolex that said “Thanks for the mammaries”,’ JD said.
    Hyatt snorted a surprised laugh, then cleared his throat. ‘Sorry. Hadn’t heard that detail yet.’ He pulled a sober look back to his face. ‘Go check out Lawyer Jones. Find out why he was wearing a doctor’s ring and why he’s dead. And find out how he connects to Dr Trask. Even if it’s an answer you don’t like.’ He gave Stevie a pointed look. ‘You two friends? Is this going to be a problem for you?’
    She shrugged. ‘Lucy and I are not un friendly, but no we’re not best friends or anything. So no, it’s not going to be a problem for me.’
    Hyatt turned his gaze to JD. ‘And you? You were quick to defend her.’
    JD shook his head, feeling more like he was defending himself. He didn’t like that. ‘I spoke to her for the first time today. So no, not a problem for me either.’
    Which he hoped was true. But when he remembered the way she’d looked at him when he’d entered the morgue and the way it had sent his pulse scrambling, he knew it would be a very big problem for him.
    ‘Then go. Find out why there’s a “I” burned into his back. If I have to tell the brass that we have a serial on the loose, I want as much detail as I can get.’

Monday, May 3, 10.20 A.M.
    ‘You rang?’
    Lucy looked up from the microscope. Dr Craig Mulhauser had stuck his head in the door to the lab. Her boss now, he’d been one of her professors in med school and one of the myriad of reasons she’d chosen pathology.
    It had either been pathology or busking on a downtown street corner.
    And wouldn’t that have made her mother so proud? Lucy could almost hear her mother’s wailing lament. All those years of music lessons, gone to waste! Playing show tunes for nickels like a beggar on the street . Lucy had almost chosen busking for