Page 34 of Deadly Designs

“Ask Officer Hayward.”

Detective Herbert walked over to where two peoplewere standing near the dead body. One woman looked up at them, andher brows raised. “Detective Herbert, what are you doing here?”

“I’ll explain in a minute, Detective Sharp. Haveeither of you seen Officer Cranny?”

The woman in uniform, with a nametag reading C.Lincoln, answered. “He had to leave.”

“What?”

Lincoln shrugged. “He said he had an emergency as heran to his cruiser.”

“You were next on scene?”

“Officer Lange beat me here but left to transport asuspect.”

Aja Blue’s fists clenched at the cop using thatdescription of Christian. He was no such thing.

“How do you know what happened here?” DetectiveHerbert wanted to know.

“We don’t.”

Aja Blue gaped at the officer. A murder had occurred,and an innocent man had been arrested. They were clueless.

“What did Cranny tell you?”

“Nothing. He said take over, and he left.”

“What are you doing standing around with your thumbsup your ass?” Detective Herbert barked. “This is an active crimescene.”

Lincoln’s eyes widened at being chewed out. Shemotioned to the other woman. “I was waiting for Detective Sharp toarrive.”

“You don’t need a detective to secure a crime scene,Officer Lincoln. Did you graduate from the academy?”

She mumbled something. When Detective Herbert askedher to repeat, she said, “Yes. A few weeks ago.”

“Get busy. Have the other cops interview the crowd.Rope the area off with tape. Look for videos. For God’s sake,investigate.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The officer scurried off.

“That was harsh,” Detective Sharp chastised.

Detective Herbert pointed to the tarp-covered corpse.“We have a dead body. The person arrested is innocent, the murdererup and walked away, and we have cops standing around shooting theshit. I’d say I wasn’t harsh enough.”

“Point taken,” Detective Sharp acknowledged. “What’sgoing on?”

Detective Herbert gave her a rundown. “I’ll forwardyou a copy of the video. Ms. LaLonde is a witness, but she’s comingwith me to the station. You can interview her later.”

Chapter Nine

Christian’s nerves, alreadysparking from the taser, were on edge. The thought of Aja Bluebeing alone with a killer on the loose was almost more than hecould bear. The cop pulled up to the station and found a parkingspot. He opened the door and helped Christian out.

Christian had decided not to say another word. Theman would find out soon when hell rained down on him in the form ofLuke Colton and Logan Bradley.

A black man in a starched uniform with several medalswaited for them when they entered the door. “Officer Lange, whatdid you do to this man?”

“Captain Parsa, sir, I didn’t do anything.”

“His eyes are bloodshot, and his face is bruised andbleeding.”

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