Page 33 of Deadly Designs

“Ma’am, are you okay? We saw the man grab you.”

Aja Blue turned to see an elderly couple looking ather with concern.

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

A silver sedan pulled into the parking lot beside thepolice cruisers. Detective Herbert stepped out and scanned thearea. Aja Blue waved a hand, and she headed her way.

Aja Blue turned to Darius. “Okay, you can stoprecording. Can I see what you have?”

“Sure, since you’re the star. Then I’m gonna uploadit to my socials.”

Before watching it, Aja Blue forwarded herself a copyof the video. She knew Christian would want to see it.

“What’s going on?” Detective Herbert asked.

Aja Blue played the video, holding it so thedetective could watch. It started with the man grabbing her as soonas she stepped out of the vehicle and then her spraying him—andChristian—with mace. When Christian took him down, the man’sscreams were audible, as were the snarky remarks from the kid who’dshot the film.

“Dude deserved it,”the kid narrated.“Ihope the big guy caps his ass.”

“Look there,” the detective instructed. “Zoomin.”

The nurse glanced around before leaning close to theman. Then he went limp.

“She killed him,” Detective Herbert deduced.

Aja Blue gasped. She had. “Watch what happensnext.”

The cop arrived seconds later. The nurse backed awayuntil she disappeared into the crowd. Then the cop was tasingChristian for no reason.

“What the hell is he doing?”

“He said the nurse told him Christian murdered theman, but you can see they never spoke.”

“The officer didn’t check him for weapons, and I knowhe’s carrying.” Detective Herbert took the phone from Aja Blue andzoomed in on the cop. “That’s Martin Cranny.” She looked over towhere the other cops were gathered. “I need to talk to him.”

“Hey, my phone,” Darius cried when they started toleave.

The detective stopped and tapped the keys beforehanding it back. “What’s your name and contact information?”

The kid recited the information while the detectivewrote it in her notebook.

Darius looked at his phone, and then his head jerkedup. “Hey, where’s the video? I was going to upload them to mysocials.”

Detective Herbert shrugged. “Sorry. Must’ve hit thewrong button.”

“Man, that was going to blow up my hits,” Dariusgrumbled.

“That probably wasn’t the only video taken,” Aja Bluepointed out.

“Yeah, but it’s one less out there,” DetectiveHerbert responded. “That kid was savvy. He’d have plastered it toevery social media platform in existence, muddying up theinvestigation.”

With Tyler’s comments about safety fresh in her mind,Aja Blue stuck close to the detective as she approached a group ofuniformed officers.

“Where’s Officer Cranny?”

Shrugs and comments of “I don’t know” and “no idea”were the answer.

“He was the first responder on the scene. He shouldbe here.”

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