Page 4 of Raging Inferno

“That’s a lie.”

“Officer Deets didn’t bring you here?”

“She did, but I did not hit on my superior. And I certainly didn’t drug myself.”

“The captain said you brought two bottles of soda with you, and you must’ve accidentally imbibed the one you planned on giving him, laced with Rohypnol.”

“I didn’t drug anything, and I did not come on to my boss. Ask Officer Deets.” She pointed to the closed door. “She was just here. You might be able to catch her. She was the one who insisted I come to the hospital last night.”

“I’ll get to her, but I’m waiting to hear the truth from you.”

“I am telling it.”

“We found a baggie containing Rohypnol in your desk drawer. Care to tell me about it?”

Presley’s heart started to pound. “There is nothing to tell. That isn’t mine.”

“It was missing from the evidence lockup. Your name was the last one signed in.”

“I’m working on a murder case.”

Presley was getting a sinking feeling in her gut. Someone was setting her up. Rayburn said the captain told him she’d brought two bottles into his office. That wasn’t what happened. Bile rose in her throat. Ed Smith, the man she’d looked up to and admired, had flat-out lied. That meant he had been the one who’d drugged her.

“Did you fingerprint the baggie?”

“Working on it.”

They wouldn’t find hers. “I didn’t take it, nor did I put it in any drink. I’m being set up.”

“By who?”

“Isn’t that your job to find out?”

He scowled at her. “I’ve done my due diligence and found my suspect straight from the horse’s mouth, or in this case, the captain’s.”

“Did he tell you he kissed and fondled me?”

“He said you were the one who tried to kiss him.”

Presley was in a no-win situation. It was her word against Captain Smith’s, and she had no doubt who people would believe. She was hampered by memory loss. Helen Deets could vouch for how out of it she’d been, but what if the officer believed the captain’s side of the story that she’d planted the drugs? Oh, who was she kidding? Of course, everyone would believe him.

“Look, I’m going to save you a bunch of time and paperwork and submit my resignation, effective immediately.”

Presley shocked herself. She hadn’t planned on quitting, but it felt as if a tremendous weight had lifted from her shoulders. She wished she’d gotten the chance to solve the murder, but that would fall to someone else now.

Rayburn looked surprised. “So you’re admitting it? Huh. I thought you’d be one of those hard-ass women who blames others for their screw-ups.”

Presley clenched her jaw, wanting nothing more than to knock that smirk off his arrogant face. “I vehemently deny guilt. I did not take drugs from the evidence locker, nor did I poison anyone’s drink. You can be certain I didn’t accost my captain.”

“Then why are you voluntarily quitting? I hate to tell you, Ms. Parrish, but that screams culpability. An innocent person works to clear their name.”

“I refuse to stay at a place where I’m set up to be raped. Where I’m drugged and then accused of doing it to myself. That’s ludicrous. I thought IA looked out for the officers.”

He flipped his notebook closed and stuffed it in his breast pocket. “We do, and I did. I’ll need your badge and service gun.”

“I don’t have them.”

“What do you mean?”

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