Page 37 of New Beginnings
“Shut the hell up! I’m not saying shit about anything.”
He laughed. “Anyway, avoiding you is not her style. She’s probably locked away at home or at work trying to find more information. That’s what she does when she’s on a case. She’ll go missing for days. When I was married to Rumi, we’d have to drop food by her place just to make sure she ate something more than yogurt and an apple.”
My brows furrowed. I didn’t like the idea of her not eating just because she was helping me.
“Why don’t you just call her?” he asked.
Before I could respond my phone buzzed. I picked it up from my desk, smiled, then answered.
“Speak of the damn devil. Hey stranger.”
Caesar chuckled, and I stuck my finger up at him again, mouthing fuck you which caused him to laugh harder. I didn't give a damn if he could see how happy and relieved, I was that she had called and wasn’t avoiding me.
“You found something?”
Caesar leaned forward as I stared at him wide-eyed as she relayed what she had found. I rubbed my hand down my face. The more she talked, the more anger and frustration rose inside me.
What the hell was going on?
THAT'S THE LINK
Rebel Pierce
“J.D., I don’t know what to tell you. The old man who took the envelope is dead. He was killed in a mugging two days after Earl was killed.”
“Fuck,” J.D., groaned, running his hand through his hair.
“A mugging my ass,” Caesar mumbled, flipping through some of the papers.
It didn’t take long for J.D. and Caesar to show up at my place after I called to let him know what I’d found. Whoever was behind this wasn’t dumb. They were definitely killing everyone that was involved.
“Who was he?” J.D. asked.
We were sitting on my couch in my living room going through all the information I had so far. Papers, still photographs pulled from surveillance footage were spread across my coffee table. We were all huddled together, J.D., Caesar, and myself, trying tomake sense of everything. I didn’t think I had missed anything, but having another set of eyes to help couldn’t hurt.
I handed him the newspaper clipping of an obituary for the coroner, John Keegan. He grabbed it and read over it.
“Medical report?”
I handed that to him too. The man had been stabbed over twenty times. In my opinion, it seemed excessive for a robbery, but then again, I wasn’t a police officer.
“That wasn’t a fucking mugging just like Earl’s death wasn’t a suicide,” he said handing the medical report to Caesar.
Caesar quickly read through it, then whistled. “Over twenty fucking times.” He tossed the paper on the coffee table. “That was a damn hit for sure. Up close and personal. Do you know the detectives involved with the case?”
I picked up a stack of papers. “I’ve got it here somewhere,” I mumbled, flipping through the papers. “Here it is. A detective Monty Lewis and Sean Abrams. Definitely not upstanding cops either. Both have several complaints of excessive force, they’ve both been under internal affairs investigations twice, and nothing has stuck. They investigated Earl’s death and John Keegan’s.”
“That’s the link to both deaths,” J.D. said. “Cops would know how to commit a murder and cover it up.”
“So, what are you thinking?” I asked.
“I’m thinking they killed Earl, the coroner, and possibly had something to do with Dani too,” J.D. said.
“I agree,” Caesar said.
“What other information do you have on them?” J.D. asked.
“The usual. Financials, medical reports, employment records.”
