She moved like she owned the room and everyone in it. Her red hair was pulled back tight in a braid. She had sharp cheekbones and sparkly green eyes. Her well-fitted navy-blue suit was expensive, no doubt.
Nolan moved his chair back and rose. “Kara. What a surprise to see you. Without any heads-up.” Annoyance was in every word.
“That’s because last time I checked, the attorney general’s office didn’t need a detective’s approval for anything.”
She grinned at him and dragged the extra plastic chair from the corner to the table.
“Deputy Attorney General Kara Belmont,” she said by way of introduction. “I’m overseeing this case now, under direct instruction from the attorney general’s office.”
She grabbed the yellow folder from the table and pulled something out.
A photograph.
She held it up.
My head jerked back before my brain caught up.
It was an image of Zach. From the murder scene.
His eyes and mouth were wide open. Like his screams never fully made it out. He lay across the front seats of his car with his head tipped back. His chest barely looked human anymore. Just ripped flesh and torn fabric. His gut was hanging out too. Blood was everywhere. So much of it that my brain struggled to believe what I was seeing.
This wasn’t just a murder. This was a massacre!
“Oh, God.” I gagged on the words. I bent sideways and grabbed for the trash can on the floor, but it was too late. My stomach lurched up my throat, and I threw up hard. Acid burned the back of my nose. The room filled with the sour smell of vomit.
“Kara. What the hell are you doing?” Nolan snapped.
“You can shut up and stay or complain and leave,” she said without even looking at him.
Her eyes stayed on Lacey.
“Does this man look familiar?” she asked. Her tone went flat and stern. “Might be a little hard to make him out under all this blood, but this is Zach Nabb. Stabbed over forty times. Right next to you.”
“Stop this!” Jack’s chair scraped loudly against the floor as he shot to his feet. “You may not use graphic crime scene photos to pressure my client. We’re done here.”
“No, we’re not,” Belmont countered. “Lacey Alderwyn, you are now under arrest. Before we continue, I’m going to read you your rights.”
I wiped my mouth with my sleeve, tasting bile. “What?”
The deputy AG kept going with an iron facial expression, as if she’d done this countless times before in other vomit-filled rooms. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. Looks like you already have one. But if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed for you by the court. You have the right to remain silent and stop answering questions at any time. Do you understand these rights as I’ve read them to you?”
Lacey kept staring into the distance. Blank. Pupils large.
Belmont seemed to take her silence as defiance and rose from her chair. “I take that as a yes,” she said. Then she leaned forward and held Zach’s picture inches from Lacey’s face.
“Kara, stop,” Nolan demanded.
“Look at your friend Zach, Lacey,” Belmont demanded. “Why did you do this to him?”
“Stop it!” I shot to my feet and reached across the table to grab the photo out of her hand. One of the officers caught me from behind before I could grasp it. Strong hands clamped around my arms and yanked me back.
The room exploded.
“Stop it, Kara!” Nolan snapped.
“Let her go,” Jack ordered.
“Don’t look, Lacey!” I yelled over everyone. Over the chaos.
