Page 44 of Ugly (Cerberus MC)


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“And that’s what happened tonight, only he rode away with you instead? Did you make plans prior to this?”

I shake my head. “He went inside.”

His jaw clenches and I can see in his eyes he’s questioning his decision to have Dresden cut Maddox loose.

“He was in there no more than five minutes. There’s no way he could—”

“Is that what you know or is that what you want to think?”

“He didn’t smell like accelerant. His clothes didn’t have grass stains or dirt on them. The scene out back showed a struggle. There’s no way he could’ve stayed clean. He wasn’t out of breath or sweaty. He hadn’t—” I clear my throat. “He didn’t struggle with intimacy when we got to the hotel.”

I don’t know of a better way to explain that the man came nearly as fast as I did. I know it’s not the best evidence that he hadn’t sexually assaulted Rochelle Leach, but it sort of hints in that direction.

Monahan darts his eyes away for a brief second, and I appreciate the reprieve.

“Kincaid only hires top-notch men. I don’t think any of them are capable of anything like we’re dealing with. He changed the way he vetted people after that psycho Wrench.”

I nod, agreeing with him, even though I have no damn clue who Wrench is.

“This is a nightmare for the department. One of my detectives involved with a murder suspect.”

“He isn’t a murder suspect,” I remind him.

“You made him a murder suspect in the eyes of some of the people that work here and the public when you arrested him and carted his ass through the front door in cuffs.”

I wince at the frustration in his voice, but I can’t really argue with the man. I did all of that and, at the time, I did it with a smile on my face.

“We’d be better spending our time trying to find who actually did this rather than talking about how I spent my night. The murders are linked. They’re too close together, too alike, to be coincidental.”

“I agree, and as much as I’d hate to even consider it, Sawyer Maddox is linked to both of them.”

“And he has an alibi.”

“Because you saw Rochelle Leach standing in the window alive after he left her?”

I grind my teeth. “He wasn’t involved.”

Monahan nods, his demeanor changing quickly. It felt like a test, like he wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to go barking up the wrong damn tree, wasting time again.

“There’s DNA this time. The attacker was injured. There is evidence under her fingernails.”

“DNA takes time, but every single member of the MC has their DNA on file.”

“You want me to see if someone else at the club did it?” I ask, wondering why the man is going back and forth so damn much.

He shakes his head. “I want to let you know we plan to exclude them, for your own piece of mind.”

“We?”

Monahan straightens his back, and I hate the look of pity in his eyes. “I have to put you on administrative leave.”

I lean my head to the side, surely not fucking hearing right. “I’m being suspended?”

“I need you to hand over your case files to Detective Matthews.”

“Chief,” I growl, unable to accept what he’s telling me.

“You know the drill, Maison. I can’t have you so close to the case. I’ll need a detailed account of your involvement with Sawyer Maddox as well as Rochelle.”

“I didn’t have any involvement with Rochelle Leach past the two times I spoke with her about the Burr case.”

“I have to cover the department’s ass. It’s getting to the point we may have to call in the fucking FBI. Should I leave you on the case and allow even more scrutiny to come to the department when they find out you’ve been sleeping with the guy you arrested for murder?”

I stand, reaching for my badge and gun to hand over to him.

“That’s not fucking necessary, Detective.”

He drops his eyes to his phone when it rings, and I use the reprieve to get my ass out of his office.

I’ve done both victims a disservice. I head back to my office, knowing that causing any more of an uproar won’t do me any good. The man doesn’t back down once he’s made up his mind.

I feel beat down, utterly useless as I sort the mess on my desk, not wanting to leave anything out. Colton is a great detective, but if I can save him some time by not having to shuffle through a mess, then I’ll do all that I can.

“Almost done,” I say when a shadow darkens my door, but it’s Monahan, not Colton, when I look up.

“Chief?” I ask when he just stands there.

He opens his mouth to speak but then promptly closes it again.

“I want Matthews to look at the similarities between these two murders and the cases from fifteen years ago.”

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