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This was my life, and I imagined it was no different than what Molly thought she’d be doing for the church, which made me think that maybe, just maybe, I was in the same level of danger as my sister.
Just in a different sort of way.
CHAPTER TEN
Jameson
“This is Agent Marshall and I’m Agent Beck.” The redheaded woman was attractive, except for the scowl on her face. “You’ll be working with us directly on this investigation.”
“Okay.” There wasn’t much else to say. I’d been scheduled to meet up with this duo last week, but they’d been out of the office by the time I changed out of my patrol uniform.
They’d left no information or instructions when I showed up at their office for our appointment. Basically, they wasted my damn time. Two days of training were spent answering phones.
Finally, though, we were face-to-face. “What do you need me to do?” Might as well get this part out in the open up front.
Agent Marshall didn’t say much, but I had a feeling his dark eyes missed nothing. He let Agent Beck take the lead, so I listened carefully and kept my mouth shut.
“I already know about your connection to the Reckless Bastards, Ellison, and I don’t really care about that unless I have a reason to. Do I have a reason to give a damn?”
I blinked at Agent Beck’s harsh words and shook my head. “No, ma’am.”
“Good. If you have any leads, experience, or connections that’ll help us figure out who murdered the vics, use it to help. Otherwise, it’s totally irrelevant to me.”
Her words should have brought me comfort, but they didn’t because they didn’t quite ring true. Her words sounded like something she’d rehearsed to put me at ease.
“Got it.”
“I’ll go check out Mueller’s home and his office at the church and connect with you two later.” Marshall shook my hand, gave a short nod, and then left.
“Don’t mind Marshall. He’s all about the grunt work, doesn’t give a shit about the glory of the collar. He’s a good lawman, and more importantly, he’s trustworthy.”
Beck’s big blue eyes looked at me closely, as if she were studying me, and her pink lips pulled into a phony smile I was happy to return while I tried to figure her out.
“Good to know.”
“Ready to look at the crime scene?” This time her smile was genuine and so was mine.
“Hell, yeah. I mean, yes, ma’am.”
Beck groaned and rolled her eyes as she slid behind the wheel of the dark gray sedan with the government license plates. “Don’t ma’am me, and we’ll get along just fine.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Music to my ears,” she said with a playful sigh. This woman was all over the place, an implacable hard ass one moment and a playful flirt the next. I’d have to tread carefully with her; I could feel it already.
“Your academy scores are impressive as hell, Ellison. Top marks in shooting and crime scene psychology, and top of the class in interrogation techniques.” She whistled and shook her head. “Damn impressive.”
“Thank you.” I was surprised she’d taken the time to look up my academy record, and I decided to give Agent Beck the benefit of the doubt, until she gave me a reason to doubt her. “Is the crime scene still intact?”
Beck nodded. “The bodies are gone for autopsy, of course, but everything else is still as it was. The hotel is throwing a shit fit, as businesses tend to do, but when the federal government is involved, they bitch a lot quieter about the impact to their business.”
She rolled her eyes and abruptly parked on a slant before jumping out. It seemed this woman didn’t do anything slowly. “Besides, who wants to rent a room after a double murder?”
“Good point.”
We skipped the elevator in the hotel and took the stairs to the seventh floor because Beck was certain the shooter took the route with the fewest cameras. “The lobby is covered with CC recorders from just about every angle and so are the elevators. Even the halls just outside the elevator have cameras, see?” She pointed them out when we arrived on the seventh floor.
“Take the stairs and you can bypass them all.”
I nodded and took in the impressive surveillance. “But there was no reason for the killer to assume the stair exit wasn’t right beside the elevator like it normally is. Right?”
“Excellent point,” she said and flashed a smile. “The room is down this way.”
We stepped inside the room and the stench of stale blood, gunpowder, and death permeated the air.
“What are you thinking, Agent Beck? Was the killer here when Mueller and Bonnie arrived or were they let inside?” The door wasn’t kicked in and showed no signs of forced entry, so what were the options? How’d they get in?
Beck took in the room and sighed. “If they were ambushed, it would be…I don’t know…neater.”
