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Jessica’s eyebrows raised to her hairline.“Oh, what are you going to do?”
“I’ll go.” She was a businesswoman after all.“But if he thinks he can keep manipulating me, he has another thing coming.” Simon Valentine didn’t know her very well if he thought she would just obey his every wish.
“Well, since he left, should I tell your morning appointment to come back?”
“Yes, I’m done rearranging my schedule for people like him.” She hadn’t been lying when she’d said she didn’t appreciate his high-handedness.Luring her in with a business deal and then leaving…she’d show him.
Chapter 7
“Well, that’s a problem,” someone said behind Jameson, stating the obvious as he stared down at the dead body of Lawry.The man was lying on his cell bed and had a blanket pulled up to his neck to appear sleeping.However, the man was far from sleeping.
The lead investigator was still working on a cause of death, but so far it looked like a heart attack.Jameson wasn’t buying it.There were some contusions on his face showing signs he’d been beaten before death.The time was estimated to be between midnight and three AM.The blanket had been meant to conceal it until morning when the guard change was assigned to bring a meal.
Lawry was only supposed to be in a holding cell for the night, and Jameson was going to transport him to a more secure area this morning.
The holding cell area wasn’t large.There was a main gate that was controlled from the guard station.The holding cell had three individual cells that were monitored from the control room as well.
The guards had informed him this morning that his one and only witness for his case was murdered in his precinct.
“What are you going to do now?”
What could he do?“What I always do.Solve the case.For now, I’d like to keep this under wraps.The last thing we need is it leaking to the press that we are having witnesses murdered in our building.Some people already have it out for cops.We don’t need to add fuel to their fire.”
“Poor Lucy,” Detective Cameron Marks said.He was a head shorter than Jameson but just as lean.They worked in the same department, and Jameson had done some consulting with him, but they’d never worked a case together.Jameson didn’t even know why he was in the holding cell.This was Jameson’s witness.
Marks was referring to Lawry’s estranged wife.They may have separated a few years ago, but they still cared about each other.She’d been overwrought when she discovered Lawry had betrayed his badge and murdered someone with the intent to kill again.It didn’t matter he had done it because he had fallen under a powerful person.He had still committed the crime.
“What do you think will be worse?Knowing she had been married to a murderer or a murdered man?” Marks chuckled.
Jameson whirled around on him, not seeing the humor.“Regardless of what he had done, he was still a person and once loyal to this precinct.I suggest you have some respect.”
That sobered up Marks.Good.Jameson may not approve of Lawry betraying the department, but he was still a person who had just died and should be shown a little respect.
Jameson looked around the room, noting others who didn’t need to be down here gawking and whispering about the man.“I see many of you have no business being down here.Report back to your stations, or perhaps I should put you on mop-up duty once the crime scene investigative team is done.”
Many of the men ducked their heads and scurried out with their tails between their legs.Those who were working the scene remained along with Marks.
“Ease up a little, Jameson.”
“A witness was murdered in one of our jail cells, and everyone so far seems clueless as to how or when, and you want me to ease up?”
Marks had the good grace to stay silent and leave, muttering another apology under his breath as he left.An apology wasn’t going to bring back his witness or help him solve this case.
“Where’s the night guard who was supposed to be watching this cell?” Jameson addressed the deputy standing near him.
“He’s on his way in.He was at home,” the deputy informed him.
“Send him to me when he gets here.I’ll do his questioning.” He headed into the control room where the morning guard was being questioned.“I need to see the security footage since Lawry was brought in until he was discovered.”
The guard turned from the interviewer and pulled up the security footage.Jameson watched it.It was sped up so he didn’t have to watch hours for footage frame by frame, but it was still slow enough that he could see when someone came in and murdered him.
He didn’t see anything that stood out.Lawry paced his cell for a while, sat on the floor next to his bed with his knees up to his chest, and in the next frame he was lying in the bed with the blanket pulled up.Exactly how he was found this morning.“Freeze it.What time is this?”
“One-thirteen AM.”
“That’s the time of death.Or just before.”
“How can you be sure?”
