Читать книгу Cooper Vengeance - Paula Graves - Страница 12

“This is investigating?” Natalie’s voice sharpened with impatience. Her half profile was taut with irritation.

J.D. saw all the symptoms. She was where he’d been years ago, raw with fresh grief and driven to action to take his mind off the pain and the senselessness of it all.

But action wasn’t always the answer.

“Just wait.”

“Your Zen master act is annoying. And cryptic. Why don’t you just tell me why you wanted to come back here in the middle of the night?” She gazed at the darkened facade of Annabelle’s. The rising moon shed pale light over the building’s whitewashed clapboard siding, making it glow faintly in the dark. The dashboard clock read seven thirty-five, hardly the middle of the night.

“Your sister’s time of death was clocked somewhere between 7:00 p.m. and midnight, when you found her body.” He glanced at her. “What were you doing here at midnight?”

Her brow furrowed. “How do you know her time of death?” she countered suspiciously.

“My brother, the sheriff’s deputy, requested the report.” J.D. had called Aaron this morning after the meeting with Marlon Dyson ended fruitlessly. Aaron had called J.D. back with the details before he reached the motel.

He could see the moment his strategy dawned on her. “You’re trying to re-create the situation, aren’t you?”

He nodded. “Have you ever sat here since the murder to see what goes on out here this time of night?”

He saw dismay in her eyes, as if she realized the idea should have occurred to her without his help. “No. But I should have.”

“You’re a little distracted by your emotions.”

She bristled. “And you’re not?”

“Constantly,” he replied. “I’ve just had twelve years of practice keeping them in check.”

She settled back against the seat, looking ashamed for snapping at him. Silence wrapped around them like a cocoon until J.D. thought the tension would smother him. When he spoke, it sounded like a cannon going off, even though he kept his voice even and low. “Do you have someone to talk to—”

Before she could answer, a sharp crack of gunfire split the air outside the Lexus. J.D. flinched, dropping lower in the car for cover. On instinct, he reached out and dragged Natalie down with him.