Justifiable Read Free

had set up camp.
    Wondering about that little boy they’d never found kept Riley awake at night.
    Always the boy. 
    Amazing how one decision could go so hideously wrong.
    Can’t go back and change the past when it’s written in blood. Just get through another day . Right now he had thirteen minutes to make downtown and drop an oh-shit bomb on the DA.  Get the story. Let others worry about justice.
    Nobody else cares about a dead welfare mother. Why should I?
    Because he still felt an ember of passion for helping the victims of crimes. But for the first time in his life, getting involved scared the hell out of him. Someone else would have to champion the pitiful woman found dead in a ragged brown coat. 
    He would not survive another Detroit. 
    Biddy wheeled off the interstate and zigzagged along surface streets.
    Riley let go of his mental wandering to grab the passenger door handle and brace himself. “Can we make the press conference on time and in one piece?”
    Biddy ignored the jab, maneuvering the van’s steering like a NASCAR driver on holiday. “How come that new DA bitch calls a news conference at nine anyhow? She knows we all covered the killing last night and halfway into breakfast. What’s the damn rush?” 
    “What? You think she cares if you get another hour to snuggle your wife?” 
    “Sore topic,” Biddy grumbled. “One more weekend working and I’ll be snuggling a six pack on the couch.”
    Riley had no advice to offer. He didn’t have baggage. Not after divorcing a woman who had thought her wedding vows were optional. Add that to becoming a social pariah three months back, and demand on his personal time had fallen off significantly.
    His new motto had been an old saying years ago – a rolling stone gathers no moss. Damned lonesome existence, but one where he wouldn’t get his balls nailed to the wall by a divorce attorney’s Mont Blanc pen.
    Biddy slid around the last corner, catching the curb with his rear tires and jarring Riley’s teeth. He slammed their “Nuz You Can Uze” van into the press parking lot at the courthouse with ninety seconds to spare.
    There wasn’t a parking space to be had.
    Undeterred, Biddy jumped the curb and parked on the sidewalk. He slapped his NEWS CREW AT WORK sign on the dashboard and piled out of the van.
    The rear doors squealed open and slammed shut as Riley reached the back bumper.
    Biddy chortled. “Hope they take the two grand out of Lehman’s yearly bonus.” 
    “Two grand?” 
    “Annual parking fines.”  Biddy stumbled and almost dropped the camera and a bundle of equipment he juggled.
    Riley grabbed the tripod.
    Biddy’s lurid curses should have melted the snow banked around the sidewalk. “All this just to hear the DA’s latest dribble about Philly’s tourism image.”  He turned a hard glance loaded with challenge at Riley, impatience loaded with a hair trigger holding it back. “You got a plan?”
    Not one that would make Biddy happy. “I’m giving Van Gogh one chance to tell me why that body was placed on the judge’s front lawn. I’m betting she’ll blow us off. That’s all I need to break the story I have in mind.”
    Had the murder been a message for the judge?
    Or someone else?
    Hell, he had a slew of questions everyone should be asking. Such as why the killer had placed the body with hands crossed as though posed for the morgue.
    And why the killer had called Riley instead of the police.

Chapter 3
     
    Riley set an urgent pace down the sidewalk to City Hall’s front door, careful not to lose his footing on the icy surface. If he did take a header, chances were Biddy would pause first to inspect the tripod he carried for damage then check Riley for a broken bone.
    Covering several quick steps, he reached the door first and waited for Biddy to knock the snow off his boots.
    His cameraman belonged to NABET and Riley was a member of AFTRA and both were broadcasting unions. No anchor had to carry equipment for his