Six Killer Bodies Read Free Page A

Coop asked with a laugh, his words
    running together. “Tel your sister I’m sorry I embarrassed
    her at work.”
    Wes frowned. Coop was wild for Carlotta, just like Peter
    Ashford, and Jack Terry were—poor saps. “I wil .” When a
    dial tone sounded in his ear, Wesley slowly disconnected
    the call. He shook his head to clear it, trying to process
    what Coop had just told him. The police suspected Coop of
    kil ing al those women? Wesley tried the idea on for size,
    his mind wandering back over all the crime scenes on
    which he’d been a body mover. No, he couldn’t believe it.
    Coop would never do something so gruesome. He’d never
    hurt anybody, much less a woman.
    So why would the police arrest Coop if they didn’t have
    evidence of his guilt?
    He turned on the broken television and tuned into CNN
    Headline News. Sure enough, a “Breaking News” banner
    scrol ed across the screen that a suspect in The Charmed
    Kil er case had been taken into custody. He watched,
    incredulous, at the footage of a handcuffed Coop being led
    to a police car. His head was down and the one time he
    looked at the camera, Coop looked unfocused and
    disheveled.
    Wes punched in Liz’s number and paced in an attempt to
    walk off some of his buzz, just to cut through the Oxy fog.
    After a few rings, Liz answered.
    “Hel o?”
    Like Pavlov’s dog, his dick jumped. Liz was a great lay. “Liz,
    it’s Wes.”
    “Hi,” she said, sounding surprised. “I didn’t expect to hear
    from you.”
    “Are you back in town?”
    “I’m driving back now. I’d like to see you.”
    Inexplicably, the face of Meg Vincent popped into his
    mind, probably because he’d inadvertently shouted his
    cock-tease coworker’s name the last time he’d bal ed
    Liz…not that Liz had minded. “Uh, sure. Actually, though,
    I’m calling for a friend of mine.”
    “Oh?”
    “Do you remember Cooper Craft?”
    “The body mover who used to be Coroner?”
    “Yeah. He was just arrested and he needs an attorney. He
    called me and asked about you.”
    “I don’t handle DUI’s, Wes.”
    “Do you handle murder?”
    “Murder?”
    “This is nuts, but apparently, they think Coop’s The
    Charmed Kil er.”
    Liz was silent for two heartbeats. “When did this happen?”
    “Within the hour, I think.”
    “Bye, Wes. I’l be in touch.”
    He ended the call and continued watching the news, losing
    count of the number of times Coop’s name was
    mentioned. Poor Coop. And Carlotta must be going out of
    her mind. He picked up the phone and pul ed up her
    number, wondering if he should hold off tel ing her about
    the bug he’d found.
    As he listened to her phone ring, Wes wiped sweat from
    his forehead with his sleeve. It would be nice if the Wrens
    could winnow things down to just one crisis at a time.

    3
    “I always had a bad feeling about Craft,” Peter said.
    Carlotta looked up at her first love and former fiancé in
    dismay. When fugitive Michael Lane had broken into their
    townhouse and had been living in their parents’ room
    unbeknownst to her and Wesley, Carlotta had grateful y
    accepted Peter’s invitation to stay in one of his spare
    bedrooms while the police processed the town home as a
    crime scene and Wesley installed a security system. But
    after only a week and a half, she was starting to rethink
    her living arrangements. Peter would be happy, she
    realized, if she gave up her friends, and forgot all about
    the life and the relationships she’d built after he’d dumped
    her.
    “Peter, Coop isn’t The Charmed Kil er. He wouldn’t hurt
    anyone.”
    “Not if he was in his right mind,” Peter said gently. “But
    people change under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
    Even nice people can do terrible things. The police must
    have evidence or they wouldn’t have arrested him.”
    “They arrested you for Angela’s murder, and you were
    innocent,” she reminded him.
    “The police had a reason to arrest me—I confessed,
    remember?”
    She