Sympathy For The Devil Read Free Page B

her back to her troubled youth when she had many problems with authority figures. Sheriffs, nuns—they were all the same to her: trouble.
    Plus Perry didn’t like Malone and that had trickled down to her. He gestured away from the creek. “Get the hell off my crime scene.”
    Her brows rose. “Crime scene?”
    His face reddened. “Out!”
    “Who was killed?”
    “Whitaker!”
    “C’mon, Perry—”
    He crowded her space, urging her away from the creek, though she tried to look past him. She glimpsed plastic, the coroner saying something to another officer, then her view was cut off.
    When she was a sufficient distance from the apparent crime scene, Perry gave her another long look, then turned away.
    No way could she sneak up on him. Not on this side. But the place was teaming with cops and at least a couple liked her. She just had to find them.
    She picked her way around the tape, listening for something she could piece together but no one was talking.
    Near the ambulance, she recognized a familiar round face with dark eyes and hair pulled tightly back. Officer Keisha Bryan was a cousin on Tash’s dad’s side and just a few years older than Natasha herself. Keisha liked her, she’d talk. Maybe not at the scene, not yet, but at some point, and Tash could lay the groundwork now.
    She sidled up to the ambulance, skipping around the back and out of view of the other officers talking. She peered around the side. “Keish!”
    Keisha met her eyes and shook her head, stealing a glance around her before slipping around to the back of the ambulance. “What the hell?”
    “I promise I will leave the crime scene, just tell me what’s going on.”
    Her cousin sighed, like she knew there was no point in arguing. She kept her voice low. “A body.”
    “I guessed that with the coroner—whose?”
    Keisha shrugged. “Don’t know yet. No one recognizes her, but the body’s pretty badly damaged.”
    Tash shuddered at the thought. “Damaged?”
    “Maybe a combination of being beaten and then tossed around by the water. We’re not sure. Definitely murder.” She hesitated as if she was about to say more and thought the better of it.
    Natasha, of course, both noticed and pounced. “What? What aren’t you telling me?”
    The officer groaned. She leaned close, her voice hovering at a whisper. “They said this looks...familiar.”
    Tash’s eyes widened. Familiar crime scene? Here, in Stirling Falls? “What else?”
    Keisha visibly backed off, lifting her chin and straightening her spine. “That’s it. Nothing more I’d tell you anyway.”
    She had her own cases and clients to worry about, but Tash was itching to find out what was going on.
    “If you don’t mind,” her cousin continued, “I have work to—”
    A man stepped around the ambulance and Tash was ready to launch into an explanation for Perry but it was only Officer McKay.
    Leo grinned, a big rugged sort of guy who had half the girls in town giggling over him. Blond hair contrasting with dark eyes, there were worse partners her cousin could’ve had. Not that there was anything going on between Keish and Leo—Natasha pegged them both too shy for it—but he was at least easy on the eyes for her cousin.
    “You shouldn’t be here,” Leo warned in a mock-stern voice.
    “My morning jog—I innocently stumbled across the scene. I promise.”
    “Oh please.” Keish rolled her eyes. “You probably had the police scanner on.”
    Though she owned one, it was rarely on—nothing was so disappointing in a small town than that police scanner. Right when she thought something was about to go down, it turned out to be someone’s cow got out or Old Mrs. Miller’s keys fell down a well.
    Keisha patted Leo’s shoulder as she started back around the ambulance. “She’s not allowed to know anything . Perry’ll have your ass, you know.”
    Officer McKay waved her off. He had a notepad in his other hand, which Natasha angled herself so she might