Till Justice Is Served Read Free Page B

lies with the police. Exactly what did you tell the detective?"
    "Nothing," Erin said. "I called Jeff before I got to the station, and he said for me to wait for my attorney. That's all I said to Wade Beckett. He stuck me in an interrogation room to stare at the two-way mirror until you arrived."
    "Good. Let's get started. Penelope Holdstrom was found dead early this morning. Her mother discovered the body when the girl's alarm went off but continued to blare. She'd been stabbed multiple times. Crime scene investigators are analyzing blood spatter and searching for clues. My sources tell me something was printed on the wall of the girl's bedroom." Harold made a note on his pad.
    "What did it say?" Erin asked.
    "My source either didn't know or couldn't reveal that information."
    A look of defeat slid across Erin's face. She dropped her head forward and cradled her face in her hands. Her fingers massaged her temples. If she was faking revulsion to such a heinous crime, Rafe was impressed as hell. When she lifted her head, the pain radiating from her eyes hit him in the gut.
    "I can't imagine the horror of walking in to wake your child and finding her murdered." The healthy glow of Erin's creamy complexion had vanished. If anything, she was pasty white. Death, sometimes bloody and gory as hell, had become the norm in Rafe's world, but not hers.
    "How could anybody believe I could do something like this?" Erin pulled the rubber thing from her ponytail and dropped it on the coffee table, allowing her hair to fall in waves well past her shoulders.
    All those waves tumbling and sliding across her neck sent a bolt of heat blazing through his veins. The image of his hands buried deep in those silky strands flashed through his mind. He started to speak, but his breath caught.
    "Everybody in this room is here to support you," Harold assured her.
    Rafe didn't comment for fear his voice might crack like a teenager's. Truth be told, he was leaning toward believing in her innocence. Experience had taught him never to assume. This last undercover operation busted a drug ring run by the sweetest-looking grandmother in Dade County. The sixty-five-year-old woman wouldn't have hesitated to slit anyone's throat if they had crossed her or her family. She and her son were currently sitting in a federal prison awaiting trial.
    "This murdered girl," Rafe asked. "When did you last have contact with her?"
    Erin turned to face him. Her eyes revealed nothing, but her mouth drew to a tight line. "Does that matter?"
    "It does to me. I'm going to look into your situation from the perspective that you're innocent."
    She turned toward Jeff, who'd folded his arms across his chest. "Erin, girl, Lotty and I love you. I'll call in the devil himself if I have to."
    Erin mumbled something that sounded like, "Looks like you already have."
    Rafe kept his mouth shut, opting to send her a smile.
    "I'm sorry," she added quickly. "I keep waiting to wake up and discover this was all just a nightmare."
    "No problem," Rafe said, feeling like a dick for not being a little more understanding. "Let's try this again. When did you last see the girl?"
    Erin's shoulders shuddered. "I hadn't seen or spoken to Penny since the day I laid that plastic bag of yellowish powder on Principal Mueller's desk."
    "Back up and tell me how the drug came into your possession," Rafe said.
    "Penny's grades had fallen drastically over the past semester. I'd called her to my office to talk about them. She became defensive and angrily grabbed her purse to leave. It slipped from her hand and hit the floor. The contents scattered. I knelt down to help her, and there next to my knee was the clear plastic bag. She shoved me, trying to get to it first."
    "But you beat her to it."
    "Yes. I tried to get her to talk to me. She denied knowing where it came from or how it got into her purse. She refused to say a word, so I escorted her to the principal's office." Erin paused and rubbed her temples again.
    Rafe