Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
“No one mentioned this in the reports. None of the girls said they’d seen you run out with a baton.”
“Well, none of them liked or trusted cops.”
Jardin nodded. “That’s good unless the FBI have questioned them again and gotten them to change their testimony.”
“Right,” she whispered.
“What happened when you reached the room?”
“Everything had gone quiet and I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign. The door was locked, but we all knew the code. I punched it in. When I went in, he was over her, he was . . . in her and she was crying and pushing at him to get off. And I just lost it, I rushed up and I hit him in the back of the head with the baton. He fell unconscious and I pushed him off her.”
“What did your mom do?”
“She ran.”
He blinked. “She just left you?”
“Why would she stay around? Oh, wait. No. She took his wallet and then she ran. My bet is she took all the cash and dumped it.”
“Yes, the wallet was found in the back alley. The cops believed that someone lured Mark into the club, had sex with him, then hit him over the head and stole his wallet.”
“And they think that person is me,” she said. “They got it half right.”
Jardin tapped his fingers on the desk, thinking. “You were defending your mother. Would your mom back up your story?”
“Hard to do when you’re dead,” she said. “Stefan told me that he got her into rehab, but that she snuck out and died of an overdose about six months later. I don’t know if that’s true. However, he did have photos of her body.” Photos he’d almost delighted in showing her.
“What happened to the baton?” he asked.
“Stefan took it. I don’t know.” Her head was starting to thump. God, she hoped this wasn’t the start of a migraine.
“Were there cameras in the club?” he asked.
“Yes, but they didn’t record and most of the time, the person who was meant to be monitoring them was getting a blow job instead.”
“So what did you touch? The keypad on the door? Which is something you’d touched before.”
“Yeah, when I was delivering drinks to that room,” she said.
“Which would also explain why your hair was in the room. Hair is tricky to clean up and some of it got on the bastard’s clothes when he fell to the floor. They’ll try to say you had sex with him, but your DNA won’t be a true match to what was found on his body.”
“It will be Mom’s,” she said.
“Right.”
“What does this mean?” she asked.
“That their case against you is pretty weak without a witness, a weapon, and a good motive. Your DNA wasn’t found on the wallet.”
“But don’t I look guilty? I left that night and never went back.”
“A criminal forced you to become his girlfriend. Changed your identity because he kidnapped you. Makes you a victim.”
“I hate being the victim.”
“Don’t worry, Opal. You don’t have to be the victim for much longer,” he promised.
“I still killed him.” Shouldn’t she pay for that?
But he was a rapist.
“Or Stefan did,” he suggested. “Or whoever came in to clean up killed him.”
“You . . . you think Stefan did that?”
“It took care of the problem, so yeah, my guess is if he didn’t die of his head injuries, Stefan had him killed. There’s also another reason he might have killed him and it’s the reason why the FBI are so interested in this case. Do you know who he was?”
“He was a prick that none of the girls wanted to be in a room with. I mean, he’d only been around a couple of months, but he’d left a lot of the girls bruised and bleeding after his visits.”
“Well, the reason the FBI got involved with his death is because of who his father is.”
“Who is his father?” she asked.
“Grey Lindon. He’s a justice for the Supreme Court of Texas. He’s also married to the cousin of the President of the United States.”
“Oh hell. I’m in huge trouble, aren’t I?” She was going to be ill.
“Not if we give them someone else to go after. Did Stefan come and get you himself?” he asked.
“Y-yes. I stayed in that room with . . . with Marcus or Mark until Stefan arrived with a couple of his goons. But how are we going to lead them to Stefan? He’s dead. His guys are gone. There won’t be any footage.”
“We need a witness who saw him. Be good if we had the weapon with his prints on it but that’s not going to happen. I need to check the autopsy report. See if it was the blow to his head that killed him. Let me do that first. Just, hang tight, all right? I know this is scary, but I have your back.”