Dead Woman Crossing by J.R. Adler (books on motivation .txt) 📗

while she slid on a pair of gloves. She heard footsteps upstairs as more officers arrived on scene. Stopping just in front of the woman, Kimberley slowly slid the bag from her head. Time froze. The bag floated to the ground as her fingers must have let loose. Kimberley began slowly falling away from the body, but she could feel no weight, like an object just being pushed away in space, two magnets with the same polarity. Her face caved in on itself, all of the muscles contracting as her heart beat at triple its speed and the pit of her stomach began doing backflips. Tears streamed down her face in a torrent. She must have finally made contact with the ground because she was now sitting and threw her head back as she wailed. Bile burned her throat and she vomited onto the dirt floor, screaming and crying, eruptions of emotion coming out in all forms.

Kimberley was pulled off the case after Detective Lynn Hunter was murdered. She didn’t know if that made it worse. Eddie Russo wasn’t the serial killer. He had solid alibis for three of the four murders. As he was on parole, his parole officer had verified his whereabouts. There weren’t any murders after that. He went inactive, as many serial killers do, as if taking lives was their job and they needed time off. Kimberley knew she would live with it for the rest of her life, losing her partner, her mentor, her best friend, and she would always blame herself for not protecting Lynn and her unborn child, Jesse.

32

“Hey, Barb,” Kimberley greeted, carrying in three cups of coffee in a carry tray and a bag that contained a large chocolate muffin.

She walked to the desk, setting down the brown paper bag and a cup of coffee. “I figured I’d bring you the coffee and baked good today,” Kimberley said with a smile.

Barb’s face lit up. “Oh my. You didn’t have to do that.”

She opened the bag, pulling out the oversized chocolate muffin. “No one’s ever brought me coffee or treats.” Her eyes moistened. “Oh, I hope you got something for Sam. It might make him a little less angry with you.”

“So, he’s heard?” Kimberley tilted her head.

“Everyone has. I don’t blame you. If I had the strength, I would have done the same,” Barb said.

“Thanks for the heads up.”

“Oh, wait!” She bent down beside her desk, pulling a butter knife out from a drawer. She sliced the muffin in half and wrapped part of it back up, putting it in the bag. “This will help.” She smiled. “Sam has a sweet tooth and chocolate will sweeten him up for you.”

Kimberley took the bag from Barbara, thanking her again. She walked through the set of double doors into the belly of the sheriff’s station.

“Hey, slugger,” Deputy Hill said with a smirk, shuffling papers at his desk.

Bearfield emerged from the break room, pretending to box with his hands. “Heard you been out there rolling with the punches.”

“Ha-ha,” Kimberley said sarcastically, walking past them.

“You got quite the punch. Heard you broke his nose,” Hill said.

“He’s lucky that’s all I did,” Kimberley called out over her shoulder as she made her way into Sam’s office.

He was sitting at his desk, squeezing a stress ball. It looked new, like he had purchased it solely on Kimberley’s behalf. His lips were pressed firmly together, and his gaze was locked forward, like a laser.

“Hey, Sheriff,” Kimberley said nonchalantly. “I gotcha a coffee and a chocolate muffin.” She sat the cup and the bag in front of him, tossing the carrying tray in the garbage can, and taking a sip from her own coffee.

“Don’t fucking ‘Hey, Sheriff’ me. Sit down,” Sam said without looking at her.

Kimberley sat down, her eyes meeting his. “What’s up?”

“You know what’s up. Kent filed a complaint with me that you assaulted his son. Is that true?” He leaned forward in his chair, taking a sip of the coffee. His eyes glanced at the paper bag, like he wanted to pull out the muffin and eat it but had to get his reprimand over with first. Barbara was right about his sweet tooth.

“Yes, it’s true. I lost my temper.”

Sam let out a sigh. “I don’t know what you got away with in the city, but this can’t fly around here. It’s a small town. People talk, and it’s not a good look for any of us.”

“I know. I’m sorry for that, but I’m not sorry I did it.” Kimberley crossed one leg over the other.

“Look, I know the Kents are creeps, and what they’re doing right now is awful. Between you and me, I would have had a hard time not clocking the guy too, but that doesn’t make it right.”

Sam glanced at the paper bag again.

“I should suspend you. Kent wanted to press charges, but I was able to sway him not to.”

Kimberley nodded.

“Just don’t let it happen again.”

“I’ll try not to.”

Sam squeezed his stress ball harder and shook his head. He glanced at the paper bag again.

“Just eat the muffin,” Kimberley teased.

Sam opened the bag, pulling out half a muffin.

“Where’s the other half?” he asked, setting it down on a napkin.

“Barb has it.”

Sam ripped off a piece and shoved it in his mouth, his face instantly brightening from the sweet, chocolatiness. “She told you I had a sweet tooth, didn’t she?”

“Yep.”

“And she told you I was mad, and this would help, didn’t she?”

“Yep again. So, is my reprimand over?”

Sam placed another piece in his mouth. “For now… Now, what you got for me? Were you able to interview all the people you discussed yesterday?”

Kimberley pulled her notepad from her front pocket, flipping through several pages. “Michelle from the pharmacy said she witnessed Hannah purchase boxes of condoms several times and a Plan B pill a couple weeks before her murder.”

Sam leaned back in his chair, nodding.

“Lisa agreed to submit Isobel to a paternity test, which will happen today. Tyler’s sample was overnighted, and I fast-tracked