Page 6 of Justice for Daesha

“And choked her. She fought them until her nails were torn off. It was horrible.”

“So they broke in and?”

“No, no.” Amos stared at her. “They didn’t break in. It was somebody she knew. The alarm system was turned off. Sheletthem in.”

Amos sat there for a minute, stunned. “So somebody she knew did this?”

“Yes.”

“I know I said it before, but wow.” He thought for a minute. “Was she a person who had a lot of problems with people?”

Daesha shook her head. “Not Dorinda. Everybody loved her.”

“Wait.” Something wormed its way through Amos’s brain. “DorindaWilkerson Blackmon?”

“Yep. She was my sister.”

Amos remembered that case. It had made headlines for weeks, but he’d thought surely by now they’d arrested someone. It had been fourteen years! “I bet you were in middle school then.”

Daesha snorted. “Not hardly! I was in college.”

Amos’s eyes narrowed. “How old are you?”

“Haven’t you ever heard it’s not polite to ask a lady her age?” When Amos sent a snort back, she laughed. “I’m thirty-four.”

“So you?”

“I told you how old I am. Aren’t you going to tell me how oldyouare?”

All Amos could do was chuckle. “I’m thirty-eight. Jack’s your age.”

“Ah! Yeah, I was twenty when it happened, and she was twenty-seven.”

“But didn’t they arrest her ex-husband?”

“Yeah, but that didn’t stick.” Daesha sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “He had this girlfriend, and she tried to hire a guy to kill Dorinda, but all the guy wanted to do was extort money from Max. So they arrested Max and the girlfriend, BonnieWeatherford, for conspiracy to commit murder, and the guy, RonCotler, for extortion, but they wound up letting Max and Bonnie out. They were both real pieces of work, and that Cotler guy was just a plain old criminal. I don’t know how Bonnie found him. Probably an ad in the newspaper or something. Talk about dumb?that woman is a cranial tragedy.”

Amos laughed. That was an expression he’d never heard before. “Then if it wasn’t Max, Bonnie, or the Cotler guy, who do you think killed her?”

She leaned in, her forearms on the table, and tented her fingers. “Okay, think about it. She was young, but still an adult. In good health. About my size, so no itty-bitty girl. But they were strong enough to kill her, even though she fought them.”

Amos nodded. “A man.”

“But why?”

He shrugged. “Was she seeing anybody?”

“Aha. There’s the question. I haven’t found anybody who knew who she was seeing, but I know she was seeing somebody. At least three people had seen her with a man, but not in town.”

“Where?”

“Louisville.”

What was she getting at? “So you think she was seeing somebody who lived in Louisville?”

“Not necessarily. I think she was seeing somebody who possibly worked in Louisville. And if I had to bet, I’d say he was married.”

“And you think she didn’t want the relationship to be a secret anymore, so?”

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