Page 26 of Unhallowed Murder
“I see that.” His look clearly told her he had more to say, but would wait until the cameras weren’t recording to do so. He looked down. “Sir? Mr. Griffin? Deputy Myers and I are going to help you stand.”
Myers had stepped in when the commotion started, and Ronnie turned away while they helped Griffin up. A few deep breaths and she had her adrenaline response under control. When she turned back to them, they had him standing, and his gaze slammed into hers.
Didn’t matter, he was her prisoner now — he’d just given her a reason for his initial arrest.
“Micah Griffin, you’re under arrest for assaulting a police officer. You have the right to remain silent…”
Chapter Fourteen
Ronnie called the prosecutor on the way back to the station to see if she had enough for a warrant to search his house.
“What are we looking for?”
“The murder weapon, or anything else that might prove he killed his girlfriend.”
She laughed. “Tell your men to get with Corey and get me a better list, and I’ll see what I can do. Assaulting an officer when told you wanted to question himmightbe enough, but…” She blew out a breath. “You already know I can’t get one because your gut says he did it.” A pause. “It’s enough to get my attention, though. Why is it always the husband or boyfriend? It’s enough to make a girl stay single.”
Ronnie could’ve stepped into the bathroom, managed a partialchange, and fixed her face, but she needed her jaw and cheek to flower into a full bruise. She popped a few aspirin to help move things along, because her shapeshifter genes would make her heal faster even if she didn’tchange.
When she walked into her murder room, her men had her little scuffle with Griffin playing on a continuous loop. She rolled her eyes and made a beeline for her office, butEye of the Tigerstarted playing, and she couldn’t help but smile. “Get back to work! Henderson, Myers, Corey — in my office!”
“He played football and baseball in high school,” Corey told her when he walked in. “Worked a number of odd jobs before taking the exam to work for the federal government at twenty-one. He went to work for the post office, sorting. He was married six months later, divorced three years later with one child, and his wife pregnant with another. Griffin roughed her up at six months pregnant, put her in the hospital. She filed for divorce before she was even released from the hospital, along with a request for a restraining order, which was dropped before it made it in front of a judge.”
“How does he have a carry license with domestic violence charges?”
“Nothing stuck.”
“Where does the ex-wife work?”
“She’s remarried. Works for her husband. He’s an artist and she’s his manager.”
Ronnie blew out a breath. She might learn something from the ex-wife, but probably nothing immediately useful, and Ronnie needed to get to this guy before he came to his senses and lawyered up.
“Okay, so he has supervised visitation for his own kids, but he’s in charge of other people’s kids at church. Did he ever marry again?”
“No. Looking through social media, he’s only been at this church two years, and he left his last church because it wasno longer a good fit.”
Ronnie immediately knew she needed to talk to that pastor to find out what’d gone wrong. Corey read her face and set a piece of paper down with the name of the church, the name of the pastor, and a phone number.
It took a few minutes to get him on the phone, and Ronnie dove straight in. “Pastor Davis. I’m Lieutenant Woods with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, and I’d like to ask you some questions about Mick Griffin. I won’t take up much of your time, and I hate to do this over the phone, but I just need a quick rundown of why he left your church and started going to another, please.”
“I don’t like to speak badly of any of God’s children.”
“I understand, sir, but I’m trying to establish a pattern, so even if you just hit the high spots, it will help me immensely.”
“When we reorganized our youth division, we had too many Sunday school teachers, and so he was no longer needed. Also, our new youth director became assistantcoach to a retired schoolteacher who’d coached for a local high school, so we didn’t need Mick’s help there, either.”
Ronnie read between the lines. They’d had problems and needed to get him away from the kids, but the preacher wasn’t going to put the church in legal jeopardy by admitting a teacher or coach may have gotten rough with some kids. That was okay for the time being. It gave her a starting point.
“Okay, Pastor. I may need to talk to you in person and hear more details than you’re willing to give right now, but you’ve confirmed a suspicion. One more thing, if you can tell me when he joined your church, and which church he’d come from?”
“I can do that. Give me just a minute.”
He must’ve put her on hold, because she heard nothing for a moment, and then a woman picked up and gave her the dates and previous church. Ronnie wrote them down, did the math in her head, and realized he’d only been at that church a year and a half.
“There’s something else, Ma’am.”
The woman sounded hesitant, and she spoke softly. Ronnie’s hackles went up, but she merely said, “Yes? What else?”
