Page 25 of Sinful Promise
“No one heard tires screeching,” Fletch inserts, now that Seraphina has left and his brain is back in charge. “We canvassed every home in a half-mile radius. No one heard a damn thing.”
“Which makes us wonder if the driver didn’t even bother slowing.”
“But that makes the driver either incredibly dim,” Aubree mumbles. “Or intent on running him down. Like, on purpose.”
“Wouldn’t be the first to do such a thing,” I point out. “This wasn’t a small bump in the road the driver might’ve passed off as hitting a cat. I have no doubt that Patterson rolled up onto the hood and destroyed half of the car that hit him.”
“So the second option,” Minka concludes. “Straight murder?”
“In broad daylight?” Aubree balks. “No way.”
“It’s brazen.” I turn in my seat and meet the other medical examiner’s inquisitive eyes. “But it’s been done before. And considering how little we’ve gleaned, it’s been a pretty successful crime up to this point. We’re talking about a residential road, Aubs. People live nearby. This is a mid-morning hit-and-run, and yet, no one was around to see it.”
“Which implies the driver lives nearby, or frequents that street,” Minka accepts. “If you’re leaning toward this being intentional, then the driver was extremely calculated in their actions. They knew where Patterson would be, at what time, and they knew exactly where to make contact so no houses would be close enough to capture street footage. This wasn’t a heat of the moment thing.”
“So now we look into Jason and Whitney’s lives,” I finish. “His wedding ring was off. So was he cheating? Did the wife find out?”
“Oh!” Aubree’s excited tone makes it sound like we’re playing a game of Clue. “What if Whitney found out he was diddling someone else, so she took the kids to school, wished them a happy day, then headed home and massacred her man?”
“It’s possible.” Fletch sits back on the couch, legs wide, and studies the ceiling. “We’ll know soon enough, when we go over to the house and check out her car. We can pull it in and have techs run it through testing.”
“Plus, there’ll be a smashed windshield,” Aubree adds, grinning. “This’ll be an easy case, huh? A good one to start back at work with.”
“Did I just blurt all my shit out to Sera?” Fletch looks around, somewhat bewildered. “That was just my imagination running away, right?”
“Yeah,” Aubs says uneasily. Then, “No. It actually happened.”
He drops his head back so it hits the cushion with a thump. “Fuck.”
“It was kinda cute, though,” she assures him in a rush. “You’ve been a mess from the moment you heard Jada was coming home. And you have a crush on the stuck-up Fifi, and for the first time in your life, you have no clue what to do about it. So you just…” She flicks her hands. “Threw it at her like confetti.”
“Not ideal.” He covers his eyes and groans. “She thinks I’m an idiot.”
“She’salwaysthought you were an idiot,” Minka scoffs, though she ends it with a smirk. “Today’s outburst changed nothing.”
“You’re an ass.” But he lowers his hands and uses them to push up to stand. “I need to get out of this fucking building before I act a fool.More,” he adds, when Aubree opens her mouth to speak. “More of a fool. Arch?”
I look to Minka in question.
“I have nothing to add to your investigation at this point. First pass of the victim shows us a fractured pelvis, left side. Fibula. Femur. Clavicle. Still on the left. Sternum. Cranium. And several vertebrae.”
“Jesus,” I murmur. “Cleaned him up good.”
“Ribs,” she continues. “Jaw, cheek, left eye socket. Nose. Several of his teeth have been dislodged, though we’re waiting for dental records to come back. It seems we’re missing three.”
“You’remissingteeth?” Fletch gapes. “Like, they’re just not there?”
“Probably flung into the garden area surrounding the sidewalk,” she replies, unconcerned. “We have techs on site still sifting for them. Our victim is in the fridge on the second floor, and my initial autopsy is complete. Jason Patterson was an otherwise healthy, non-smoking, minimal to nil alcohol-consuming, clean-eating male, who met his end today via blunt force trauma. Initial testing indicates steak and vegetables for dinner last night, and high fiber, high protein cereal with lactose-free milk this morning. He had coffee before that, and prior to death, had not emptied his bowels.”
“Really?” Fletch quirks his brows in surprise. “He had coffee anddidn’ttake a shit right after? How can he n—”
“Not really our business.” Forcing herself to smile, Minka stands from her chair and clasps her fingers together. “If that’s all, Detectives, I have work to do, and don’t feel like discussing your toilet habits.”
Fletch only rolls his eyes in response. “You shouldn’t be this cranky after just getting back from vacation, Delicious. It’s unladylike.”
“It was a funeral,” she drawls. “And the worst family reunion in the history of them all. I’m more tired now than I was before I left. But sure.” She comes around her desk and perches her ass on the edge so her feet stop between mine. “Tell me how unladylike I am. And you,” she brings her eyes across to mine. “Your brother’s been calling all morning. Is your phone broken?”
“What?” I dig my hand into my pocket and take out my cell to check the screen.Blank. “Which brother? No one’s called me.”
