Once Shunned by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blake Pierce
Published: 2019-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

*

Riley was sitting in a conference room with Bill, Jenn, and Special Agent Sturman, discussing the interrogation that had just taken place. Bruno Young’s public attorney had now arrived and was conferring with him privately back in the interrogation room.

Agent Sturman struck Riley as perhaps overly enthusiastic.

“I think we’ve got him,” Sturman said. “I think we’ve got our man.”

“Maybe,” Riley said

“What do you mean, maybe?” Sturman asked. “He threatened a junkie with an ice pick, and he tried to kill Agent Paige with it. Is it just a coincidence that he had an ice pick at all?”

Riley stifled a sigh. Was she going to have to explain to this seasoned agent that coincidences were a fact of life in investigative work?

She was relieved when Jenn spoke up.

“Not necessarily. Ice picks are coming back into style as weapons. Gang members are using them a lot these days. They like them because they’re scary. They make them feel like gangsters of the old days. Maybe Young was telling the truth—that he was just trying to scare that junkie.”

Then Bill said, “But Young certainly acted guilty. He seemed downright scared when we brought up Robin Scoville’s murder. Too bad he lawyered up before we could start leaning on him about Vincent Cranston and the fisherman at Wickenburg Reef this morning.”

Riley shook her head and said, “Maybe he was just scared because he really hadn’t known anything about any of the murders until that very moment, and he thought he might get convicted for a crime he didn’t commit. That would be a scary possibility, especially to a convict out on parole.”

Jenn drummed her fingers on the table and said, “You might be right. Still, do you remember what his wife told us? She said he comes and goes at all hours, sometimes disappears for a day or two. And just now, he didn’t even try to think of an alibi for where he’d been around dawn this morning.”

Agent Sturman let out a grunt of discouragement.

He said, “If it weren’t for that damned lawyer, maybe we could lean on him harder about his whereabouts. It’s going to take some serious work to try to track his past movements. If it’s even possible.”

“At least we’ve got his ice pick,” Bill said. “If he killed anybody with it, forensics might still be able to find traces of blood on it. And if they can find blood, they’ll also find the victims’ DNA. Then we’d have him dead to rights.”

Riley and her colleagues sat in silence for a few moments.

Then Riley said, “Look, I felt like I got at least some sense of the killer at all three of the crime scenes. And Bruno Young doesn’t fit my impressions.”

“Why not?” Agent Sturman asked.

Riley was about to try to explain her doubts and feelings when there came a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Sturman said.

A young FBI employee stepped inside.

He said nervously, “I’m looking for Special Agent Riley Paige.”

Riley felt a tingle of alarm.

Is something wrong at home? she wondered.

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