Prime Suspect by Price Maggie

Author:Price, Maggie [Price, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-11-10T12:41:46+00:00

Chapter 8

“Billy Hollis is a nickel-bag hustler with a rap sheet thicker than a heifer’s butt,” Sam Rogers observed as he leaned his elbows on the conference table and dumped a second packet of sugar into a disposable coffee cup. “A real scum wad.”

“He’s Dianna Westfall’s nephew?” A.J. asked the detective, confirming the information Michael had given her on their drive from the hospital. She pulled off her coat, smoothing the jade bolero jacket where it curved at her waist. Seconds earlier, she and Michael had walked into the brightly lit task force room to find officers and civilians bustling about, the very air humming with anticipation. They had a name. A possible suspect.

As she dropped into the chair beside Sam, A.J. glanced toward the far end of the conference table. Sky Milano and two lab techs already had Michael involved in an intense discussion. A.J. noted that Sam’s partner, Grant Pierce, stood at the edge of the group, his gaze locked on the forensic chemist’s sculpted profile.

“Actually, Billy’s not blood kin.” Sam used his stubby cigar to gesture at Dianna Westfall’s photograph on the bulletin board that spanned one wall. “She has a sister who lives back east. He’s the sister’s adopted kid.”

“What does Hollis’s record look like?”

“He did lots of juvie time for petty stuff, been popped for assault, burglary. Got a couple of drug busts mixed in with everything else.” Sam blew on his coffee. “Two years ago, Billy celebrated his eighteenth birthday by pulling a convenience-store hijacking. Cut a couple of brand-new openings in the clerk.”

“Cut?”

“Cut.” Sam leaned back in his chair and hooked a thumb under one suspender strap. “That got him a year in slam. In every assault he’s gone down on, he’s used a knife as his weapon. Makes you think the kid has an affinity for blades.”

A.J. pursed her lips in thought. “Enough to stab his aunt twenty-one times?”

“Could be. Either way, we’ll find out soon. There’s three good arrest warrants out on him for unpaid traffic tickets. We issued a radiogram to have Hollis picked up. Won’t take the uniforms long to round up a maggot like him.”

“Do we have a picture?”

“You bet.” Sam stabbed his cigar into an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts and wadded yellow sticky notes, then reached into his shirt pocket. “I stopped by Records and picked up his latest mug shot. Get a load of him—garden-variety ugly with a fish-belly-white complexion. A cop’ll arrest a guy who looks like that purely on reflex.”

Ignoring the smoky stench of cigar that hung in the air, A.J. looked into the acne-plagued face with eyes that stared out with dark hostility. A dirty, torn T-shirt emphasized the aggressive squareness of Hollis’s shoulders; a tattoo of the Grim Reaper glared from his right bicep.

She returned the mug shot with a skeptical look. “You really think Dianna Westfall took her clothes off for this guy without a struggle?”

“Hold a big enough knife to someone’s throat and he’ll sing the national anthem, if that’s your pleasure.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.