Quilt City Panic in Paducah by Bruce Leonard

Author:Bruce Leonard [Leonard, Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798986823515
Publisher: Bruce Gerard Leonard Jr.

NINETEEN

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

I’d had dates go splat before, but never from such a high, swoon-inducing height. From bliss to yikes in a matter of seconds. Knudsen’s murder seemed to be unrelated to the killings of Janet Loy, Baahir Ali, and Durrell Mahan, if I factored in the different modus operandi and jurisdictions. But if I listened to my gut, it was likely related to all of them. And what were the odds of the Nashville man-in-black (apologies to Johnny Cash) not having some relation to the men-in-black who wreaked havoc on a Paducah Walmart two days before? Slim to none, was my guess. Brandon, a trained officer of the law, corroborated my too-coincidental-to-be-a-coincidence hunch as we walked back to his house.

“Sure, wearing all black isn’t a link that will convict anyone,” he said, “but if this case fell to us, we’d work it under the assumption that the perp who killed Knudsen was among the Walmart perps.”

“Ramming someone with a stolen trash truck seems like a weird way to kill someone. It speaks both to spontaneity and planning,” I said.

“I know what you mean.” We turned left on Thirtieth Street. “If someone happened to be driving a trash truck and saw his victim, he might think about ramming him. But stealing a truck big enough that would almost certainly kill Knudsen if the collision went as planned requires knowledge of Knudsen’s schedule. The doer would have to know where Knudsen would be and when, meaning he’d have been aware of Knudsen’s schedule, so stealing the truck would make sense. Although I understand what you mean about it seeming spontaneous, it wasn’t.”

“Doer? Really?”

“Sorry, but I am a cop.” We walked past Keiler Park on Nahm Street.

“Yes, and maybe my falling for you proves I’m not anti-police, as many of Stoddard’s campaign signs claim. True, I’ve gone on record as an opponent of police brutality, including when I’m on the receiving end of it, but I believe our kisses should put an end to any lingering doubts about my feelings toward members of your profession.”

We turned left onto Washington and walked in silence until we arrived at my truck parked on the street in front of his house.

“Trust me,” he said, “you and I feel the same way about police brutality and bad cops.” He looked into my eyes. “But I wonder about the murder of the man who filmed our first kiss.” We leaned against my truck, and I tried to look up to see the stars, but the light pollution was bad. I couldn’t see many, so I turned to look at Brandon.

“Knudsen worked for the Chronicle,” he said. “What was he doing in Nashville, how often did he go there, and who would have been interested in his schedule enough to follow him so they could kill him?”

“I only scratched the surface on Benny’s research, and now I have to try to piece this together, so I have a long night ahead of me.”

“Hadley, please listen.” He turned to me, put his hands on my shoulders, and looked into my eyes.

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.