The Penitent One (Boston Crime Thriller Book 3) by Brian Shea

Author:Brian Shea [Shea, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn River Publishing
Published: 2020-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

"Well, this looks promising," Barnes said, hanging up the phone. "Check this out."

Kelly and Mainelli got up from their desks and bookended her.

A couple of keystrokes later, an image populated her screen. "The bank got back to me, sent me this link and gave me an access code to pull up the video from the ATM camera."

"My fingers are crossed," Kelly said, leaning in closer and catching her clean-linen scent. It was pleasant until Mainelli’s musk overpowered it.

On the screen, a blurred image of a man came into view. Kelly immediately recognized Jason Palmer’s pudgy jowls. He had become close with the dead man after spending the last two hours with his frozen corpse.

Seeing him alive was strange, a stark comparison to the lifeless form he’d etched into his mind. Palmer came into focus on the black-and-white footage. He was well-dressed in a blazer and wool trench coat. His tie was loosened, and his Oxford collared shirt was partially untucked. These were the same clothes he was wearing when Kelly saw him.

Kelly watched the drunken businessman swaying inside the ATM enclosure as if being blown by a heavy wind. But he knew that the only wind came from Palmer's undoubtedly high blood alcohol concentration, which must have been off the charts based on the stupor they were witnessing on screen.

Somewhat sad his last moments of life showed him in such an incapacitated state as he ineffectively fiddled with his wallet while trying to retrieve his ATM card.

After an unbearably long effort, he guided the card into the slot and entered his passcode. The camera had no audio, but they could see him reach down to retrieve the money before bringing it up to his face and fanning out the eight twenty-dollar bills.

As he turned to put the wallet in his back pocket, somebody came into view outside the backdrop, nothing more than a shadowy blur. Kelly cursed under his breath, fearful this would be the only image of their potential suspect.

But Palmer shifted, and there, staring back at them, was a man’s gaunt face and deep-set eyes. Even with the dark hooded sweatshirt, the light from inside the ATM station clearly illuminated his face.

Palmer was oblivious, staggering onto the sidewalk. The suspect already had the knife in his hand and was waving it around wildly.

Kelly watched and understood why the robbery turned to murder.

Palmer, in his intoxicated state, initiated a drunken haymaker on the skinnier knife-wielding man. A stupid move, and one that cost Palmer everything.

The perp ducked the wild blow and punched the blade into Palmer’s midsection. Palmer fell forward and out of view, but Kelly already knew the end.

Snow had already begun to fall, and the scene on screen transitioned from horror to tranquility in a matter of seconds.

The last image was a smudge of darkness, which, based on the pattern of blood droplets, was their perp's departure toward School Street.

"Well, it looks like we’ve just caught a murderer on tape. Not every day we get to see firsthand the evil our suspects do," Barnes said softly.

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.