The Root of Murder by Lauren Carr

Author:Lauren Carr [Carr, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, mystery book, Crime Fiction, Suspense, Thriller, whodunit, Police Procedural, Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Acorn Book Services
Published: 2019-03-25T06:00:00+00:00

“Bishop Moore got what he had comin’ to him.” Brenda Bayles glared up at Cameron from her motorized wheelchair.

The detective reconsidered her decision to step into the managers office, out of the cold, to wait for Ross Bayles to return from a maintenance job in one of the apartments. Something told her that the freezing temperatures outside were warmer than the bitter woman inside.

Brenda was clad in a housedress with an afghan wrapped around her to keep her warm. She wore slippers on her feet. Her swollen legs, marked with varicose veins, were bare. She tapped an open pack of cigarettes to extract one while eyeing Cameron, who watched through the window for Ross Bayles’s arrival.

“What did Bishop Moore do to deserve being murdered?” Cameron regarded her out of the corner of her eye.

The old woman lit her cigarette and took a long drag on it. She blew smoke out of the corner of her mouth. “Bishop was a selfish bastard. Using his good looks and charm to suck the living daylights out of women. Then, after he’d sucked them dry, he’d throw them away like yesterday’s garbage and start on a fresh piece of ass.” She pointed out the window. “I saw his last two victims coming out that night.”

Cameron peered up at the breezeway where John Davis’s apartment was located. While the window provided a clear view of the walkway from the parking lot, one couldn’t see the apartment itself—especially from the lower angle of a wheelchair. “You saw them? There were two of them?”

“Couldn’t miss them,” Brenda said. “One was hysterical.”

“Can you describe them?”

“A blonde and a brunette. Pretty. Of course. Bishop wouldn’t be caught with an ugly woman. Young enough to be his daughters.”

“What time was that?”

Brenda shrugged her shoulders. “About ten minutes before eight. I remember the time because I’d run out of cigarettes and sent Ross out to get more. I was waiting for him to come back. He took forever.”

“You were watching the clock because you were afraid of going into nicotine withdrawal.”

“I love my cigs.” Brenda took another long drag on her cigarette. “I’ve been smoking since I was a little girl. They give me pleasure—what little I have in this life.”

“You saw the two women leaving at ten minutes to eight,” Cameron said while peering out the window. “They were young and pretty. They were hysterical.”

“One was hysterical. You’re not listening. The blonde was freaking out and her friend was consoling her.”

Cameron squatted and looked out the window—trying to envision what Brenda could have seen. From the wheelchair, she could not have been able to tell which apartment the two women had been visiting. “Are you certain they were coming from Bishop Moore’s apartment?”

“I heard them before I saw them,” Brenda said. “They were yelling awful things at him. I opened the door to see where the fight was and saw them leaving his apartment.”

Cameron opened the door. As Brenda had said, upon stepping outside, there was a view of Bishop Moore’s apartment door, which was still blocked off with yellow crime scene tape.

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