The Perfect Mistress by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blake Pierce
Published: 2021-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

*

They got there in eight.

To Jessie’s surprise, when they arrived the lot was still mostly empty. It was still pitch black out. Sunrise wasn’t for almost another two hours. They parked and got out. The bitter mountain wind whipped through the car, slicing into her. She looked at her phone. The wind chill was nineteen degrees. They walked over to where Garrett was standing, an anxious look on his face.

“How are you doing?” Ryan asked him.

“I’ve been better. I knew Ellen pretty well. She helped me set up the website for my band in high school. Even though she gets paid a lot from most of her clients, she didn’t charge me a thing. She even taught me a few basics about coding. I know everyone in this town and I felt bad for Clarice Kimble and Sarah Ripley, but this one is different somehow. I really liked her. Plus she has two kids in elementary school. I don’t know what’s going to happen to them. Her husband’s kind of a jerk. I don’t think he’s going to be a great single parent.”

Jessie allowed herself a few seconds to take in the enormity of the loss. Not only did a woman die, but a whole family may have been destroyed. After the pause, she blinked a few times to refocus and decided to help Garrett do the same.

“Garrett, I’m sorry. It sounds like she was a nice person. I want you to take a moment to process this. I know it’s lot.”

He nodded and stepped away, looking at the not-yet-visible mountains to the east. She and Ryan stayed quiet for close to a minute before she spoke again.

“What I’m going to tell you now may sound harsh and I apologize for that, but hopefully you’ll understand. Whatever remaining feelings of grief and pity are still weighing you down; you need to set them aside. There will be opportunities to work through all that later. But right now, time is of the essence. You’re a Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy. The best way for you to honor Ellen is to help us catch her killer. And that means concentrating on doing your job well. Would you agree with that?”

Garrett nodded.

“Okay, then we have a lot to do and not much time to do it in. So let’s get started. Why don’t you show us the body?”

Garrett led them to the spot where the parking lot ended, meeting the dirt at the edge of the hill. They looked down. About twenty feet below them, just above where the ground flattened out, a woman was lying on her back. She was wearing black tights and a heavy coat stained in blood. Her eyes were open. Her face was white.

Jessie looked at the spot at the top of the hill where the blood ended. That was where she was dumped from. The blood trail retreated to a snow-dusted parking spot about thirty feet away.

“Whoever did this had to be strong to drag her that far,” she noted.

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