Ties That Bind by Collins Natalie R

Author:Collins, Natalie R. [Collins, Natalie R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Published: 2012-07-31T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

Sam slept little and woke early, heading out for a run with a cloudy head and a heavy heart.

Her footsteps pounded on the pavement in the early light of morning, and the rhythmic beat reminded her of the ventilator that was keeping Whitney alive. Sam cringed and tried to think of something else, but the case had become too personal.

Personal. Her shoulders sagged as she fully realized what this meant. With her niece one of the victims, the chief would most likely remove Sam. The only chance she had was to keep it together, not betray any sign of weakness. This wasn’t a big-city police department, and they didn’t have a lot of detectives to turn to: just her, D-Ray, and a cop who was already nearly semi-retired, whose only desire was not to leave the office—or to leave as little as possible. And Gage. Her only hope to stay involved was to play nice and by the chief’s rules.

She’d played off the dead rat as teenage vandalism, and both young officers seemed inclined to believe her. It would go in the reports, of course, but maybe the chief wouldn’t see it. A harmless teenage prank. Harmless, unless you were the headless rat.

Was that a message? Who would stoop to that level?

Oh, maybe Lind Harris?

The force was small and didn’t have a lot of other options, so as long as she didn’t let it become personal she should be just … But how would she do that? Not let the fact that her niece was lying in a coma, hooked up to a ventilator, affect her?

How was she supposed to pull this off?

Lie your ass off, and stay on the case.

Sam made her way into work an hour later, a cup of Starbucks coffee in one hand and the newspaper in the other. It was a cloudy, rainy summer day, perfect for her mood. The sky had been threatening all morning, but the rain hadn’t started up until a few minutes before she pulled into the Kanesville Police Station parking lot.

Now she sat in her chair at her desk and tried to focus. In front of her were various reports, all pieces to the puzzle, none of them fitting together. The crime lab hadn’t come back with anything positive on the necktie. There were lots of prints on the computer from the seminary building, but none that were registered in the BCI database. Not surprising, considering this was not CSI and life rarely happened like it did on television. Every once in a while, just occasionally, Sam wished it would. Everything except hearing from her dead sister, like that one show on television that she could never sit through. The dead should not talk. It was unseemly.

Whit’s evidence was not here, of course, and Sam would be lucky if she didn’t get pulled off the entire case before getting a chance to look through it. She’d already talked to D-Ray and he’d told her there was nothing that indicated Whitney’s injury was anything but an attempted suicide.

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