Girl, Bound (An Ella Dark FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 19) by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2024-05-01T18:30:00+00:00

***

Ella paced the meeting room like a caged panther, her nerves strung tighter than a banjo string. Ripley leaned against the wall, her arms crossed and her face a mask of stone. The air crackled with tension; a live wire waiting for the wrong foot to step on it.

The door swung open, and the officers of the Millhaven PD filed in one by one. They moved with the swagger of a pack of wolves, all puffed chests and narrowed eyes. Sheriff Holbrook brought up the rear, his face as dark as a thundercloud.

Ella could feel their gazes boring into her and Ripley. A dozen pairs of eyes filled with suspicion and disdain. It was like being on trial, facing a jury that had already made up its mind.

‘Alright, what's this all about?’ one of the officers called out. ‘Who died and made you queen of the castle, Fed?’

A rumble of laughter rippled through the room, a mocking chorus that set Ella's teeth on edge. She could feel Ripley tensing beside her, coiled like a snake ready to strike.

But Ella wouldn't rise to the bait. She'd faced down worse than this, stared into the abyss and watched it blink. A roomful of pissed-off cops was just another day at the office.

She stepped forward, her chin high and her eyes flashing. A hush fell over the assembled officers like a shroud.

‘As you all know, there’ve been two murders recently, and we’ve got reason to believe one of your own might be involved. Officer Patrick Barber.’

The words hung in the air like a bombshell waiting for the fuse to burn down. For a moment, the only sound was the ticking of the clock on the wall. A metronome counting down to detonation.

Then, the room erupted.

‘Barber? Are you out of your goddamn mind?’ one of the officers shouted.

Another, ‘You think one of us had something to do with this?’

‘Pat's a good cop,’ another chimed in, jabbing a finger at Ella like a blade. ‘He's been on the force for years, never had a single complaint. And you want to pin this on him?’

‘You’ll need some damning evidence for this,’ another shouted.

The accusations flew fast and thick, a hail of verbal bullets aimed straight at Ella's head.

‘We have reason to believe that Officer Barber had run-ins with both victims,’ she said, her voice cutting through the din like a razor. ‘Eric Saunders, one of the founders of Seraphic Labs. And Kara Murphy, a local sex worker.’

The room went dead silent, the air sucked out of it like a vacuum. Every eye was on Ella.

‘That’s it?’ one called out. ‘Run ins?’

‘Pretty serious run-ins. Very recently, too,’ Ripley added.

Another uniform shouted, ‘That’s insane. Pat wouldn’t do that.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ Ripley asked, her tone as cold as a winter's night. ‘Because from where I'm standing, it looks like Barber had plenty of motive. A personal vendetta against Saunders, and a history of using his badge to get favors from working girls.’

‘And we need to know where he is,’ Ella said.

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.