The Muralist by Carrie Hagen

Author:Carrie Hagen [Hagen , Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery and Detective (Police Procedural)
Thriller (Crime)
Publisher: Luminare Press
Published: 2022-08-16T22:00:00+00:00

Wednesday

7:30 a.m.

Mae Brunnell waited for Detective Lopez in a booth at the front of Mugshot Diner. Facing away from the door, she gazed through the floor-to-ceiling window that framed one length of the diner. She wished they could have met somewhere more private, but part of her had been surprised the detective was willing to meet with her at all. She pulled the sleeves of her black hoodie sweatshirt up to her elbows and touched her sole piece of jewelry, a bracelet with a heart charm on her right wrist.

Lopez arrived dressed in black pants and a black jacket with a bright yellow blouse under it.

“Hi,” Lopez said. “Mae, right?”

“Mae Brunnell,” said the younger woman, smiling faintly. “Thank you so much, again, for your time. I’m a little nervous.”

Lopez nodded toward the younger woman’s bag: a weathered, heavy green messenger bag with a large yellow CAT label. “Now that’s vintage hipster.”

She smiled. “Guilty. Can I get you anything?”

“Just a coffee.”

A waitress came over with a coffeepot. “Refill, honey?” she asked before frowning at the full mug. “Oh, you haven’t touched it.”

“It’s fine. I’m just taking my time.”

“I’ll have a coffee for here and a veggie omelet with no cheese, no home fries, to go,” Lopez said.

“I’m fine with coffee,” Brunnell said.

“And a muffin,” Lopez added.

The waitress walked away.

“They don’t like it when you just order coffee,” Lopez said. “Tell me how I can help. I have to be at Homicide soon.”

“Well.” Brunnell pushed her shoulder-length hair behind her ears with both hands. “I might be paranoid, but I don’t think so.” She shook a bit. Lopez wondered if she shouldn’t have brought someone else with her. “You were so kind to me the other night, and I…I didn’t know who to talk to.”

“Are you going to disclose something I’m legally obligated to report?”

“I don’t trust Eric Ross,” the younger woman blurted out.

Lopez took her coffee from the waitress.

“Why?”

“You’ve seen Jessie. She’s…edgy—and rude. I don’t mind working with her,” Brunnell hurried along. “She knows her stuff, and I’m learning a lot.”

Lopez had given herself twenty minutes to meet with the forensics intern. She needed to hurry it along or she would be late for the team’s meeting with Mikovich.

“Do you feel safe?”

“Yes.”

“Has Ross done something to make you uncomfortable?”

“Maybe, but not to me.”

Lopez pushed her back into the booth.

“See something you wish you hadn’t?” the detective asked.

“Yes.”

“Well what was it? You came to me, remember?”

“Jessie follows Ross around,” Brunnell said quickly.

“On…crime scenes?”

“In his personal life.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I saw her. And it was when I saw Ross too.”

“What?”

“The other afternoon—Sunday,” Brunnell said slowly, “I was walking my dog, and I saw her out running. She’d been really hard on me, and I thought maybe connecting outside of Forensics might help.”

“So you followed her?”

“Yep. To Penn Treaty Park, not far from where we were. And I saw her suddenly stop and stare at something. So I did too. And what she was staring at—it was Detective Ross. He had been running too, I guess, and he had run into somebody—literally—at the park.

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