The Red Files (Red Files 1) by Lee Winter

Author:Lee Winter [Winter, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, lesbian, romance, Crime, Mystery, Ice Queen Reputation, Journalist
Publisher: Ylva-Publishing
Published: 2015-09-07T22:00:00+00:00

Della Sands snatched her screen door open the moment they approached her house. “Good, you’re here. Come and look at this!”

She watched them impatiently as they quickened their pace, and then she turned back inside.

Lauren and Ayers followed and looked around. The place had been tossed. Furniture and possessions were everywhere.

Della led them into a bedroom. The dresser drawers were opened.

“There!” she said, pointing at a small pile of cash and jewellery kicked to one side. “They weren’t after money.”

She took them to the adjacent door. “Fee’s room.” A plastic chest covered with cartoon characters had been opened, its contents everywhere. Toys littered the floor.

“Where is your daughter?” Ayers asked in concern.

“At my mom’s where I dropped her off on my way to work, like always. I usually come back here to have some coffee and pack my lunch before I start my shift. Instead I found this. I was only gone twenty minutes!”

“They did all this in that time?” Lauren frowned. “How’d they get in?”

“Forced the kitchen window open. Through here. See?”

Lauren examined the entry point. No broken glass. Not even a scuff mark.

Della led them into the living room. The rainbow of books had been tossed in every direction. The heavy wooden bookcase lay on its side.

“Jon would be so upset if he saw this,” Della said and dropped to her knees. Her eyes flashed with anger, but a deeper distress was evident in her trembling fingers as she grouped all the reds together into a pile.

Lauren righted the bookcase, easing it neatly against the wall.

“Did you call the police?” she asked.

Della snorted. “Of course. For all the good that did me. They’re busy right now. They will send someone when they get a chance since it isn’t life threatening. Not life threatening? Tell that to Jon. How can this not be connected?”

Ayers dropped to her haunches beside the distraught woman and pushed the green books into a stack, then moved on to the magazines. “So did they find it?” she asked as she worked.

“What?” Della looked up.

“Whatever they were obviously searching for. As you say, they weren’t interested in quick cash.”

“No they weren’t,” Della said. “They took his work computer.”

“Anything else?”

“Just some of those little USB thingies.” She slapped two books together particularly hard. “They won’t find anything on there but videos he made for Fee of him reading her some of her favorite bedtime stories. I guess they’ll get a surprise when they load those up.” She gave a mirthless laugh. “Fee won’t understand why he can’t do that anymore. Because, oh, that’s right, he apparently threw himself in a lake yesterday for no damn reason!”

“We saw the news last night,” Lauren said softly. “And we went to the lake this morning to see for ourselves. We’re sorry that—”

“Don’t. Don’t be sorry. It’s all a lie.” Della rubbed her eyes. “The cop they sent yesterday gave me the we’re-so-sorry-ma’am speech. I told him he was wasting his breath. Jon would never kill himself.”

“We did see his car abandoned—”

“I don’t care how it looks.

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