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Deke squatted in front of the bag and shined the light inside “There’s a card tucked in the side pocket Easy to miss the first time”
Alex fished through the pocket until his fingers brushed the dog-eared card He pulled it up into Deke’s light The card read DEIDRE JONES, POLICE OFFICER, NASHVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT “What the hell”
Deke read the card “Shit What’s her card doing here?”
“You calledThink she’s skiave uy knew her from the past”
“That’s uess”
“Could he have been a confidential informant?”
“Maybe” Deke allowed his gaze to drift “Keep talking”
“The two had a ets shot and dismembered You think Jones could have shot him?”
“A cop would kno toto be a difficult identification unless we’ve got DNA for a cross-check”
Alex had dug only a little into Deidre Jones’s past and work life What he had learned so far was that she was smart She closed a lot of cases and ell respected
Deke shifted his stance “You’d think she’d also have the sense to search the area first Sanitize it completely”
“Jones has been with the Nashville Police Departht years Top in her class at the acade promoted to detective Impressive closure rate Good cop by all appearances But that’s skih anized athe group but decided against it These days when I show up, people cla to roup”
“Make friends?”
&nb
sp; “Miracles do happen” Alex’s waking hours were spent working, and the one or two folks he called friends dated back to middle school “She’s recently separated from her husband Divorce wasn’t friendly”
Deke grunted “Which ones are?”
“You should know”
Deke absently rubbed his thuer “Two divorces is my limit”
“You have two strikes already so does that ain?”
“Divorced again” Deke shoved his hand in his pocket “I asked Rachel to marry me”
“And?”
“She’s chewing on it” Deke and defense attorney Rachel Wainwright had been living together for almost a year and a half
“She’s a lawyer They weigh all the options”
“That’s orrieshorse”
Alex noted the rising and unexpected worry in his brother’s voice “Rachel is the patron saint of lost causes She’ll say yes eventually”
“Saying I’m a lost cause?”
“When it coe, yes”
“Ass”
Alex shrugged and shifted his focus back to the case “Deidre did a hell of a job bringing down Ray Murphy Her case was ironclad, but if she co to have a field day” Ray Murphy was a drug dealer who’d etting Murphy’s girlfriend to flip and wear a wire It had taken a year, but Deidre had worked the case better than any other cop could have
“You think Murphy set this little scene up?”
“He’s sh I wouldn’t put it past him”
Alex studied the bag and then glanced back at the body “Find anything else?”
“That’s it Ballistics and whatever else forensics finds will have to be sifted through at the lab”
“All right”