Stalked by Brian Freeman Page A

up the sheets. Then again, he had always assumed his wife was loyal, too.
    “So her husband is cheating, and she’s got millions coming her way,” Dan said. “Motive isn’t a problem.”
    “Nothing’s a problem. It’s her gun. No one was in the house. She did it.”
    “You sound pretty sure. How about gun shot residue?”
    “Nothing, but she’s a cop. She knows how to beat that.”
    “Any blood spatter on her clothes?”
    Abel shook his head. “We’re running tests, but I didn’t see anything. It was her house. She could have washed her clothes before calling us. Hell, she could have shot him in the buff and then taken a shower. Oh, and I had her take a blood test, too. She was drinking coffee, but I smelled alcohol.”
    “And?”
    “Her blood alcohol level was point zero seven. Even if she quit drinking a few hours earlier, that’s high. She must have been drunk when she did it.”
    “That gives Archie Gale a way to talk it down to manslaughter.”
    “He may be right,” Abel said. “Nothing points to premeditation at this point.”
    “Right, the gun walked downstairs on its own, and Maggie followed to find out where it was going.” Dan took a big bite out of a pastry and licked the cream cheese off his lips with his tongue. He added, “How about the conspiracy theory? Anyone get out of prison lately who might want to get back at Maggie for putting him away? Defense attorneys like Archie Gale love to blow smoke about that kind of shit.”
    Abel scoffed. “There’s nothing like that. I’ve got people running down her old cases, but so far, the violent perps she put away are all still behind bars or dead. Cases don’t come much more straightforward than this. Stride’s the one who wants this to be some mystery, because he can’t accept the fact that Maggie did it.”
    Dan leaned forward. “Is Stride interfering?”
    “He was at the crime scene before anyone else. I don’t like that, but I don’t think he actually touched anything or helped her clean up.”
    “If he gets in the way, or sticks his nose into this, I want to know immediately.”
    “You personally?”
    “Damn right. I wasn’t in favor of bringing him back, you know. As far as I was concerned, K-2 should have kept you in the top job, but Stride and K-2 are as thick as thieves. If Stride does anything that compromises this investigation, I will personally see that his ass gets kicked out of the lieutenant’s chair.”
    Abel didn’t know how to respond to that. “I wouldn’t want it back even if K-2 offered it, and he won’t.”
    “Never say never.”
    Abel didn’t like game-playing. He wasn’t going to be a pawn. He knew Stride was permanently on Dan’s shit list because of the blown election, but if Dan was burning to take him down before he left the city, he could do it on his own.
    He heard the muffled ringing of Dan’s cell phone. Dan reached into the pocket of his bathrobe and retrieved it.
    “Erickson,” Dan said into the phone.
    Abel watched Dan’s eyes do a nervous dance. Dan snapped his fingers and gestured at the door, and Abel was glad to take the hint. Time to go.
    Whatever the call was, it was bad news.
     
     
    “Hello, Dan. Do you know who this is?”
    There was a moment of dead air as Dan wrenched his way from one reality to the next. Every victim was like that.
    “Yes,” Dan replied, his voice forced.
    “Tonight’s the night. Is Serena ready to make the drop?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s good.” He added, “But you know this is just a down payment, right?”
    “That’s not what we discussed.”
    “You’re right, it’s not, but things have changed. A lot’s happened this week, Dan. You think I don’t read the papers? The price has gone up.”
    “That’s not acceptable.”
    He chuckled long and low. “I love lawyers. Always negotiating. You’re right, Dan, why don’t we just forget about it. Hand the phone to that cop who’s there with you, and I can let him know what’s been going