What He Needs (What He Wants, Book Four) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Hannah Ford Page A

about
death, because I was terrified of dying.  
    And it had worked, at least a little, to
calm my fear.
    But when I saw Katie’s body lying there
on the ground, her body covered in leaves, her face calm, her lips blue, I
almost threw up.   I dry heaved into
the bushes, thankful that Professor Worthington couldn’t see me.   He was over on the other side of the
trees, talking to a police officer.
    We were right off the jogging path in the park, and it was that weird time of morning
where the early birds, the people who got up at five, six, seven, even eight or
nine, had finished their runs.   It
was also unseasonably cold, and so it was relatively quiet for a Sunday
morning.   But there were still
people walking on the path, and I ran over to one of the police officers who ’d blocked off the area with yellow police tape.
    “You should cover her body,” I said.   “She can’t just be… she shouldn’t just
be visible like that.”
    I was surprised I’d been allowed to get
as close as I had.   This was an active
crime scene, and the police were supposed to be taking every precaution
necessary to make sure it wasn’t compromised.   I’d read about things like that happening in my case
studies, police letting crime scenes become a trampled-on mess, so that no one
could trust the evidence that had been collected.   I’d thought those were the exception, but now I was
beginning to realize how easily it could happen.
    I shook my head as the police officer
just kind of shrugged at me, obviously blowing me off as a concerned citizen
and not someone who knew what they were talking about.   It made my blood boil, and any
discomfort I’d had at seeing Katie’s body was replaced with righteous anger.
    I stomped through the leaves over to
Professor Worthington.   “The police
are totally screwing everything up,” I declared when I saw him.   “They haven’t even covered the body.”
    Professor Worthington looked at the
police officer he was talking to, who held his hands up.   “We were told not to touch anything
until homicide got here,” the officer said.   “Not my call.”
    Professor Worthington shook his head and
led me a few feet down the path, out of the officer’s earshot.   “Jesus, Charlotte,” he said.   “You need to learn to keep your mouth
shut.   This is a police
investigation into a murder, not some excuse for you to come down here and
start playing Big Shot Lawyer.”
    I frowned.   “That’s not what I was doing,” I said.   “I was trying to make sure that none of
the evidence got tampered with.   There’s a dead body in full view of anyone who’s – “
    “They’ve cordoned off the other side of
the path,” he said.   “No one’s
being allowed down here.”
    “I got through no problem.”
    “Yeah, well, you must have been let
through right before they blocked it off.”   He pointed down to the other side of the path, where sure
enough, there were roadblocks set up.   Two policemen stood on one side of
them, directing people to either turn around or veer off onto the side trail so
they could loop back around to the other side of the park.
    “Oh,” I said, feeling slightly stupid.
    My phone buzzed with a text.
    I looked down.
    Noah.
    Awake?   Been thinking about fucking you all morning.
    I hesitated.   Obviously, he hadn’t heard about Katie.   Which was kind of weird.   Shouldn’t Professor Worthington have
told Noah that his secretary was dead?   Unless… was it possible Noah knew, and was just acting like everything
was okay?  
    “Professor,” I said.   “Did you… I mean , does Mr. Cutler know about Katie?”
    “No.”   He shook his head.   “I didn’t want to tell him until we had more information.”
    “But don’t you think we should have
gotten in touch with him immediately?   It will be imperative he has an alibi.”   I said a silent prayer that Katie had been killed last
night, while we were at the BDSM club.   It would be