Free When Love Intrudes (When the Mission Ends) by Christi Snow

probably should put out an APB on the brother.”
    Just then footsteps pounded down the hall and Matt Hunter skidded to a halt at the doorway of the room. When he caught sight of his brother, he crumpled to the floor with a horrified, “No!” that echoed out over the whole room. Horror and grief flooded his face as he stared disbelievingly up at his dead twin, tears overflowing onto his cheeks.
    His gaze swung to the detectives. “What happened? Who did this?” He charged over to his brother’s body. It took both men to hold him back as Matt uttered ‘no’ over and over again, the anguish in his voice palpable as it echoed over the room.
    Pulling against the man, Brian placated him. “Matt, you can’t touch anything. Let the forensics guys process the scene or we won’t be able to figure out what happened.”
    Suddenly Matt wilted as his eyes filled with tears again. “We can’t just leave him hanging there.” His voice dropped to a whisper as he looked on in horror.
    “They will get him down as soon as they can.” Brian exchanged looks with Eddie, who gave a slight nod. “Come on, let’s go back to the kitchen while they work and maybe we can ask you a few questions about last night.”
    Reluctantly Matt pulled his eyes from his twin to look at them in confusion. “Ask me questions? Why?” His mouth dropped open. “No, you don’t think I had anything to do with this, do you? Don’t you think if I knew he was going to do something like this, I would have stopped him?” His voice broke. “He’s my brother, my twin.”
    Eddie herded Matt toward the kitchen. “We only want to figure out what happened and that means piecing together the events of last night.”
    Matt nodded, the shock of his twin’s death making him pale, as he dropped onto a chair at the kitchen table.
    Brian took the lead for the questioning as he sat across from Matt. “When was the last time you talked to Mark?”
    Matt scowled down toward his folded hands on the table. “It was right before dinner last night. I wanted him to go out with us, but he didn’t want to go.”
    Brian noticed Matt had some new scrapes across his knuckles like he’d been in another fight.
    “Who all went with you?”
    “Just some guys from my chem class.”
    “Were James Marshall and Brady Walsh part of that group?”
    “No, not specifically, but I did see James while I was out.”
    “What time did you see him and where?”
    Matt shrugged. “I saw James at a party at a girl’s house. I don’t know what time it was. Maybe around ten. He was being an asshole so I didn’t stick around for long.”
    “Being an asshole how?” asked Eddie.
    “He was harassing a girl and then talking shit about Mark. He’s an asshole when he’s been drinking.”
    “Does he have matching wounds to go with your bruised knuckles?”
    Matt glanced down at his right hand and grudgingly said, “He might.”
    “So how did you leave things with him?”
    Matt cracked a smile for the first time all day. “He was on the ground, cursing a blue streak.”
    That was an interesting attitude considering they were supposedly friends.
    “Back to Mark, you said James talked about him. Did he act like he’d seen him recently or been in touch with him?”
    Matt shook his head negative. “No, it was nothing like that. James doesn’t like Mark and doesn’t trust him. He was just trash-talking him.”
    “Is there any reason why Mark would commit suicide besides the trouble of the ongoing investigation? Is there anything else happening in his life that he’s stressed about?”
    Matt rolled his eyes at them. “What else does he need? We could go to prison. I think that’s enough, but he wasn’t suicidal.” His tone hardened. “Don’t you think I would have known about it if he was?” He shook his head.
    Brian ignored the question. “Mark called me late last night to meet up, but he never showed. Do you know why he would have wanted to meet with me?”
    Startled eyes met