Free Twisted by Laura Griffin

and didn’t get any hits.”
    “Never assume.”
    She looked at him. “What, you think he was being literal?”
    He reached over and turned up the heater, as if that would help anything. Cold air blasted out, and he switched it off.
    “I think every crime lab in the country is backed up,” he said. “Your state lab’s probably worse than Quantico. You want to know what they ask when an agent sends in a DNA sample for analysis?”
    “What?”
    “‘When’s the trial?’ ”
    Allison’s throat tightened with frustration. She jerked her phone out of her pocket and dialed the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office. Deputy Brooks was off for the day, but she’d chatted with their dispatcher before, and she managed to finagle his home number.
    “The Jordan Wheatley case,” she said by way of greeting. “What happened to her rape kit?”
    The deputy paused, as if digesting this. “It’s at the lab.”
    “Still? It’s been a year. ”
    “Hey, talk to Austin. I don’t run the state crime lab.”
    “Well, have you ever thought of picking up the phone? What have you guys been doing up there?”
    Beside her, Mark shook his head at her apparent lack of judgment. She supposed she was expected to play nice with these people, even though their laziness might have cost a woman her life.
    “We’re not exactly front of their line.” Brooks sounded pissed now. “You know how many cases they get? And we don’t even have a suspect yet. You’re talking about a blind DNA test.”
    “What about a private lab?” she asked. “The Delphi Center’s one of the best in the world, and they’re practically in your backyard. I can’t believe you didn’t—”
    “Look, Detective. Don’t call me on a Saturday at my home and start criticizing the way we conduct aninvestigation. We don’t have the luxury of hiring private labs whenever we feel like it. We have rules around here. Budgets. If we had a suspect to compare it to, that’d be one thing. But we don’t. And we don’t throw taxpayer money around on blind DNA tests every time someone gets assaulted.”
    “She almost died. ” Allison couldn’t believe she was hearing this.
    “I know, all right? I interviewed her in that hospital. But the fact is, the sketch she gave us went nowhere. The vehicle description went nowhere. We don’t have a suspect, and until we do, that’s it. We’re waiting on state. You don’t like it, talk to the sheriff.”
    Allison clenched the wheel. She felt Mark watching her, probably disapproving of the way she was handling this.
    “How’d it go with her, anyway? She doing any better?”
    His voice sounded concerned now, and some of Allison’s anger subsided.
    “She was okay. Still having a hard time, I think.” She glanced at Mark, who was gazing out his window but obviously listening. “We may have a new lead, though. I’ll keep you posted.”
    “I heard y’all brought a fed in on your homicide,” he said. “You really think it’s connected?”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “Shit.” A heavy sigh on the other end of the phone. “He wore a condom, you know. Chances are, that rape kit isn’t going to give us much.”
    Allison bit back a curse. Jordan hadn’t mentioned the condom. But then, she’d skimmed over the most brutalpart of her attack with only a few words. Had she been sparing Allison’s feelings? Mark’s? Or maybe it was just too difficult to talk about.
    “I’ll give Austin a call,” Brooks said. “See if I can rattle a few cages.”
    Like you should have done ten months ago.
    “Thank you,” she said instead, then tossed her phone in the cup holder with maybe a bit too much force.
    Mark looked at her.
    “Her kit’s sitting in Austin, untested. He pleads backlogs and budgets.”
    Mark didn’t seem surprised.
    “Anyway, her attacker wore a condom, so it could still be a dead end.”
    “I doubt it.”
    She glanced at him.
    “They can get DNA off a single skin cell. Jordan fought hard, from the sound of it. That rape