Free A Storm Is Coming by LaShawn Vasser Page A

Braylee. I mean it. If something goes down and you’re not by my side, I promise I’ll shoot you myself.”
    Braylee responded, “Fine, I’ll stay close.” Then she opened her car door and stepped out as she waited for him. They walked in sync towards Detective Jones.
    He wasn’t too pleased to see that Alex had brought someone with him as he tossed the cigarette he’d been smoking into a puddle of water.
    Alex spoke first, “Detective. What was so urgent it needed to be discussed in secret?”
    Detective Jones looked skeptically at Braylee, “I wasn’t expecting company.”
    “She’s no one you need to worry about. What do you have?”
    You could tell that Detective Jones was deciding if he was going to talk in front of Braylee. After an awkward silence, he finally spoke, “This case is bigger than me. There are things going on that I’ve never seen happen in an investigation in all of my twenty-three years of experience.”
    Frustrated, Alexandro had to force himself to be patient, “Like what? Why in the hell am I in this godforsaken place?”
    Braylee touched his arm to help him calm down and stay focused. She spoke, “Detective, can you please tell us what you couldn’t over the phone or at the station?”
    He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. “First, I found this information on accident just poking around in our system and thought I’d better save it before it disappears.”
    The stress and strain of the situation made Alexandro sound hard, “What’s on it?”
    “The entire investigation. Initially, I wasn’t able to access certain parts of the database which I thought was odd since I’m the lead detective. However, I had a friend get me past all this shall we call it red tape.”
    Alex rubbed his brow, “And?”
    “I found two sets of everything. Two autopsies, police reports, a log of items found at the crime scene, and another log with some of those same items missing. Someone wants to make your brother look as if he killed himself. However, one of the autopsy reports shows a distance and the direction of the bullet that entered into your brother’s head that would have made it near impossible for him to have shot himself. Whoever shot him would have needed to have been standing at least eight to ten feet away.”
    Braylee saw the color drain completely from Alex’s face.
    He continued, “There is always the possibility, but it’s highly unlikely that…due to how the body was found and the trajectory of the bullet…that the shooter could have been left handed. But, not likely. But that still wouldn’t account for the distance. Luciano couldn’t have shot himself.”
    Alex was incredulous, “Who at the police station would have the type of power to have manufactured all of this information?”
    “Not sure. Some of these docs could be forgeries. However, I found a flurry of e-mails going back and forth between Sanderson, our Chief of Police, and the Mayor regarding this case.” Detective Jones rubbed his unshaven face, “It’s possible because this is high profile that he wants to be kept in the loop. However, I doubt it. We’ve had dozens of high profiles without this type of activity. At least as far as I know.
    Again, I’m the lead detective, and even I don’t have the official autopsy report that was dated two weeks ago. They’ve been sitting on this information. My guess is they’re still trying to tie up loose ends.”
    This was big. Braylee shouldn’t hear any of this because none of it would be admissible in court if it ever made it that far. However, more and more of Alex’s theory was starting to have more validity. If any of this could be proven true.
    Braylee was curious and couldn’t help blurting out, “What’s in this for you? I mean why give us this information?”
    “Because I’m a good cop. Believe it or not…there’s a lot of us who want to see justice prevail. I’ve got two more years until retirement and I don’t give a shit