Free Deceive Her With Desire by Nina Pierce Page A

nothing more than a teenage punk getting ready for the weekend.
    “I don’t know, Scott.” Lafflin said. “The suspect looks pretty shaken up. Either there’s been a setup, or it’s one hell of an act.”
    “Tell me again how you found the heroin.”
    “We got a call into the switchboard at…” The chief consulted his notes. “Approximately five-thirty. An unidentified caller told us a street dealer was headed out of Cutler with drugs. Gave a detailed description of the vehicle and the time frame it would be on that particular road.”
    “Did you ID the caller?”
    “The only thing that showed up on the switchboard was some disposable cell phone number. Can’t be traced back to the owner. Probably ditched the thing after reporting to us.”
    “How much was confiscated?”
    “Five glassine envelopes. We’ve had it verified. It’s pure heroin all right.”
    “That’s barely a hundred bucks, maybe a little more if the guy sold it on the streets in Bangor, less, if he planned on using some of it himself,” Ayden said. With the fish he was hoping to land, this small amount was hardly worth making a fuss over. But the Cutler police were no doubt slapping themselves on the back. It was probably the most action they’d seen in years.
    “You think we got some turf war going on? Some dealer stepping on another’s toes?” the chief asked. “Does seem pretty weird someone had all the information about the drugs.”
    “Not sure.” Ayden hoped that wasn’t the case. He didn’t want anything to blow the deal with Jameson. “Other than the arresting officers, anyone talk to the guy?”
    “It’s a woman. And no, I called you when they were bringing her in. I figured it couldn’t be a coincidence that the DEA is investigating heroin in our pretty little town and this happens.” Lafflin’s sizeable chest inflated. “I’ve been letting her stew while I waited for you. Figured you’d want to hear it firsthand.”
    “I appreciate that.” Ayden was becoming more and more convinced that the arrest was nothing of consequence. “I’m comfortable with you handling the interrogation. I assume you’ve got somewhere for me to watch?”
    “Just had it installed beginning of this year. ” Lafflin walked over to a small television and begin fiddling with the knobs. “You can sit right in my chair and see everything.”
    Ayden settled in the high back office chair, thinking about the work he still had left to do when he got back to the condo. Lafflin continued to make adjustments on the television.
    “There, best seat in the house.”
    Ayden nearly swallowed his tongue when he saw Deirdre Tilling handcuffed to the table.
    * * * *
     
    Nausea rolled through her stomach and clogged her throat. Deirdre was in some kind of nightmare.
    They’d brought her coffee, but her trembling hands weren’t able to pick up the cup without spilling the contents all over the marred table. So she sat in the metal chair, worrying her fingers, staring at the handcuffs on her wrists. How the hell had this happened?
    They’d read Deirdre her rights at the truck, or had that been her imagination? She was having a hard time believing she couldn’t just pinch herself and wake up from this nightmare. Deirdre wasn’t sure she’d been charged yet, no one had taken her fingerprints or taken pictures, but she figured it was only a matter of time. Unfortunately, she had no idea what crime they thought she’d committed.
    And to top it all off, no one knew she’d been arrested.
    Mark had taken Rachel with him in the van back to the high school in Delmont while Deirdre had cleaned up in the garage. She’d been at least thirty minutes behind them leaving the estate. She wouldn’t even be missed until morning when she didn’t show up for work.
    And the Cutler police refused to let her use the phone. Wasn’t she allowed one phone call? Or did that only happen in the movies?
    Deirdre had no idea how long she’d been in the little room.