Free Vicious by Debra Webb Page B

weeks ago?” Jess folded her arms over her chest and eyed him with blatant suspicion. “You found out you weren’t the love of her life and that made you angry.”
    “That was business,” he argued. “She didn’t pay her rent on time.”
    “Had she always paid it on time in the past?” Jess countered. Templeton had lived over the shop she managed for two years. Had one failure to pay on time justified her eviction?
    “Doesn’t matter. I wanted her out and she got out.”
    “There are laws that protect tenants, Mr. Slater.” Jess leaned forward so he’d know she really wanted to hear his answer to the next question. “Did you break those laws?”
    He had the guts to smile even with his split lip. “Didn’t have to. She understood what I wanted.”
    “So the two of you settled that situation too,” Jess surmised.
    He leaned back in his chair. “That’s right.”
    Jess gathered another stack of photos from the file and spread them on top of the first ones. “Is this how you settled things, Mr. Slater?”
    “What the—?” He shoved back from the table, his chair scraping across the tile.
    “Did you murder her?” Jess demanded. “Did you crack open her chest and dig out her heart just to feel its warmth in your hands? Or was it a symbolic gesture about the loss of her love?”
    Slater shot to his feet. “I had nothing to do with that! I didn’t kill nobody!”
    Jess stood but Harper was already on the other side of the table with a warning hand on Slater’s arm. “You need to sit down, sir.” Though spoken quietly, Harper’s words carried a distinct promise of what Slater should expect if he did not comply.
    “Is this,” Jess snatched up one of the photos and shoved it toward Slater, “how you settle the issues in your sex life?”
    Whatever Rod Slater had done or not done, he went still as stone and glared at Jess with his one good eye. “That’s all I got to say without a lawyer present.”
    “You waived your right to an attorney, Mr. Slater,” Jess reminded him, not that it mattered if he’d now decided otherwise.
    “I changed my mind.” He looked around the room, found the camera high on the wall in one corner and stared directly at it. “I want a lawyer! Now!”
    Jess shuffled the photos back into her folder and tucked it into her bag. “You calm down, Mr. Slater.” She gave him a sugary smile. “Sergeant Harper will make sure your attorney is notified.”
    “Take your seat, sir.” Harper ushered Slater back into the chair. “Write down your attorney’s name and number and I’ll get him on the phone for you.”
    Jess gave Harper a nod and left the room. Lori and Hayes waited for her in the corridor. Both had observed the interview.
    “We’ll be holding Mr. Slater for a few hours as a person of interest. If he’s smart he’ll agree to let forensics take a few samples.” Jess drew in a big breath. “Meanwhile, Detective Wells, I’d like you and Sergeant Harper to continue questioning the friends and coworkers of both victims. If we can put Slater anywhere near those women on Sunday night, we can push harder for him to agree to submit the samples necessary to eliminate him as a suspect.”
    “On it, Chief,” Lori said.
    Before the detective could ask the question Jess knew would be next, she went on, “Officer Cook and I are going to the ME’s office to see what Dr. Baron has for us.” Probably not very much but anything would be better than nothing. And that was what they had right now, a little speculation and a whole lot of nothing.
    “I’d like to accompany you, Chief,” Hayes piped up.
    He was standing right there and still she’d forgotten to include him. Where was her mind? “That’s a good idea, Lieutenant. Go back to the office and let Cook know we’re heading out. I’ll be right there.”
    When Hayes was on his way, Lori said, “I did some follow up on Ellis’s background and found some interesting facts from his past.”
    “In this country or