Free Perilous Curves Collection (BBW Romance) by Christa Wick Page B

the kid was banging."
    My hand curled tight around my phone but I managed not to turn and junk punch Hicks. Just like Alex's washed-up, politicking attorney, every police force has at least one asshole on it, and sometimes that asshole manages to ruin someone's life for a very long time. It was Alex's dumb bad luck that Hicks was that asshole and had caught his case. The detective had a hard on against Dante and was taking it out on the boy.
    "He isn't even American, the father," Hicks said as Davies opened the shelter door for him. "His mother got off the boat from Cuba already fat with him in her stomach and now he's the one driving around with a car worth more than my entire pension!"
    Maintaining my composure, I waited until the cops went inside before quickly replaying the recording. Aside from the occasional whoosh of a passing car obscuring a word or two, the phone had recorded the conversation perfectly. Smiling, I pocketed my new ace in the hole and stepped over to my car.
    Craig would keep Hicks and Davies waiting, but I didn't want them to realize I'd been standing out on the curb during their ill-advised conversation. I quickly removed a dark red jacket from my dry cleaning bag and swapped it out for the plain black one I had on. Then I pulled my hair into a high, tight bun and fished through the center console for a pair of momma's reading glasses. Last, I grabbed my heavy forensics bag from the trunk and shuffled back inside to bunk twenty-two.
    "Hey, Max." I threw the old man a wink.
    He gave me an easy, familiar grin, tilted his head and winked back.
    "You ready for that trade now?"
    Hicks took a step towards me, his voice too loud when he spoke. "Bum's gonna need to give us a sample."
    Smiling, I reached into my bag and removed a swab and evidence bag. "Max, did these gentlemen mention that they are cops?"
    Max immediately turned his head to the side and spit on the floor.
    "Your sample, detective. Now, about the dumpster at Arby's..." I handed the swab to the cop, my smile three times wider and brighter than the second before. I might not be able to bitch slap Hicks like I wanted to, but he was going to have to get down on his knees to collect Max's spit from the floor.
    Grimacing, Hicks wiped the swab across the floor while Davies bagged the jacket.
    "We'll send a patrol car," Davies said.
    I nodded -- it was more than I had hoped for.
    When the cops were gone and Max was back to snoring, Craig hooked my bag and gave the lapel of my red jacket a flip. "This wasn't what you went out in."
    "Nope."
    He shrugged, willing to let me keep it a mystery for the time being.
    "Ray's jacket won't mean much until trial," he warned.
    "I know." I wasn't looking forward to explaining it to Dante. Even if Alex's DNA wasn't on the jacket -- hell, even if they pulled a serial killer's DNA off the jacket -- the prosecutor would likely just change the theory of his case and keep Alex as a co-conspirator in the murder of Ray Epps. It was all about saving face. Having worked both sides of the crime scene, I'd seen it done a million times.
    I held little hope that Alex's case wouldn't be a million and one.
     

Chapter Nine
     
    The dumpster dive proved fruitless. The cops didn't find the cell phone or bag anything else. They did, however, leave with a CD capture of the video stream from the cameras pointed at the drive-thru window and inside registers.
    Leaving Craig to collect contact information from the employees working the late evening shift last Friday, I drove to my office for a solo strategy session. I felt down. Sure, I'd made progress on Alex's case, but it wasn't enough to get him out of jail.
    Whatever was on the Arby's video wouldn't do any good any time soon. The prosecution would sit on it as long as they could, even if it meant a killer was walking the streets of Masonville. And there was no way in hell Arby's corporate overlords would give me a second copy any sooner. They'd direct my inquiry to general counsel,