Free Particles of Murder (A Shadow of Death Romantic Suspense Series Book 1) by Charlotte Raine

out if he’s the killer.”
    “Oh, come on,” he says. “Let’s go investigate that other professor he was talking about. Zimmer. He seems pretty suspicious. I’d never trust any professor that was beloved by all of his students.”
    “Being nice isn’t a crime.”
    He narrows his eyes. “Do you have a thing for this guy? You’re usually the first to criticize.”
    “He’s the one who wanted my help to investigate.”
    “Ah,” he says. “So, you do have a thing for him.”
    “No.”
    “Then, let’s question him. Tell him to meet us at my apartment. I prefer to be on my own turf. College campuses freak me out. I’ve seen ten people in pajamas, a guy on a unicycle, and a school mascot of a shark since we’ve been here. I’m pretty sure Tuskmirth’s mascot isn’t a shark. This whole place is fucked up.”
    “Is it the truth and knowledge that freaks you out, Andre?” I ask. “It doesn’t matter. We’re not going to question him.”
    “I thought you always wanted the truth.”
    “When has that mattered to you?” I snap.
    He smirks. “You know…there’s always a different way we can get information without confronting him,” he says. “I mean, if there was something weird going on between him and his students, there’s one obvious place for them to meet. How easy do you think it is to break into his office?”
    “Apparently, very easy,” I say. “But we can’t just break in. I’m part of law enforcement.”
    He grins. “I’m not.”

    * * *
    “ I ’m not doing this with you,” I say, standing right outside of John’s office as I hear Andre moving the rolling office chair. “If anybody comes around, I’m going to pretend I found you here and I’m going to arrest your ass for getting me in trouble again.”
    “You just love talking about my ass, don’t you?” he teases. “Don’t lie, Mira. You know you wouldn’t turn me in. That would be a quick way to piss off your Captain and Lieutenant…and you know you’d never be able to handle the idea of me being locked up again.”
    “You’re full of yourself.”
    “I hope so. I’d hate to be full of anyone else,” he says. “Did you know this guy wrote a book? It’s called Insomniac Rites. That sounds like the book of a crazy person. It sounds interesting.”
    “Is it about insomnia or religion?” I ask.
    “Uh, from what I can tell…neither,” he says. “The back of the book says: Sarah Condran is a young student at a prestigious university, working day and night to become a dancer. She needs to remain one of the top dancers to keep a scholarship that pays for her tuition. Though she has a boyfriend—a fraternity brother with a love for the superficial things in life—who has proposed to her, Sarah finds herself drawn to one of her dance professors. As she’s on the edge of gaining everything she has ever dreamed and losing everything she needs, she finds that even when the body is pushed to exhaustion and the habits— oh, that’s what it has to do with insomnia. That makes more sense.”
    “A college student having an affair with her professor?” I ask. “That seems a bit cliché for a college professor.”
    “Oh, he wrote another book too,” he says. “It’s still in manuscript form. It’s called Little Trials. This one is also about a college student. I’ve heard that when you’re writing, you’re supposed to write about what you know…I guess this professor really does that.”
    “Can you hurry up?” I ask. “He could come back to his office at any minute.”
    “This one reminds me of that movie I told you about. It’s about this woodsman that’s miserable with his life until he decides to move into the city as a way to change his environment. He’s still unhappy until he meets a group of drug enthusiasts—”
    “Wait,” I interrupt. “A woodsman?”
    I slip into John’s office. Andre is facing away from me, reading from a large stack of paper.
    “Why is the woodsman part important?”