Free Sympathy For The Devil by Asha King Page A

Archer, she’d had three hours of sleep and now she was ready to tackle the day head on. Check on things at Archer’s house for a bit, come back around noon if it didn’t look like he was going anywhere and hit the morgue to beg some favors. It would be worth seeing, too, whether or not anyone at the police station could tell her more. Keisha wouldn’t go so far as to break any laws to give her information, but she’d offer something .
    She was outside and in her car, heading for Malone’s within minutes and gulping down coffee at each stoplight. Breakfast hadn’t even occurred to her, but she’d maybe grab something from the donut shop drive-thru on her way out of town. Her cup of coffee was gone by the time she had obtained Malone’s gray, compact two-door from his driveway.
    Her fingers drummed on the steering wheel as she drove toward Archer’s house for a morning stakeout, completely missing the beat of the country music twang sounding on the speakers. Despite having all night to shake the feeling, Tash couldn’t get rid of it.
    She felt bad.
    Archer had looked so damn hurt. The sudden shift with him from hot to cold made total sense once he started lobbing accusations at her, so that wasn’t what stuck with her. No, it was the sadness to his eyes, the angry resolve to his expression when he told her she’d almost fooled him. She’d knowingly deceived him, after all—was aware of it every step of the way—but she didn’t expect to feel... guilty about it.
    Yep, Adam was gonna kill her.
     
    ****
     
    “I could get in a lot of trouble for this.” The Stirling Falls Memorial Hospital morgue assistant was a petite, twenty-something redheaded woman with oversized glasses and scrubs that looked two sizes too big. Even as she gave Natasha the warning, she led the way toward the morgue. Probably because the smell of fresh pastries and slice of cherry pie made by Liliah Jean that very morning wafted around them, covering the antiseptic smell. People in this town would do damn near anything for baked goods from The Coffee Hut, especially on a quiet Sunday.
    “I really appreciate it,” Tash said as she followed. And she did appreciate it, was even willing to follow the rules for this opportunity. No taking pictures, no taking files, no breathing a word of anything to anyone. Things may be fairly informal in Stirling Falls but she knew full well if anyone found out about this, she’d probably be hauled off to jail for interfering with an active investigation.
    The hall leading to the morgue was cold and seemed dark even though it was well lit. The cinderblock walls were a dark slate gray, and fluorescent bulbs above still left shadows in the corners.
    “It’s not a pretty sight,” the morgue assistant continued and Tash wished she could remember the girl’s name but it still hadn’t come to her.
    “I know, I was at the crime scene.” A small fib, really. One that thankfully went unquestioned.
    The assistant pushed open the door to the morgue, flipped on the light inside, and grabbed a clipboard hanging on the wall. “Okay...let’s see. Well, we finally have a name.”
    Tash wished she could grab her notebook or at least record everything on her phone, but she’d promised this would all be off the record, so all information would need to be stored in her memory. “Is she from around here?”
    “Nope. Hastings County.”
    That was about a thirty minute drive outside of town, east along Hastings Creek. Small township, about half the size of Stirling Falls. “Her name?”
    “Deborah Ann Walker. Her boyfriend and sister have been in to identify her. Autopsy’s done. The funeral home is picking her up later today.”
    As the morgue assistant crossed the room to haul open one of the doors to the wall of refrigerated units, Tash had to admit the visit here was a very sobering thought. She tended to get caught up in her work, seeing everything as a challenge, a puzzle, and briefly forgot the pieces