Free Chasing Suspect Three by Rod Hoisington Page A

police
station,” he said. “I didn’t know it was out there for public
consumption.”
    “You’re right, it shouldn’t be, but it’s just
too juicy.”
    “Come on, I’m dying here. Give me a chance to
tell you how it happened.”
    “Tell me or show me?” she said with a
straight face.
    Then he grinned. “You have to be
kidding.”
    “I am. I’ve taken this far enough...I’ve had
my fun.” She laughed and reached over and squeezed his arm.
“There’s nothing to explain. You were two consenting adults in what
was intended to be a private poolside setting. More power to you.
She was lucky to have a caring friend such as you.”
    He focused on her dark blue eyes and was lost
in them for a few seconds. “Let’s start with lunch.”
    She nodded okay. “Just remember to keep your
hands to yourself.”

Chapter Eight

    A fter watching
Martin walk on toward the police station to make amends with Judy,
Sandy continued on one short block to the county courthouse. She
checked her watch. Shapiro had said to come on over during lunch
hour—he had no appointments. She had no particular anxiety in
meeting with the ASA. It was early in the case, and both sides were
still gathering facts.
    In the lobby, she kidded with the sheriff’s
deputies as they cleared her through the security checkpoint. The
elevators were straight ahead. A group of three men was already
waiting at the elevator, talking and laughing. She stepped up and
stood beside them. Then she saw him. One of the men was Lawrence
Moran, the state attorney for the district.
    The last time they met, she was standing
contritely in his office being chewed out, while pleading for him
to not try to take away her newly acquired law license. Later, she
turned it all around on him by discovering an embarrassing bit of
his own malfeasance.
    When the elevator door opened, she held back.
Moran had not noticed her yet. He would as soon as she stepped out
into full view. But the men waited for her. She could still turn
and run. Screw him, she thought. What’s he going to do, yell and
scream? She stepped boldly first onto the elevator. No one
acknowledged her. The offices of the State Attorney, his
assistants, and staff were on the third floor. The door opened, she
stepped off briskly, and headed up the hall to the office of Mel
Shapiro, one of the ASAs on the staff of State Attorney Moran.
    She hadn’t crossed swords with Moran
recently, but remained persona non grata in his large office
suite down the hall in the opposite direction. She hadn’t pissed
him off lately, as far as she knew, still the day wasn’t over.
Before she went in Shapiro’s office, she looked over her shoulder
down the hallway. The group of men was in the hall talking. Moran
was standing at the side staring straight at her.
    When she walked in, Shapiro stood behind his
desk in his office and greeted her, “Ah, the good news is I’m going
to see you more often. The bad is it’ll be in a courtroom.”
    He was a gifted trial lawyer, and she wasn’t
looking forward to going up against him. “Always nice to see you,
Mel, wherever. How’s the bachelor father?”
    He noticed her glancing over at the photo of
the beautiful young girl on his credenza. “Did I show you her
picture?”
    “Not today.”
    “She’s fine. Two more years to go up at
Carolina State.”
    “North or South? I forget.”
    “I wish it were South Carolina State
University, be easier for her to get down here more often. Happy
and doing well—that’s the important thing. If you came to ask me to
have a drink with you tonight, Sorry, I’m busy. I’ve been putting
off rearranging my sock drawer.”
    The slight blush just then on his face led
her to believe he’d literally like to be in the place Chip Goddard
presently filled in her life. She certainly wouldn’t mind him being
there. He was tall and slender with old-fashioned horn-rimmed
glasses that reminded her of her high school principal; except the
principal had thin