Strand of Deception

by Robin Caroll

  She’d always known she’d see him again. She just hadn’t been prepared to feel . . .

  Such overwhelming relief.

  Happiness bubbled in her chest. All these years, she’d imagined he had some magical hold on her. Like if she ever saw him again, she’d fall under his spell again. Not true.

  She looked at him through the window. What had she ever seen in him? Maybe he’d aged poorly, but he wasn’t even all that attractive. Not like Nick.

  She turned to Nick, grinning. “You mean I get to stick him with a needle?”

  His brows furrowed. “I don’t understand . . . you were so adamant he’s innocent.”

  “Oh, I still believe he’s innocent.” A cheat and a jerk, yes, but not a murderer. “The DNA sample will prove which one of us is correct.”

  Nick crossed his arms over his chest. “Then why are you acting almost giddy?”

  He’d never understand, even if she tried to explain it. “Let’s just say that seeing him again makes me so glad I’m not dating him any longer.”

  Nick grinned and pulled her into a hug. He planted a quick kiss on her lips just as Darren entered the room. He coughed.

  She stepped out of Nick’s embrace and laughed. “It’s okay to come in, Darren.”

  “CSU sent your packet.” He held up the bag.

  “Good.”

  District Attorney Jones stepped into the room. “Are you ready?”

  She took the bag from Darren. “You betcha.”

  He nodded at Nick. “You have to go in with her, in case he’s changed his mind and lawyered up.”

  Nick opened the door for her and let her precede him into the room. “This is Ms. Baxter with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and she’ll be taking a blood sample from you for DNA typing purposes.”

  Adam nodded, then glanced at her. His eyes widened. “Maddie?”

  “Hi, Adam.” She set the bag on the table and pulled on the latex gloves.

  “It’s been a long time.”

  “Eleven years.” She reached for his arm. “Can you pull your sleeve up, please?”

  “Wow. How have you been?”

  She took the blue strip of rubber and tied it tightly around his bicep. “I’m wonderful. Make a fist for me, please.”

  “You look amazing.”

  Nick slid the chair against the floor. It made a long, scraping sound.

  Maddie smiled as she bent her head and felt for Adam’s largest vein on the inside of his elbow.

  “So you work with the cops? That’s cool.”

  She found the vein and reached for the syringe. “I actually am a commissioned law-enforcement officer.” She slid the needle under the skin and into the vein.

  He winced.

  She pulled back the plunger. Blood began to fill the tube. “I get to carry a gun and everything.”

  “You really look great.” He moved a little. “I don’t see a wedding ring. You still available?”

  Nick coughed.

  She released the rubber strip around his arm, still smiling to herself. “I’m not married but I am seeing someone.” Maddie filled the rest of the vial, then eased the needle out and put a wad of gauze against the hole. She secured the tube of blood. “Keep pressure on your arm and it won’t bruise.”

  “You turned out to be one beautiful woman, Maddie. Interested in getting together sometime?”

  She collected all of her items and stood, looking down at him and shaking her head. “No, I wouldn’t. I don’t even know what I saw in you back then, Adam. I sure don’t know why I beat myself up that you cheated on me.” She headed to the door, Nick on her heels.

  As soon as he shut the door she turned to Nick. “Kiss me.”

  “What?” He glanced toward the door to the viewing room.

  “I said, kiss me.”

  He planted a quick kiss on her cheek.

  “Thank you. I feel so much better now.”

  Darren and the district attorney met them in the hall. Neither smiled.

  “Did you have a personal relationship with Adam Alexander?” Jones asked.

  She blinked. “We dated eleven years ago.”

  The district attorney looked at Darren, who turned to her. “I’m calling Eva to get her over here now.”

  “What’s wrong?” She’d done everything by the book. Even told him how to avoid bruising.

  “You could have just blown our case.” The DA scrunched his face. “If the DNA matches and he gets a good defense attorney, they’ll throw out the sample saying you contaminated it because of your past relationship.”

  “You know he’s gone, gone, gone . . .”

  “You were witnesses through the two-way mirror that I followed proper protocol in drawing his blood. I would never tamper with the chain of evidence. That’s my reputation on the line.”

  “Hip shaking King Creole.”

  “But if you process it . . . Agent Timmons says there’s another forensic scientist in your lab who can run the tests?”

  Maddie nodded. “Eva.”

  “Good. Then we’ll let her take it and process it. How long until we can run it against the sample taken from Gina Ford’s murder scene?”

  “Since Adam’s sample is a known sample, we can compare the two for a match. That can be done within about thirty-six hours.”

  The DA nodded. “So you should know if it’s a match—?”

  “Thursday morning.”

  “Very well.” DA Jones held out his hand. “I’ll take custody of the sample until your co-worker gets here.”

  “Okay.” She handed it to him.

  “Thank you. Is there any way you could take tomorrow off from work? Just so you won’t even be in the lab? I don’t want to risk giving a defense attorney any ammunition.”

  “That’s fine. Peter will let me have a day off.”

  “I’m glad you understand.”

  She nodded, then touched Nick’s arm. “Can I see you for a few minutes? There’s something I need your help with.” She could only pray he’d be willing and able to help her. “I have everything here in my briefcase.”

  To see Alexander didn’t have an effect on her . . . Nick’s heartbeat held steady and firm. She’d done her job without batting an eye. Even deflected Alexander’s innuendos and blatant interest. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so attracted to a woman.

  “Okay, are you ready?” She sat in front of his desk, the one she’d cleared off to make space.

  “Ready.”

  She handed him a piece of paper. “That’s the crime-scene report of an attack on one Nettie Sloan nine years ago.”

  Sloan? “Maddie, what are you doing?”

  “Just hear me out. Please.” She pointed at the paper. “Read it.”

  He scanned the information. Woman’s electricity goes out at night. Man breaks in and assaults her, then leaves. “Okay.”

  Maddie handed him another sheet of paper. “Here is the initial suspect. Read it.”

  He’d have to humor her or he’d hurt her feelings, so he read. Bobby Rust. Had previously been rejected by the victim. Had allegedly previously been engaged in drug dealing with the victim’s brother, but they’d had a falling out. Alibi stated he was with friends. Two collaborated his story, both ex-cons. Rust had no record. Worked at an auto shop. “Okay.”

  She handed him another piece. “Now, here is the next suspect the police came up with.”

  He took it and read. Mark Hubble. No previous contact with victim or her family. As far as records went, he didn’t even know the victim. He had past record including sexual misdemeanors. Alibi could not be confirmed. Unemployed. “Okay.”

  “Now, stay sitting there.” She went to his office door and shut it. She taped two pho
tographs up on the door, then turned out the overhead light. Maddie turned on his desk lap and situated its beam until it pointed to the ceiling. “Now, squint your eyes and look at those pictures.”

  He did. Couldn’t tell a single thing about them except both were black men and both had big heads.

  She turned on the lights. “Look at the pictures again. Can you tell me anything that you see that could distinguish one from the other?”

  “No.”

  Maddie smiled and pulled the pictures down. She handed him the two pictures.

  “These guys look pretty similar.”

  “That’s my point.”

  He looked up at her. “Maddie, honey I want to help you, I do, but I’m not getting what your point is.”

  “Why would the police not put both men, both suspects, in a lineup for the victim?”

  “Well, he has an alibi and no record.”

  “He has the word of two ex-cons and don’t you find it strange he has no record? Nothing at all? No minor possession, even though according to the investigating officers, he had been engaged in drug dealing with the victim’s brother. He doesn’t even have a speeding ticket.”

  “That is a bit unusual.”

  “Hubble had a habit of sexual deviation, yes, but it was always directed to college girls. Never someone off campus. Why change his MO that night?”

  “Good point.”

  She smiled and he knew he was supposed to concentrate on the scenario she laid out, but his mind wandered to the passion in her eyes. How she’d been so confident and assertive after seeing Alexander.

  “Nick?”

  He focused back on her. She held out yet another sheet of paper. A copy of a newspaper article about a big drug-trafficking bust. Memphis PD in partnership with DEA. Undercover stuff. Put over ten suppliers and dealers in prison and confiscated drugs with a street value over two and a half million dollars. He remembered something about this. Mexican cartels would put the drugs in car parts and ship them to auto shops in the states.

  Wait a minute . . . “Let me see the sheet on Rust again.”

  She handed him the entire folder.

  After the initial investigators questioned Bobby Rust, he was omitted totally from the investigation. No further mention of his name was made. It was as if he’d never been a part of the investigation. Had the original investigators’ notes not been in the file, Bobby Rust wouldn’t have even been a part of the file.

  It was common practice for the two prime suspects, if they didn’t have iron-clad alibis, which the word of two ex-cons wasn’t, to be put in the lineup for the eyewitness. Especially when they had such similar features and builds.

  Furthermore, Nick couldn’t see what led the police to consider Hubble a suspect in the first place. He had no connection to the victim or her family, nor had his MO led the investigation to Hubble. The only thing was his sexual record and the victim’s positive identification.

  Which in Nick’s experience, was about as reliable as a city bus.

  It was as if someone handed Hubble to the authorities as a suspect and swept Rust under the rug. Add in the element of the drug bust and Rust’s employment . . .

  “Did you find out the name of the auto shops busted in the undercover operation?” he asked Maddie.

  “No. I didn’t even think to.”

  He tapped the copy of the article. “Contact the reporter. They usually keep their notes. If not, you can find it in the arrest records.”

  “You’re thinking the same thing I am, aren’t you—that Rust was a CI or somehow valuable to the drug-trafficking operation?”

  “It looks suspicious. If the name of the auto shop in the bust is the same one Rust worked for, then you have something you can take to the DA and ask them to look into. Especially since DNA has proven Hubble wasn’t guilty of that crime.”

  She smiled, and his entire world righted. “The man who attacked Nettie Sloan was never Mark Hubble. It was Bobby Rust.”

  “You don’t know that. You can only take to a judge what you can prove. You’ve proven Hubble wasn’t her attacker, so you need to offer up another suspect.”

  She nodded. “But I’m right. I know it.” She grinned wider. “Call it a hunch.”

  “A hunch, huh?” He wanted to kiss that cute little dimple in her right cheek that rarely came out to play. “You could be right. Wait and see what you can prove.” He handed her back her file. “Why are you doing this? You said Hubble creeped you out in court.”

  “This isn’t about him. It’s about Nettie Sloan and giving her peace of mind. It’s about giving her justice against the man who really attacked her.”

  He stood and leaned over his desk toward her. “You’re awfully cute when you’re fighting for justice, you know that?”

  She leaned toward him until their noses were almost touching. “I am, am I?”

  He nodded, then planted a kiss on the tip of her nose. “Very cute.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Whatever I will become will be what God has chosen for me.”

  Elvis Presley

  TCB Auto Repair.

  That was the name of the shop shut down in the drug-trafficking ring operation. Owned by one Thomas Bruster.

  It was also Bobby Rust’s place of employment nine years ago.

  Maddie debated for the umpteenth time about asking Nick to go with her to see DA Jones. She didn’t need him, though. She was well within her rights to take a matter such as this to the district attorney.

  When she’d called this morning, his secretary had told her, “You’re in luck. His nine o’clock canceled. But you’d better hurry. He plays golf on Wednesdays at eleven if at all possible.”

  So Maddie had gotten dressed and hurried down to the DA’s office, where she now paced outside of his office.

  “Ms. Baxter, come in.” He greeted her in the hallway and escorted her into his office. “Such a pleasure to see you, although I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting to hear from your office before tomorrow.”

  “This is a different case, sir. Since I’m not working in the office today.”

  He smiled. “Very good. Now, what can I help you with today?”

  She laid out the case and her concerns, much as she had to Nick. DA Jones gave Maddie his full attention. “I think this definitely should be considered. Take your file to Captain Moore at the main precinct. Tell him I sent you. He’ll listen and if he thinks it’s worth looking into, he’ll make it happen.”

  She stood and shook his hand. “Thank you.”

  Maddie went directly to see Captain Moore, who agreed it looked suspicious enough for further review, so he assured her it would go to his best team. If they found something substantial, they’d also turn the incident over to Internal Affairs to investigate as well.

  Barely eleven thirty, and she had nothing else planned for the rest of the day. Maybe she’d cook Nick dinner. She almost laughed. She’d have to go grocery shopping first. She needed to do that anyway. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone. It would serve her better to make a list before going. Otherwise, she could end up without half the stuff she needed.

  Did Nick like lobster? Grilled lobster tails were amazing. The weather was nice enough to fire up the grill. If she wore her coat.

  She’d just pulled up in her driveway and opened her garage when her cell rang. She had to dig around in her purse to find it. “Hello?”

  “Where are you?” Eva sounded both excited and upset at the same time.

  “Just pulling in my driveway. Why? What’s up?”

  “We just got a call from Memphis PD. Their CSI finally processed forensics taken from the Hailey Carter crime scene. They think they have a clean latent. Peter sent Ivan over to assist and bring it back to run through AFIS.”

&nbs
p; “Oh, I pray they get one.”

  “Yeah. And guess what else?”

  “You won the lottery?” Maddie chuckled as she pulled her car into the garage and pressed the remote to shut the door.

  “Could be better than that.”

  “Really?” She headed into the house, tossed her purse and keys onto the table, then put her gun and badge in her bedside table.

  “Darren asked me out.”

  Maddie plopped onto the bed. “Darren asked you out?”

  “Yeah. It’s not a real date-date or anything. He invited me over to his house for spaghetti Friday night. Give me a chance to get to know Savannah a little better too. Then we’re going to watch a DVD. Isn’t that cool?”

  Eva sounded so excited. “That is cool.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  Maddie knew how she felt. She couldn’t wait to see Nick again. “How’s the testing going? I really hate not being there.”

  “I know. It’s good. Results should be up around three in the morning. I’ll be in at seven to analyze so I should be able to compare no later than nine.”

  “Thanks, Eva.”

  “No worries.”

  Her call-waiting beep sounded. “Hey, my other line’s ringing.”

  “I’ll talk to you later.”

  Maddie pressed the button to answer the other call. “Hello?”

  “Maddie?”

  “Riley!” She rolled to prop up on her pillow. “How are you?”

  “I’m wonderful. Couldn’t be better.” The pure joy in her sister’s voice struck a chord.

  “Oh?” But Maddie had a feeling she knew what was coming next.

  “Hayden proposed! Over breakfast!”

  “Aww, Riley! I’m so happy for you. This is awesome.” Tears filled her eyes. Happy, joyful tears that felt amazing.

  “I can’t believe it. I’m so happy I can’t even describe it.”

  Maddie laughed. “Coming from a journalist, that’s pretty bad.”

  “I know, right?” Riley laughed. “My ring is beautiful.”