with her permission, never been kissed or held in a way that was reverent.
Orion would keep an eye on it, on this Christopher. Maddox already said he was working on the background check. She’d relax a little more when she got that back.
Though she wondered what Bob Collins would’ve looked like. Squeaky clean except for a couple of parking tickets, she guessed.
No one could really know on paper what a monster was.
No, it was only when it was too late that you found out.
Twenty
“Bro, you still hung up on that Collins murder?” Eric asked from behind Maddox.
Because he was well practiced, he managed to hide his flinch. It was a bad quality in a detective to not know when someone was sneaking up on you. Especially someone with a gun on his hip.
Yes, this was his partner and arguably closest friend, but it was the principle of the matter. Plus, Maddox probably had some latent hostility aimed at his best friend and partner for dating his sister. Even though Eric was a good man, treated women right. Treated his sister in a way Maddox knew she’d never been treated by a man. Yes, all good things. But April was his baby sister and his best friend. It was the principle of the matter.
“I know it’s high profile since he’s very rich and well respected by the mayor, who’s pushing the chief, but we’ve got nothing. We can’t make a perp out of nothing.”
Eric was right. They didn’t have anything, despite the fact it was a grisly crime scene that had all the hallmarks of a crime of passion—those were usually the sloppiest and easiest to solve. It was in a pretty public place as well, but they hadn’t managed to catch a single break. The murder took place in a shitty but well-trafficked neighborhood, and in an alley that didn’t offer much shelter or privacy.
The killing itself wasn’t quick. There were defensive wounds on the doctor’s hands, so there was most likely a struggle. Yet they had found no DNA. No one walking by, no CCTV cameras. Maddox’s gut told him that the murder was one of opportunity, but the victim wasn’t robbed. The man’s twenty-thousand-dollar watch had been on his wrist when discovered. This had been personal.
It would surprise a lot of people to know just how much luck factored into homicide.
He knew all too well just how powerful luck, or lack of it, could be to a victim.
Maddox learned that when Ri didn’t turn up at school the day after he finally made her his girlfriend. He learned that ten years later, when he found out just how unlucky she was to be biking home that night, alone, with no one there to stop it.
But, with crimes of passion, there was a connection. Random murders were nowhere near as common as the media liked to tell the general public. It was easier to accept the thought of a deranged man with a broken past murdering you for no other reason than because he was evil. It was much easier than thinking your husband might snap and stab you to death because you were fucking your personal trainer.
Bob’s wife was fucking her personal trainer. But both of them had alibis. They were across the country, in a hotel in California, with security cameras at the hotel confirming their presence.
Maddox and Eric had done a deep dive of the doctor’s relationships. He was widely respected and well liked, if a little arrogant, but nothing that would make someone want to butcher him like a pig.
He had no record, except some parking tickets paid promptly and one speeding ticket, also paid promptly. The solicitation charge in the eighties had never actually been put on his record.
His financials were impressive, matched up with the car, the house, and the twenty-thousand-dollar watch that remained on his wrist after he was murdered. There were some large charges that had been leaving the family account and going to a private corporation, but those stopped months ago, and it was probably nothing. Though Maddox made a mental note to look into that further because it was the only remotely curious thing about the man.
Nothing was adding up. Maddox was missing something.
“There’s never nothing,” Maddox told his partner, not looking up from the initial report.
Eric clapped him on the shoulder. “No,” he agreed. “There is always something, somewhere. But we’re human, and we miss shit. Either we’ll find it eventually, or we won’t. Staring at that report