Lone Wolf - J.R. Rain Page 0,27
bounty hunter and Miguel had vouched for him, so there was that. Maybe it was true that Alex was merely investigating his brother’s attack. Besides, he’d also saved my life and my instincts told me I could trust him. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to trust him, but my instincts had never steered me wrong before and I’d been at this cop game for a while now. Even so, I also wasn’t one to take unnecessary chances.
And as far as the case was concerned, Alex could have attempted to kill his brother, verified bounty hunter or not.
“I’m not going to bother handcuffing you since that obviously did no good.” I kicked out my chair from underneath my desk and stood. I placed my hand on top of my holstered gun to warn him not to put up a fight, to which Alex shook his head.
“I’ll go willingly.” He placed his cup of coffee on my desk and stood. He towered over me by a good foot or so. Maybe more. And given the fact that he’d snapped the cuffs in half like he was playing wishbone, hopefully, he would go willingly…
“Put your hands on top of your head,” I said, figuring I should take whatever precautions I could. I headed for the door to my office and stepped in line behind him as he nodded and followed my orders. My right hand rested on the Colt the entire time. “At the end of the hall, you’re going to make a right,” I said as I bypassed him to hold the door open.
“After you,” he said with a grin.
“You first,” I responded in an icy tone.
He didn’t respond, other than to nod as he walked through the door.
I was left to wonder whether he’d been planning to pull a fast one on me or if he was simply a gentleman. But, then I realized if he’d wanted to attack me, he’d had every opportunity to do so earlier and yet, he hadn’t. So that meant… Okay, he was a gentleman, but so what? He was also looney tunes and potentially a brother killer.
“I didn’t do this to Donovan,” he said in a soft voice as we walked down the quiet hallway. Aside from Stan, the night watchman, the station was empty. And who the hell knew where Stan was. Probably on another coffee break in the break room. Or he could possibly be asleep. There had been many occasions when I’d caught him snoozing on duty.
“You understand you’re the number one suspect in your brother’s death?” I asked with a frown as he stopped walking and glanced back at me.
“My brother isn’t dead.” I didn’t respond, so he continued, “Someone tried to kill my brother, but whoever that someone was, they weren’t successful because they didn’t stab him all the way through the heart and they didn’t burn his body.”
“So?”
“All they did was piss him off.”
“That still doesn’t explain anything. The body Miguel and I found in the snow was that of a deceased man.”
“And what happened in the good doctor’s office after the autopsy on the so-called deceased man?” Alex asked me, in a patronizing tone. I didn’t respond so he answered his own question for me. “Donovan escaped. That’s what happened.”
“Okay, let’s pretend I’m buying into your little explanation…”
“There’s nothing to buy into,” he interrupted. “I’m telling you the truth.”
“Let’s get back to the murder.” None of this made any damn sense and the confusion surrounding all of it was starting to take a toll on me.
“There was no murder.”
“There was a dead body in the snow. With a knife protruding from the corpse’s chest. That counts as a murder in my books, regardless of whatever Kool-Aid you’re trying to get me to drink.” I took a deep breath. “And as far as suspects go, you definitely had a motive to kill your brother, considering he stole the woman you admitted to being in love with.”
Alex cocked his head to the side. “By all surface appearances, that would make sense, wouldn’t it?”
“It would.” I reached up to grip his upper arm and led him down the hall again toward our two holding cells, both of which were empty. Not a lot happened in Hope…
“Surface appearances can be deceiving,” he answered with a smile that he then forcibly turned into a yawn. When we reached the end of the hall, we took a right and met a locked door. I pulled my key ring out from my