Forbidden With Me - Leigh Lennon Page 0,8

we know, choking is a sign of a more intimate relationship, almost peaceful for the murderer.” I about choke on his words; no murder is peaceful, and though her death was different, three minors and two parents were viciously murdered. “This is a textbook case crime of passion with the eldest being choked. Consequently, the others were collateral damage as our profilers concluded, especially with the other murders being so much more gruesome. Finally, after all these years, there’s a DNA match we weren’t ever able to test. With a court order, we made a match, and we’ve made an arrest. We’re just giving you the heads-up. Get yourself up to speed and go back through your reports because you’ll be asked to testify.”

My blood boils. This is my case, and I was left out of the loop on it.

I’d never thought the ex-boyfriend, Smith Turner, was good for the murders. I’d been simply a beat cop, but I’ve lived and breathed this case, and it has never added up—plus his alibi had been airtight. “I don’t get it?”

I’m about to ask when Vanessa shuts me up. “You don’t need to get it, Detective Shanahan. Just do what we’ve asked. You’re dismissed.” I’m about to challenge her, especially with it being my case, but my best friend, who knows me too well, almost shoves me out of the room before my mouth writes a check my ass can’t cash.

My fingers ball into tight fists, sweat breaks out on my forehead, and it’s cold as shit in the precinct, but I’m sweating. Matt claps me on the back. “I see you can still get under her skin.” Matt never thought Vanessa and I were the right match. He’d always tell me I’d know when the right one came along as it had with his wife, Nic.

“Fuck, she’s a bitch.” I’m about to complain to the one man who had warned me time and time again that Vanessa Shay ate them up and spit them out. It’s the one time I wish I’d listened to my buddy. I’ll even give him the satisfaction and admit this when Vanessa pops her head out. Her frizzy black hair pulled back in a tight bun may be one reason she’s such a tight-ass, too.

“Oh, and, Detective Shanahan, the only witness to the murders is back in Seattle, so be sure to get with Malia Strickland and interview her. She may have only been nine, but the memory has a funny way of recalling details later on.” Again, how the fuck does she know Malia is back? I can ask her, but I’ll get as much information as I did before with the case.

She slips back in her office. Malia had gone to live with her mother’s sister in Eugene, Oregon, after the murders. Malia is back. The little girl who had clung to me and called me her police angel instead of policeman is home. I never wanted her back in a city that held so many horrific memories. And when she sees me, will I be one of those bad memories, reminding her of when her life was destroyed?

Chapter 4

Malia

Why return to a city that holds vile and disgusting memories of my past? The answer is in the question. One could call it healing by taking control of my life. Finding a way to tell the world I won’t be ruled by my past.

College move-in day has been chaotic—the elevator breaks and the toilets back up on every floor, yet I don’t let any of this hinder me. It wasn’t even the entire university that moved in, and it was crazy. They allow those in pre-curricular activities the option to settle in a couple of weeks early. I’m not in this category, but in my case, they agreed to let me, since I had nowhere to go after the farm sold.

Perspective was shoved in my fucking throat the day my family had been killed, and regardless of the challenges, I would not waste my new start.

I seldom open up for anyone to become attached. Call it a circumstance of hearing your entire family stabbed and mutilated over and over again. Well, everyone but my eldest sister. The man who murdered her used his bare hands.

At twenty, I return to the city I loved as a kid. There were so many days we spent down at the Seattle Center, the Space Needle, and the ferries we’d take to the San Juan Islands. My mom often