The Little Grave (Detective Amanda Steele)

“This? Take it.” He tossed the bracelet across the table. “Damn thing’s giving me a rash anyway.”

She examined it where it came to rest on the table. She wouldn’t be touching it without gloves. “Did Chad give it to you?”

Freddy’s jaw was clenched, and he was looking at the table. She’d take his silence as a yes.

Maybe it wasn’t silver but rather a worthless imitation? Some people were allergic to fake jewelry; some were allergic to the real thing.

“Hey.” Freddy snapped his fingers. “Can I go now?”

She got up from the table, weighing the options. Freddy could have been involved in Palmer’s murder and the two cold cases, but she didn’t have the evidence to support that and he did have an alibi. Sure, he’d been involved with Palmer and up to something illegal, but until she could figure out what and get the proof to back up her hunch, it was in her best interests to let him go. She slipped her hands into her jacket pocket. “You can go. For now. But stay close.”

Freddy jumped up and beelined for the door, but he stopped before letting himself out. “I’d just watch your back if I were you.” He smirked and let himself out.

She could charge him for threatening an officer, but going that route could mess up her life, and he knew it, the smug son of a bitch. Now, to get her hands on a pair of gloves to transport this bracelet…

Twenty-Four

Amanda carted the bracelet back to her desk in the palm of a gloved hand, holding it like a piece of valuable china, and dropped into he

r chair.

“You really think that was Palmer’s bracelet?” Trent eyed her skeptically from the doorway of her cubicle.

“We talked about Casey-Anne being connected to Webb through the pawnshop,” she started.

“We speculated she might have turned something in for cash, but that doesn’t look like much.” He gestured to the bracelet.

She looked down at the bracelet in her hand, her mind spinning. Trent was right that it didn’t look like much, but she’d wager, based on its weight, that it was real silver. But how did the bracelet factor into Palmer’s murder—if it did at all? And was his murder actually linked to the Ritter and Webb cold cases? They had been shot, while Palmer had been force-fed alcohol. The MO couldn’t be more different. But she couldn’t ignore the connection that Freddy had with Palmer and Webb. Ritter was the piece that didn’t quite fit.

“Amanda?” Trent prompted.

“Yeah, I was just thinking about everything, whether maybe we’re making a leap to think the three murders—Ritter, Webb, and Palmer—are linked.” That’s what she said, but there was a niggling in her gut that didn’t find the possibility too far-fetched.

She looked up from the bracelet and met Trent’s gaze. “Freddy handed this over rather easily, so we can assume it means nothing to him. Heck, we don’t even know if it really means anything, period. But the car… it was a definite connection between Freddy and Palmer on the day he was murdered, and I’m confident Freddy’s hiding something about it. I think he’s on the hook with it missing. How that factors into Palmer’s murder though… I don’t know yet if it does.”

“Well, you had me look up recent robberies.” He walked back to his desk.

“I’m well aware.”

“There was a home invasion at the Stewarts’ residence in Woodbridge last week. Jewelry was stolen, with a combined value of over fifty thousand dollars.”

“Fifty, as in five-o?” She wasn’t sure if she’d heard him correctly.

“Yep.”

“So if the car was taken by Palmer’s killer and maybe the stolen items along with it… That could explain why Freddy’s upset that it’s missing.”

“Couldn’t it,” he agreed.

“Maybe Palmer was going to fence the items, somewhere, somehow. He probably made some ‘friends’ while he was in prison.”

“Leopards don’t change their spots, as they say.”

“Something like that.”

“Well, we find the car and we might get more answers. Maybe Palmer had done something with the goods, someone wasn’t happy and killed him.”

“I don’t know.” She saw it as a possibility. Trent’s words “we find the car” reminded her she’d missed filling him in. “I forgot to tell you I already had a be-on-the-lookout issued for a powder-blue Caprice.”