Eat Crow (Cheap Thrills 6)

And then when she signed the statement.

Sitting up straight, I snapped my fingers. “You said the gun was in Cinder’s left hand?”

DB nodded. “I did.”

Looking back at Alex, I said, “I’ll need to watch the interview tapes, but her right hand was her dominant hand. Unless she’s ambidextrous, I’m fairly certain she also signed her statement with it, too.”

DB looked at his dad for confirmation, but Alex was frowning as he tried to remember what she’d done.

“He might be right. Naomi’s around today, we’ll get her to double-check it while we go and speak to P.T.P.D. about the crime scene.”

“Does she have anyone watching over her?”

DB looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Of course she does.”

“How long until we get the ballistics report back?”

“They were working on it when I spoke to them. They’re running it through the database to see if it was used in another case,” Alex replied. “The detective we’re working with, Kapono Ortiz—”

“Ah, shit,” I groaned. “I went to school with Kap.”

Both men looked at me curiously. “And?”

“I got asked out by the girl he had a crush on. I said no, but he held a grudge for a while after that.”

“And this is a problem now that you have pubes, why?” DB asked, resting his chin on his fist.

“It isn’t for me.” I shrugged my shoulders. “It wasn’t back then, either. I’m just saying he had a problem with me for a while.”

Straightening back up again, DB chuckled. “Just as well you’ve both got hair on your balls now and are professionals.”

I couldn’t say anything to that because it was true.

Just as I followed Alex to the door, though, I turned around and looked at DB. “They’re trying to tie up their loose ends, aren’t they?”

His top lip curled at the question. “Seems that way, but we’re just going to have to untie them again.”

Reaching out, I shook the hand held out to me. “Ortiz, long time, no see.”

One side of his mouth tipped up. “Just what I was saying, Richards.”

“You’re not going to try and punch me again, are you?” I asked as he moved to shake Alex’s hand.

Bursting out laughing, he pointed at the door to Palmerstown Police Department. “I was a dick back then, but time’s taught me the error of my ways, man. We’re good.”

Following behind him, I took in the grandeur of the building, comparing it to how ours looked not long ago before it was upgraded thanks to private funding. Whereas our mayor had spent public funds for his own benefit, Palmerstown’s had plowed it into trying to make their town match something out of a movie. Well, aside from the Police Department, which was a glass and metal monstrosity that looked grotesque and out of place.

“We sent the residue report through to the main lab,” he told us as we walked down a hallway to a door where he swiped a card through a reader, then put in a pin code on a keypad. “Just an aside, the building is as ostentatious as fuck for such a small town. We all hate it, but it is what it is. You’re going to want to bleach your eyes by the time you walk out, though.”

Glancing at Alex, I saw him looking amused by this. He’d worked in Houston for years, so he knew how large departments looked and worked. No doubt he was looking at it all the same way I was—which was that Kapono was right.

“If we need to have a cavity search to get a coffee, I’m sure you’ll know how we feel about it,” Alex chuckled, then sobered up. “What did they say about the levels of residue?”

“What we thought.” Kapono opened the door of a conference room and waved us inside. “The amount of residue isn’t conducive with someone shooting a weapon five times, it’s just too low. According to the doctor dealing with Cinder, the lack of stippling around the wound indicates it was held farther away from her head than a normal suicide victim would have.”

While the last point wasn’t unexpected, it wasn’t conclusive that she hadn’t done it.

“It’s not impossible, though,” I pointed out, taking a seat at the long table. “Some people who are determined to kill themselves still can’t hold the barrel against their heads because it’s too scary for them. Holding it at a distance helps them with what they’re about to do.”