Read Online Compulsion (Max Revere Novels Book 2) by Allison Brennan - Free Book Online Page B

had happened to their parents. They needed to bury their bodies and have a funeral. Answers. Closure.
    Max slipped into an empty interview room for privacy. The rooms were off-limits to reporters, but Max knew enough people in the courthouse that they usually turned a blind eye.
    She logged on to Skype from her iPad and waited for the call to go through to J. J.’s work computer. He answered, and she saw him sitting behind his cluttered desk. He was a veterinarian and she could hear yelping in the background.
    “Hello, J. J. I’m glad I caught you.”
    “I cleared my lunch hour, since I thought you might call.”
    “I had my interview with Bachman this morning.”
    “You got it.” He smiled, but there was no humor. “I knew you would. What did he say?”
    “He didn’t admit to anything.”
    “But?”
    “He made some cryptic remarks. I’m going to follow through on them. My colleague, David Kane, is working with a detective in Queens following up on a lead. I promise, J. J., I will call the minute I know anything definitive.”
    He sighed heavily, his head sinking into his hands. Then he looked back at her and said, “Knowing that you care about my parents means a lot. It’s been nearly a year since they disappeared. Two more weeks—if we still don’t know what happened to them, we’re going to have a memorial service. My sisters and I want you to be here, if possible.”
    “E-mail me the details. I hope to learn something before then, but I can’t make promises. Just know that I am doing everything I can to find out what happened.”
    “Thank you. I’ll tell Rach and Cindy you called.”
    “I’ll check in later this week.” She disconnected the call and stared at the blank screen.
    It wasn’t fair in any sense of the word that J. J. and his sisters had to suffer like this. Even a memorial service like they planned wouldn’t give them the closure they needed, only diminish their hope. They believed their parents were dead, because in no world they lived in would their parents walk away from them and their family and home.
    Believing they were dead and knowing it were two different things. They would learn to accept, learn to live again, but that niggle of doubt and worry in the back of their minds that they could have, should have, would have found the truth if only …
    That’s where Max came in. She wanted the truth as much as they did. The truth was tangible. Adam Bachman knew the truth and she would find a way to get it out of him, to find some thread to give her and the Palazzolos the closure they needed.
    *   *   *
     
    After the lunch break, the prosecution began to build their case. Charlene first called the officer who’d initially arrested Bachman, which Max thought was a smart move. The key was to walk the jury through the case as it unfolded so that they couldn’t come to any conclusion other than what the prosecution intended.
    The officer went through his credentials—a twelve-year veteran of NYPD, several commendations—and then Charlene asked him about the night he stopped Adam Bachman’s car.
    “Why were you stopping cars on the Queensboro Bridge?”
    “There was a serious, nonfatal accident on the bridge. Four cars were involved, so we had an extensive backup and only one lane open. We were managing the traffic flow so the clean-up crew could get the damaged vehicles off the bridge while investigators processed the scene. We stopped cars when we needed to, then waved them forward. Basic traffic management. I had just waved Mr. Bachman’s car through but I heard a female scream. My partner and I pulled out our weapons and ordered Mr. Bachman to stop and keep his hands on the steering wheel. I called in the other unit and they kept an eye on Bachman while my partner and I opened the trunk.”
    “So to clarify, you had probable cause to open the trunk.”
    “Yes, ma’am. Both my partner and I heard the scream.”
    “What did you find when you opened the