Read Online Devil's Corner by Lisa Scottoline - Free Book Online

Jackson?"
    "No clue."
    "You spoke with Jackson on the phone?"
    "Don't remember that."
    "You must have met her at the grand jury."
    "Name doesn't ring a bell. What did she look like?" Vicki flashed on the scene of Jackson strafed with gunfire, then shifted to the photos on the mirror. "A pretty girl, black, nice smile."
    "That's everybody." Great . "Think about it. The case had a knockout for a defendant. Reheema Bristow. Tall, black, lovely face, killer body. Looks like a model."
    "Oh, yeah." Cavanaugh smiled, and breath puffed from his mouth. "Now I remember the case. Who could forget Reheema? She was slammin'. Re-hee-ma."
    "Yes, Reheema. You held a proffer conference with her, your memo in the file says so. I have it, if it helps."
    "Let's see," Cavanaugh said, and Vicki juggled her handbag to slip the memo out of her briefcase and hold it in front of him while they walked. A kid plugged into a white iPod looked over as Cavanaugh glanced at the memo. "Yes, okay, I remember."
    "It says her lawyer, Melendez, was there and also your case agent, Partino."
    "Yeah, they were."
    "You remember Melendez? Court-appointed, short, a little blocky?"
    "Oh, yeah. Nice guy." Unless he's suing you . "And Partino. Where's he, these days? Why didn't he stay with ATF?"
    "He was a reservist and got called up. Still in Iraq, I think."
    "So I can't talk to him."
    "No." Vicki refused to be discouraged. "Last night, my case agent was killed when he and I went out to see Jackson. Jackson was murdered, too, and she was pregnant."
    "The CI, I read that online," Cavanaugh said, and to his credit, he winced. "I didn't realize it was that case until now. Reheema. So what do you want from me?"
    "I'm trying to find out what happened."
    "Don't they have police for that?"
    Best not to dwell . "Okay, let's talk about Shayla Jackson."
    "The CI? What about her?"
    "First off, her grand jury transcript wasn't in the file, and the slip shows you ordered it. You know where it went?"
    "Guilty. I admit it, I wasn't into filing. Maybe it got misfiled. I love having somebody to do my filing." Cavanaugh grinned. "I have my own secretary now. Well, the guy I share her with is always out of town. It rocks."
    "Jackson called you and volunteered to testify, your memo said."
    "Right."
    "So she called you out of the blue? It's weird."
    "But not unheard of."
    "I know, but usually there's a reason." Vicki didn't get it. The girlfriend of a drug dealer, calling the U.S. Attorney's Office to snitch? It didn't make sense but she couldn't tell Cavanaugh about the cocaine. "Do you know why she did that?"
    "No."
    Vicki checked the date of the memo, flapping as they walked. Eight months ago. Shayla would have just found out she was pregnant, if she knew that early. "Did she mention that she was pregnant at the time?"
    "No."
    "Did she look pregnant then? She wouldn't have been far along."
    "I don't know if she was pregnant. She mighta been a little heavy, but that's typical. Gold jewelry, tipped fingernails. You know. Ghetto fabulous."
    Vicki got over her jealousy of his salary and began disliking him on the merits. "Okay, so Jackson came in and testified before the grand jury that Reheema resold the guns?"
    "Yes."
    "How did Jackson know that Reheema had resold the guns?"
    "As I remember, the defendant told her she resold them."
    Vicki's ears pricked up. "Bristow admitted it to her?"
    "Yep."
    "So they knew each other?"
    "I think that's what she said. They were best friends."
    Vicki didn't get it. She'd asked Reheema this morning if she knew Jackson, and it didn't seem like the name had even registered. And that was consistent with what Mrs. Bott had said, too. "Who told you that?"
    "What?" Cavanaugh was distracted, exchanging waves with a man he knew.
    "Who said that they were best friends?"
    "The CI."
    "Jackson?"
    "Yes."
    "Did Jackson ever call Reheema Mar, or a name like Mar?" Vicki flashed on Mrs. Bott. Actually, she was having separation anxiety.
    "How the hell do you get Mar from