Read Online Gin Jones - Helen Binney 01 - A Dose of Death by Gin Jones - Free Book Online

path as if she didn’t know where it was. “Are you all right?”
    “ I’m fine,” Helen said, although the way he was bending over her solicitously made her feel even smaller and more fragile than usual. She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “I wasn’t the one who was injured. All I did was find the body.”
    “ Most people are traumatized by that sort of thing,” Peterson said. “I can ask the paramedics to check your blood pressure if you’d like. Give you a sedative, maybe.”
    “ I’m perfectly calm, and my blood pressure is fine.” Unlike Melissa’s, which was non-existent. Helen’s gaze wandered back to the spot where the body had been. Would the grass look different there next year, fertilized by all that blood, becoming a sort of natural memorial to the dead woman?
    “ Just take it easy,” Peterson said, glancing over his shoulder to watch the paramedics slam the ambulance doors shut, with the body already secured inside. “And don’t hesitate to call for help if you’re feeling light-headed or anything.”
    “ I could use your help with one little thing.”
    He turned to face her again. “What’s that, ma’am?”
    She nodded at the recently arrived car. “Could you have a word with the trespassers, and ask them to leave?”
    “ The emergency vehicles will be gone in a minute.” He’d already dismissed her from his conscious mind, and was focused instead on the taped-off scene of the crime. He looked at it as if he expected someone to leap out of the surrounding woods and confess to the murder, and he didn’t want to miss the excitement.
    “ I don’t mean the emergency vehicles.” Helen pointed at the car parked across her daylily bed. “I’m talking about that vehicle.”
    Peterson reluctantly looked away from the scene of the murder and glanced toward the car. “Oh, that’s just Geoff Loring. I know him. He’s okay.”
    She knew that tone of voice. It meant Don’t worry your pretty little head about it . She’d heard it far too many times from the people around her ex-husband until the message had gotten around that anyone who underestimated her would find their access to the governor cut off. She hadn’t suffered a condescending attitude lightly then, and she wasn’t going to start now.
    “ Loring’s presence here is not okay. He’s trespassing on private property, and I want him to leave. If he won’t go voluntarily, I expect you to arrest him.”
    “ No need to get all excited.” Peterson stepped back with his hands in the air as if she’d physically attacked him. He might be making light of her request, but at least it had dawned on him that public relations required at least some effort, and she finally had his full attention. “Don’t worry about Geoff. He’s a reporter. He’s just doing his job.”
    Which was more than she could say for this officer. “Fine. I’ll go ask him to leave if you won’t.”
    “ Now, ma’am, you don’t want to do that.”
    “ Yes, I do.” Helen limped across the lawn, with Peterson following. She concentrated on one step at a time, watching where she stepped on the uneven ground and leaning heavily on her cane.
    “ But he’s a reporter,” Peterson said. “You can’t ask him to leave. He has First Amendment rights.”
    “ I have some experience with both the press and First Amendment rights.” Helen kept walking. “I’m quite sure that the Constitution does not give reporters the right to trespass on private property in the pursuit of a story.” 
    “ Okay, okay,” Peterson said. “I’ll have a little chat with him, and you can go on inside where he can’t bother you.”
    “ I’ll wait right here while you go talk to him. It shouldn’t take long for you to tell him to leave.” Otherwise, she knew, as soon as she was out of sight, Peterson would let the reporter do whatever he wanted. If it was just this one time, one day when there was legitimate news to cover, she wouldn’t mind so much. But if she