Read Online Justice Served: A Barkley and Parker Thriller by R. Barri Flowers - Free Book Online Page B

his attacker and felt
the sting of this bat.” Ray looked at the blood drenched murder
weapon lying harmlessly on the torso of the victim as if drained of
its own raw power.
    “Wallace was apparently here to meet his
mistress,” said Nina. “She’s over there giving her statement.”
    Ray turned towards a young auburn-haired
woman talking to an officer. “Why don’t you find out if there were
any witnesses,” he told Nina. “I’ll see what she can tell us, if
anything.”
    “Maybe we’ll both come up with something,”
Nina said, rolling her eyes doubtfully as she walked away.
    Ray made his way over to the decedent’s
mistress who looked like she was still in high school, aside from
her obvious breast implants and heavily made up face. She had a
mole on the right cheek and wore a small nose ring. Tears flowed
freely from her lake blue eyes, which she wiped with the back of
her hand. She was wearing a lilac robe and matching slippers, as if
still waiting for her lover.
    Ray identified himself, taking over for the
officer, and learned that the woman’s name was Rebecca
Ferguson.
    “Ms. Ferguson,” he began, “I know this is
difficult, but we need to try and find out what happened here
tonight. Do you understand?”
    She sniffled, and said in a high-pitched
voice: “Yes.”
    “You knew the victim?” he asked routinely
while thinking: Obviously only too well in the intimate
department.
    “Yes. He was my...I was
his...girlfriend—”
    Ray met her eyes, understanding her awkward
position, considering Blake Wallace had a wife and three kids. “So
you were expecting him?”
    “Yeah,” she said vacantly. “Blake called and
said he was on his way.”
    Ray hesitated. “And when did you find out he
was dead?”
    Rebecca wiped at her tear-stained cheeks. “I
came down here to meet him. That’s when I saw—” She choked back the
words and started to sob.
    “Did you see anyone else?”
    “No.”
    “Did you hear anything?”
    She sighed. “I think I heard a car pull out
of the garage.”
    Ray rubbed his nose. “Did you see it?”
    “No,” she said apologetically. “It was gone
when I looked up.”
    Damn! It was probably the killer. Or someone
who may have seen the perpetrator. Then he realized if she had come
down a minute earlier, she might have caught the person in the act
and in the process become a victim herself.
    Ray glanced over at Nina and saw her talking
to a tall and slender, well-dressed African-American woman. Several
other people were nearby, as if waiting for their turn.
    Though the crime scene had been sealed off
from spectators, the most dogged, along with the press, had found a
way in to gawk and snoop.
    “Why?” Rebecca cried. “What would someone do
this? Blake wasn’t a bad man, despite the problems between him
and—”
    “His wife?” Ray finished tersely. The man was
an asshole, pure and simple.
    Rebecca fluttered curly lashes. “She just
didn’t understand him.”
    “And you did?”
    “Yes,” she insisted. “We loved each
other.”
    Ray looked down at her large breasts. There was only one thing—make that two—he loved about you .
And it had little to do with affection, much less loyalty and
commitment.
    But none of it mattered now. Let the lady
think whatever she wanted that made her feel better about her
lover’s untimely demise.
    * * *
    “We’ve got a possible witness. Her name’s
Jacqueline Davis,” Nina said to Ray en route to the victim’s
residence to notify his wife. “According to Ms. Davis, a late
model, dark colored BMW pulled out of the garage just as she was
about to turn in.”
    “Did she see who was driving it?”
    “She thought it might have been a woman, but
admitted the car shot out of there so fast she never really got a
chance to focus on the driver.”
    Ray stared over the steering wheel. “Maybe
the car will be enough to point us in the right direction,” he
said. “Let’s see if the witness can tell us anything more specific
about