Read Online Real Murder (Lovers in Crime Mystery Book 2) by Lauren Carr - Free Book Online

eerily quiet—silent enough for Tad MacMillan to be catching a nap when Joshua stopped in for a briefing on his findings during Mike Gardner’s autopsy.
    Upon stepping through the swinging doors, Joshua discovered his cousin sound asleep on the cold steel examination table with his arms folded across his chest. Unable to resist, Joshua crept forward and bent down to bring his lips to Tad’s ear before shouting in a voice mocking a small child, “Daddy! Wake up!”
    With a gasp, Tad jumped so hard and fast that he almost rolled off the table. Seeing Joshua doubled over with laughter, he eased his feet down to the floor. “Very funny,” he said with sarcasm. “I’m glad my sleep deprivation is such a source of enjoyment for you.”
    “I told you that you’d get yours,” Joshua said. “I had to wait twenty years, but you know what they say about   revenge—its best served cold.”
    “Revenge?”
    “Twenty years ago?” Joshua said. “We came back home   to visit. Grandmomma and Valerie had gone to a church meeting and the twins were taking a nap … so was I when a certain little devil came in and drew a mustache and beard on me with permanent marker.”
    Recalling the incident, a slow grin came to Tad’s lips.
    “I had to go to the doctor to have it removed,” Joshua told him.
    “But you looked so cute.” Cocking his head at him, Tad noted, “I thought you had court today.”
    “The defense copped a plea,” Joshua said. “Another B and E guy is going behind bars and I got off early to come wake you up from your late morning nap.”
    “Why don’t you go home and spend some time with your bride?”
    “Because she’s on her way to Cricksters with yours,” Joshua said.
    “Oh yeah, today is the hen party.” Stifling a yawn, Tad went over to his desk and picked up a clipboard with a report attached to it. “How well do you think Cameron is going to fit in with the neighborhood hens?”
    “As long as they don’t get between her and her ice cream sundae, they’ll be fine.” Joshua turned to follow him. “Is the ID positive?”
    “Dental records were a match for Mike Gardner.” After handing the report to him, Tad plopped down into his chair. “C.O.D. is gunshot to the face.”
    Joshua cringed. “Was it from his gun? Did they find his service weapon?”
    Shaking his head, Tad shrugged. “Last I heard, Sawyer sent a crew back to the park to search the bottom of the lake. It wasn’t in the car. However, they did find a slug inside the car that’s a match for Mike’s gun. It’s a nine millimeter. That matches the size of the hole in his face.”
    “Then it appears that the killer disarmed Mike and then shot him in the face with his own gun?”
    Tad got up and went to the drawer where Mike’s remains were resting. He pulled out the drawer and lifted the sheet to reveal the skeleton. “I suspect Mike was already down and out when the killer finished him off.” Lifting the skull from the drawer, Tad showed Joshua a crack along the side of what had once been his friend’s head. “There’s a long hairline fracture along the left side of his head. It looks like it could have come from a blunt instrument, like a ball bat or something that could have knocked him down and incapacitated him, maybe even knocked him out so that the killer could disarm him and then shoot him in the face with his own gun.”
    “And then put him in the car and dump it in the lake,” Joshua said. “I doubt if they’re going to find any evidence in that car after it’s been sitting in the bottom of the lake for almost two decades.”
    “Makes you think that instead of meeting a confidential informant for the case he was working on,” Tad said, “he met the murderer he was looking for.”
    “I guess the best place to start now is to find out the identity of that prostitute.”

“Are you really a homicide detective?” The tiny lady’s eyes sparkled like those of a star-struck teenybopper meeting her