Her Last Day (Jessie Cole #1)(2)

ONE

Sacramento, California—Present Day

Jessie Cole, private investigator, had been detained inside a small room at the Sacramento Police Department for thirty minutes now as Detective Aaron Roth lectured her. Another police officer stood in the corner.

She zeroed in on Detective Roth’s mouth as he talked. It was a habit she couldn’t seem to break. In grammar school she’d had a friend who was deaf. Twice a week Jessie had attended speech-reading class with her, not only for fun but because they were inseparable. She also knew American Sign Language (ASL). In eighth grade her friend had moved away, but Jessie never lost her ability to read lips or sign.

In his midforties, Aaron Roth was five foot eleven and had a cleanly shaved head and a thick mustache. As he rambled on—lecturing, reading her rights—she thought about the first time she’d met the detective ten years ago. The eagerness she remembered seeing in his eyes appeared to have been replaced with annoyance and resentment.

“Did you hear a word I just said?” he asked.

“Yes.”

His brows drew together. “And?”

Although his mustache covered half his upper lip, she could still see that his lips were pale. Redness in color was said to indicate better cardiorespiratory fitness but also meant a higher estrogen level. She couldn’t remember where she’d read that useless tidbit, but it had something to do with being able to distinguish male from female based solely on the lips. She glanced at the clock. “I need to go, Detective. I was supposed to pick up my niece ten minutes ago.”

“Oh,” he said, angling his head just so. “You have to go? Well, that’s too bad.” He jabbed a finger in the air. “You’re a piece of work. You shot someone. And not for the first time. You’re not going anywhere.”

A shiver of anxiety crawled up her spine. “I did nothing wrong,” she said, stiffening. “I understand the laws regarding use of deadly force. I was defending myself and others against a forcible and atrocious crime.”

“And yet after everything you went through a few years ago, you shot the man anyhow.”

“My life was in imminent danger.” She tapped a finger on the table for emphasis. “I saved ‘innocent bystanders from unavoidable danger of death.’”

The detective frowned. Clearly he was not impressed by the fact she’d memorized parts of the California laws concerning self-defense.

“There were people everywhere,” she said, surprised by the desperation in her voice.

Sitting straight and tall, arms crossed, he nodded. “We’re in the process of collecting evidence and talking to witnesses.”

“You might be interested in watching this.” She reached inside her backpack, pulled out a black box attached to a thin strap of Velcro, and placed it on the table between them.

Roth eyed it warily. “What is it?”

“It’s the smallest, lightest GoPro on the market. Easy one-button control and waterproof.”

Roth glanced at the other police officer in the room.

The big guy shrugged.

“Are you trying to tell me you taped the incident?” Roth asked her.

“That’s exactly what I did,” Jessie said. “Since all the hullabaloo the last time I was forced to use my weapon, I’ve been recording my daily activities whenever I’m working a case.”

The detective lifted a brow. “Shooting and killing another person is against the law.”

Her stomach roiled. “Is he dead?”

“Critical condition.”

She tried not to let him see her relief. “This was a simple case of self-defense. He fired at me first. Twice. In a public place.”

The door came open.

It was Andriana Iudice, Jessie’s good friend and lawyer. Thank God.

Andriana’s vibrant reddish hair, rows of tightly spun ringlets, had been pushed away from her face with bobby pins that matched her funky platform shoes adorned with giant sunflowers. Her face and neck were a splotchy red from the heat, which had reached 102 degrees before Jessie had been shoved into the back seat of a police cruiser and brought to the station.

Andriana placed her soft leather briefcase on the table and pulled out a chair next to Jessie. After she was seated, she said, “You didn’t tell them anything, did you?”

“She’s been here for thirty minutes,” Detective Roth said matter-of-factly. “What do you think?”

Andriana asked the detective for a moment alone with her client. His exhale came out sounding like a groan as he pushed himself to his feet and left the room, the second officer on his heels.

Jessie’s hands shook as she watched the two men leave. She did her best to hold herself together, but the truth was she was a wreck. She’d shot a man, possibly killed him. It had all happened so fast. Instinct hadn’t been the only reason she’d pulled her weapon and fired. Less than ten feet away, children had been playing when Koontz pulled out his gun and shot at her.

“What happened in the park?” Andriana asked as soon as the door clicked shut.

Jessie took a breath. “I was hired by a woman, Adelind Rain, to watch Parker Koontz, a man she believes has been stalking her for months.”

“Is it true? Has he been stalking her?”

“Yes. I’ve been watching him for over a week, and every afternoon he leaves his office to make his way to the bank where Adelind’s employed. He stands on the street corner and waits for her to go to lunch. I’ve never seen him approach her, but he never takes his gaze off her. After work he goes home to change his clothes, eat, whatever. Around nine p.m. he’s back at Adelind’s house peering through the windows.”