Desperate Girls (Wolfe Security #1)(11)

“I don’t know, but I plan to find out.”

Ross walked over and tapped the button for speakerphone. “Bull, hey, it’s Ross. Are you going up there?”

“If I have to.”

Ross looked at Brynn. “Reggie’s going to freak.”

“I’m freaking,” she said. “This guy’s our key witness. Without him, our defense collapses.”

“Calm down,” Bulldog said. “I’ll find the guy. You won’t need him until week two, earliest.”

“Yeah, but I can’t refer to his testimony in my opening statement and then have him not show up.” Brynn squeezed her eyes shut and tried to breathe.

“He’ll be there,” he said. “But I might have to go get him, all right? So put in a word with Reggie for me.”

Brynn gritted her teeth. She didn’t need this right now. Now, on top of everything else, she had to persuade her boss to cough up money for a trip to Las Vegas.

“Brynn?”

“I’ll talk to him,” she said. “If he won’t cover it, I will. We need that testimony.”

“I’ll find him. Trust me.”

He hung up, and Brynn looked at Ross.

“If Bulldog doesn’t find him, we’re screwed,” he said.

“I realize that. I’ll pay for the trip if Reggie won’t.”

“It’s not the cost I’m worried about.”

She could tell Ross was worried about the same thing she was. How did their deadbeat witness suddenly rustle up the cash to go to Vegas? The timing was beyond convenient.

Ross’s gaze landed on her luggage.

“Three suitcases, Brynn?”

“Yep.”

She didn’t mention she had a hanging bag in the closet, too.

“And what’s with all the bankers’ boxes?”

“Case files.”

“I thought Nicole had everything?”

Nicole was the paralegal coming to Dallas with them. She planned to be there for the beginning phase of the trial and then head back to Pine Rock.

“She has some of it,” Brynn said. “The most important stuff is with me.”

“Wolfe’s crew is going to need a moving van for all that. Ever heard of packing light? All I have is a garment bag.”

“Yeah, and you’re a guy. I need more than two ties and a pair of wingtips.”

She refused to feel guilty. She liked to have choices. She’d packed nine suits, twelve blouses, and a mere seven pairs of shoes. And she wasn’t ruling out going back for more if the trial dragged on.

Ross shook his head, and his attention landed on the computer sitting open on the bed. She watched his brow furrow as he read the headline on the news article. He leaned over and tapped open another article. And another. He clicked the page for the medical examiner’s office, and his frown deepened.

“Don’t tell me you’re looking for the autopsy report.”

“I just want to understand the basics,” she said. Which was more or less true. But the basics had led to some very disturbing details.

“Don’t do it.” He shot her a worried look. “You were friends with her. We both were. You shouldn’t read that stuff.”

Brynn closed her computer. She didn’t want to tell him it was too late. She’d already talked to a contact in the Sheridan Heights Police Department who had shared preliminary details from the autopsy over the phone. Jen had suffered two gunshot wounds to the abdomen, point-blank range.

“It doesn’t feel like Corby to me.”

Ross rested his hands on his hips and tipped his head back. “Brynn, come on.”

“Just listen.”

“I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want to remember her this way.”

“Neither do I, but I’m sorry, there are some things you have to know.” She waited for him to look at her. “Jen was shot at close range, for one thing. She nearly bled out on her floor and then died on the way to the hospital. That’s what the investigator told me.”

Ross just looked at her.

“Corby likes knives. We know that. This MO doesn’t fit with him at all. And where’d he get a gun within twenty-four hours of escaping from prison? It doesn’t add up. Plus, his were sexual homicides. All of his victims were raped. Jen wasn’t.” Brynn shook her head. “I don’t think this is Corby. It’s someone else, and everyone’s caught up in this manhunt for Corby, assuming he did this, when the person who really killed Jen could be walking away scot-free.”

“You really believe that?” Ross asked.

“We’re defense attorneys. You, of all people, should know we can’t rush to judgment, especially not at the beginning of an investigation.”

Ross picked up the pizza box.

“Where are you going?”

“To my room to work,” he said. “I know you, Brynn. It’s pointless to argue when you get this way. You get some idea, and you’re like a dog with a bone.” He held up the box. “Last chance for mushroom double-pepperoni. Want any?”

“No.”

“See you tomorrow. And you really should stop reading those reports about Jen. It isn’t healthy.” He walked out without looking back. Brynn stared at the door for a few moments, then latched it.