Justice Delayed (Memphis Cold Case #1)(37)

“Um, she’s with a client, but please wait. I’m sure she’ll make time to see you.” Murmuring something about providence, she punched the intercom just as angry words blasted down the hallway.

“You’ll pay for this!”

Shawna gasped. “Oh no! I was afraid of that. I tried to get Ms. Starr to let me call the police.”

“What’s going—”

A crash jerked his head around, and he ran down the hall with his gun pulled. Madeline’s door was partially open, and a man stood with his back to David. Was that a gun in his hand? A glass vase lay next to the wall in a puddle of water.

“You missed, honey,” the man said.

“You better leave.” Madeline’s voice was calm. “I’m sure my secretary has already called the police.”

The man raised his hand. “For—”

David slammed the door open and dove toward the man, knocking him off balance. He reached for the gun, but the assailant reacted faster than David expected, backhanding him with the gun.

His head snapped back as black dots blurred his vision and pain shot through his cheek. The assailant wheeled toward Madeline, and David tackled him again, and they crashed to the floor. The gun skidded across the room.

The man outweighed him by at least fifty pounds, and David struggled for leverage, finally wrestling one of his arms behind him. David straddled his back and clamped a cuff on his wrist, then yanked.

“You’re breaking my arm.”

Panting, David said, “Not yet, but I will if you don’t put your other hand behind your back.”

When he was slow to move, David yanked the handcuffs again.

“Okay, okay. I’m doing it.”

David snapped the cuff in place. For the first time, he heard sirens outside the building. “Next time, don’t attack someone six blocks from the CJC,” he said as he stood. Three uniformed officers rushed the room. He flashed his badge and said, “Lieutenant Raines. I’m not the bad guy.”

Madeline stepped beside him. “Don’t arrest him. I think he just saved my life.”

David turned to her. “You think?” He didn’t mean to raise his voice, but the woman should have let her secretary call the police earlier.

Her face paled, then she lifted her chin. “I could have talked my way out of it.”

He clamped his mouth shut. If he answered with what was on his mind, he’d blow any chance of her listening to him about Jimmy Shelton. Pain shot through his cheek, and he reached to touch it.

“Don’t. You’ll get germs on it,” she said, snatching his hand away. She pulled a tissue from the box on her desk. “It’s bleeding. Here.” She gently pressed the cut on his face. “It doesn’t look like it’ll need stitches.”

Her light fragrance enveloped him.

Suddenly, she jerked her fingers back and held out the tissue. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to invade your space.”

“You didn’t. Thank you.” Her perfume lingered, nudging emotions David thought long dead. Nothing but adrenaline rush. He took the tissue and stepped out of the way so the uniformed officer could take the assailant out while she explained to the other officers what had happened.

Madeline, dressed in jeans and a blue sweater, recounted that she’d been working on briefs when the man showed up, angry over a case. Someone she represented had escaped jail time for a hit-and-run accident that involved the assailant’s daughter.

An image of Alexis popped into David’s mind, and he steeled his face to not react. He’d seen more than one criminal get an acquittal because of a slick defense attorney, and in truth, he didn’t blame the man for being upset. If someone had hurt his daughter . . .

After the officers left, she turned to him. “There were extenuating circumstances.”

“I didn’t—”

“Yes, you did. I’m very good at reading people. You probably need to remember that.”

“I will.” He uncrossed his arms.

“The boy who hit her suffered a blackout caused by a heart arrhythmia he didn’t know he had. When he came to himself, he was a mile from the accident. It was dark, and he didn’t even know he’d hit anything until the next day when his father asked what happened to the front light.

“He came forward once he read about the hit-and-run and figured out he might have been responsible. He was relieved that the girl’s injuries were minor. His family hired me because Thompson wanted him hung, and he carries political clout.”

“Political clout?” David hadn’t paid much attention to the man. “Did you say his name was Thompson?” When she nodded, he winced. “Tell me that wasn’t H. G. Thompson, the mayor’s bodyguard?”

“Afraid so.”

Relations between the police department and the mayor’s office hadn’t been the best with this mayor. “He shouldn’t have pulled his gun.”

“Agreed.” She tucked the cuffs of her sweater in her hands and pulled the sleeves tight as she hugged her body. “What brought you to my office, Lieutenant Raines?” she asked as she walked to her desk and sat down.

Madeline Starr wasn’t fooling him. He was pretty good at reading body language himself. She was much too pale, and he figured it’d been sit down or end up on the floor. “You don’t have to be strong all the time,” he said. “It’s okay to be shook up.”