Deceived Read Online Free

he bet that her good looks didn’t always work in her favor. Golden strands streaked through thick, honey-colored hair that fell midway down her back. Her subtle, tasteful tan complemented the warm tones in her almond-shaped, brownish-green eyes. Her ultra-feminine suit showed off her curvy figure, but she also looked professional. Natural sultriness was toned down by good taste, time, money, and effort, which made her even more alluring. She was a stunning beauty and, for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why a Bartholomew would be an assistant D.A. His eyes fell on the card that she had handed him. Taylor Marlowe Bartholomew. He digested all three of her names. What the hell? His gaze bounced back to her. She wasn’t only a Bartholomew. Her other two names were family names. Filthy-rich, upper-crust family names.
    She raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. “Well? Here, or at the station?”
    He sat at the conference table, across from Joe, with the recorder between them. “Here.”
    Focus on their questions, he told himself, as he’d told countless clients in similar situations. So many other thoughts, though, sizzled through his brain. Murder. Fatherhood. Lisa, a perfectly nice woman. Murdered. Damn. Parenthood. Single parenthood. Damn it. Sole parenthood. Murder, and the police were interrogating him.
    Joe, gray-haired, barrel-chested, and olive-complected, was frowning. Brandon had prior experience with Joe, and, if he had to put money on it, he’d have bet that Joe wasn’t happy to be there. Joe’s partner, Tony, sat on Joe’s right. Unlike Joe, Brandon didn’t have experience with Tony, a younger man with dark hair and dark eyes. His glance fell again on Taylor, who sat next to Joe. Damn. She was a distraction. Joe gave introductory comments for the benefit of the recorder, then asked, “Tell us for the record why you arrived at Lisa’s home last night at one forty-five in the morning.”
    “I received a call around midnight from a girlfriend of Lisa’s who was babysitting. She said that Lisa hadn’t returned from work to pick up Michael. Lisa never ran late. She was concerned. Lisa doesn’t have family. She didn’t know who else to call.”
    Taylor said, “Tell us about your relationship with Lisa.”
    Brandon hesitated. He didn’t want his relationship, or lack of a relationship, with Lisa becoming public record.
    She arched an eyebrow. “Well?”
    “Look,” Brandon said, “the reality is that some thug wanted Lisa’s purse and killed her for it. The city might have a new D.A., a new police chief, and new procedures, but what you’re doing with me, here, tells me that the city has the same damn ineffectiveness.” He glared at Joe. “Go do your job, find the thug, and put him away before he kills someone else.”
    “Don’t criticize,” Joe said. “Not that long ago, when you needed good police work you came to the NOPD.”
    “And the NOPD almost cost me my life,” Brandon said. “All you guys had to do was confirm what I knew and make an arrest, but the NOPD didn’t do the job. You left me to do the dirty work.”
    “Don’t forget that you were in it up to your ass,” Joe said. “You’re not a stranger to violence, Brandon, and if you hadn’t come to the NOPD back then, there’s a strong chance that you’d be doing prison time right now.” He paused. “If you’d like, we can make that violent incident part of the record in this investigation.”
    Randall interrupted. “Ask your questions, detective. Stay away from irrelevant history.”
    “No,” Joe said, his face flushed. “We’ll do this at the station.”
    As Joe stood, Brandon’s anger ebbed. The simple fact was that given Brandon’s history, Joe wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t talk to Brandon. Plus, as Taylor had figured out, today’s reality was that he didn’t have time to cool his heels at the police station. Brandon ran his fingers through his hair, took a deep breath, and said, in as