Deep Within The Shadows (The Superstition Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

by inches.
    Secured and unable to fight without harming himself, Abbott shouted, “Fucking assholes.”
    Williams grabbed him by the back of the shirt and jerked his ass down onto a steel-legged chair.
    “Thanks for bringing him in,” Chase said as the patrol officers shuffled out.
    “Our pleasure,” Carmichael said. Williams nodded and closed the door.
    Chase shucked his Kevlar vest and draped it over the back of a chair. He moved the seat closer to the table and sat down.
    He took a moment to study the man across from him. Dark circles ringed mud brown eyes sunk into a gaunt, pale face. Blotchy beard stubble shadowed the lower half of his jaw. His clothes, wrinkled and stained, hung off his bony frame. His hands looked bright red, and as grungy as the rest of him.
    Abbott had fought them the entire time, from capture to transport and all the way into the building. Now the fight had drained from him, and he slumped into his seat like a bag of dirty laundry. A rancid smell hung around him like a force field.
    “You’re going away on drug and weapons charges, as well as resisting arrest, but there’s more,” Chase said. “We have an eye witness who will identify you as the killer of Tanner Newton. And I can almost guarantee the DA’s going to push for the death penalty.”
    “I’m a dead man anyway. Do whatever you like,” Abbott said. He slumped and rested his forehead on the table.
    Chase studied the greasy brown strands glued to Abbott’s scalp. After the earlier fight, he had expected more. What the fuck was up with this guy?
    Chase opened the file and slid a couple of photographs across the table. “Last night around midnight we responded to a report of a dead body in an alleyway off Bodin Avenue. This is who we found.”
    Abbott remained unresponsive for a minute, then two. He lifted his head as if it were almost too heavy to move, and glanced at the photos. He flinched and jerked his face away. His throat worked as he swallowed.
    “We know Willy Porter was your partner in the Tanner Newton killing. We don’t know how Willy was killed yet, but it seems he pissed someone off real bad.”
    “That’s his problem,” Abbott said. His tone lacked the hard edge his words needed. His body language broadcasted defensiveness and exhaustion.
    “Why did you go after Tanner Newton?”
    “Newton’s death was an accident. We weren’t after him, we wanted the girl.”
    Chase’s brows rose. “Why?”
    Abbott rested his head on the desk again. “It don’t matter no more. They’re going to get to me sooner or later.” He remained that way for several moments, then struggled to sit back up. “We were supposed to just shoot her dead, but Willy and I got the idea how we could make some money off of her first. So we planned how we’d take her, dope her up, and set her up in the life.”
    “After you’d had your own fun?” Chase asked.
    “Well, yeah. I mean—have you seen that chick? She’s a real looker, and I bet she can give good head, too.”
    Chase had never met Juliet Templeton, but he had seen photographs of her and the injuries she’d sustained fighting off the two. He thought he’d heard it all, but the idea of the two drug-addicted thugs laying hands on the woman and inviting other men to the party made his gorge rise. He swallowed back the flood of acid and cleared his throat.
    “So who wanted you to shoot Juliet Templeton, and why did they choose you two?”
    “We’ve done some things for money in the past. We ain’t never killed nobody, but we done other things. I don’t know why they wanted the woman dead, but—” He started to make a placating gesture but his hand was jerked back by the cuff. “Look, when you’re hooked, you’ll do a whole lot of things to get the next hit you wouldn’t think about when you’re straight.”
    Abbot sighed and cleared his throat. “I been clean over a month now, and my mind’s clear,” he continued. “I know what we wanted to do to that woman