Next of Kin Read Online Free Page B

angry that the Feds were commandeering their case. It was a territorial thing that had nothing to do with Beth Venable’s situation. But the bottom line was that she had to be protected, and the FBI had the better chance of making that happen.
Ames turned his attention back to Beth.
“You’ve already agreed to testify, right?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Then we need to put you in protective custody until the case goes to trial.”
Beth flinched. The blanket dropped from around her shoulders. “Because I’m next?”
“We know they’ll try to eliminate you once they realize they killed the wrong person. We can protect you.”
Her head was swimming. This couldn’t be happening. And all because of a gas leak on the other side of the city.
“For how long? I have a life. I have a job. I can’t just disappear. And doesn’t it take months, sometimes years, for a case to go to trial?”
“Time will mean nothing to you if you’re dead.”
Beth slumped against the arm of the sofa and covered her face. Swamped with guilt for causing Sarah’s death and fearing she would be next, she felt defeated.
“Ma’am?”
Beth made herself look up.
“You need to come with us.”
A thousand thoughts ran through her mind in the few seconds that she sat there, but she kept going back to the hole in Sarah’s forehead. There was no escape.
“I’ll get my things.”
It was just after 6:00 a.m. when the detectives pulled up to the gates of the Pappas estate and rang the bell. A few seconds passed, and then someone answered.
“The Pappas family is not receiving visitors this early.”
The detective pulled his badge and aimed it toward the security camera.
“LAPD. Open the gates.”
A few moments later the gates swung inward and the detectives drove through. The arrival of the police was beyond the staff’s area of responsibility. The housekeeper immediately rang Ike Pappas’s room.
Ike hadn’t been asleep more than a couple of hours, and hearing the phone ring was like fingernails on a chalkboard.
When he realized it was an in-house call, he was pissed.
“This better be good.”
“The LAPD is on their way to the house, sir. I thought you’d want to know.”
Ike shifted mental gears and apologized to his housekeeper. “Oh. Sorry for snapping at you, Beatrice. I’ll be right down.”
He rolled out of bed and made a quick trip to the bathroom before putting on a robe and house slippers, then headed down the stairs.
He met Adam coming up. He was wearing workout clothes and dripping with sweat.
“What’s going on, Dad?”
“Beatrice just woke me. She said the police are on the way up the drive. On another note, you’re up early.”
“Working out, obviously,” Adam said, turning to follow his father back downstairs.
At that point the doorbell rang. The housekeeper appeared in the hall and went to answer.
The door opened. He watched a couple of detectives flash their badges as they walked in. He called out as he continued down the stairs,
“Thank you, Beatrice. I’ll take it from here. Make some coffee, please.”
She scurried away as Ike moved toward the detectives with his son at his heels. He’d had a lifetime of dealing with confrontations and had already prepared himself for this moment. He pulled the sash of his robe a little tighter as he crossed the foyer.
“What the hell, guys? Don’t you have enough to do without getting a man out of bed?”
One of the detectives stepped forward and flashed his badge again. “Detective Samson, Homicide. This is my partner, Detective Phillips.”
Ike frowned. “Homicide?”
“Yes, sir. We regret to inform you that your ex-wife, Lorena Pappas, was murdered in her apartment last night.”
Ike had practiced the look of shock that he forced onto his face, along with his gasp of disbelief.
“What the hell?” He turned to Adam, who’d gone white as a sheet, and pulled him into his arms. Ike morphed his true concern for Adam’s grief into a very passable imitation of rage. “What