WMC - First to Die

Chapter 116

I STARED AT CLAIRE as the information settled in my mind. All along, Nicholas Jenks had been telling the truth. He hadn't been in the room when David and Melanie Brandt were killed that night. Nor in Napa. Probably not even near the Hall of Fame in Cleveland. I had hated Jenks so much I couldn't see past it. None of us had been able to get past the fact that we wanted him to be guilty. All the evidence- the hair, the jacket, the champagne -had been an incredible deception. Jenks was a master of the surprise ending, but someone had set the master up. I put my arms around Claire and hugged her. "You're the best." "You're damn right I am. I don't know what it proves," she answered, patting my back, "but the person standing over that poor boy at the murder scene was a woman. And I'm just as sure that she stabbed David Brandt to death with her right hand." My mind was spi

Chapter 117

UPSTAIRS AT MY DESK, I radioed Jacobi. Poor guy, he was still sitting outside Joa

Chapter! 18

AN HOUR LATER, I got everyone together on the Jenks case, hopefully for the last time. There had been a few alleged sightings of Nicholas Jenks -in Tiburon down by the marina, and south of Market, huddled around a gathering of homeless men. Both of them proved false. He had eluded us, and the longer he remained free, the greater the speculation. We got together in a vacant interrogation room that Sex Crimes sometimes used. Claire smuggled Cindy up from the lobby, then we rang down Jill. "I see we've loosened the requirements," Jill commented, when she came in and saw Chris. Raleigh looked surprised, too. "Don't mind meI'm just the token male." "You remember Claire, and Jill Bernhardt from the district attorney's office," I said. "Cindy you may recall from Napa. The team." Slowly, Chris looked from one face to another until he settled on me. "You've been working on this independently of the task force?" "Don't ask," said Jill, plunking herself down in a wooden chair. "Just listen." In the cramped, narrow room, all eyes turned to me. I looked at Claire. "You want to begin?" She nodded, sca