Sloe Ride (Sinners, #4)

“Hey, Q, rein it in.” Kane hooked his arm around Quinn’s waist to pull him back. “Ziortza, step off. You’re over the line.”


“Let me tell you what’s over the line, Detective,” Ziortza spat. “I’m looking at a dead young girl cut apart like she was a piece of meat, and I’m seeing your brother over here with a history of mental shit. You’re telling me I’m stupid for looking at him for this?”

“Yeah, I’m telling you you’re stupid.” Kane’s words were icy drops on Ziortza’s heat. “Quinn’s alibi is solid. Which you’d know if you hadn’t walked the fuck away.”

“Shaky. Liver temps are iffy, so don’t give me this shit about TOD. I know we’ve got cut security feeds, and your boy here is already tangled up in one investigation where his brother’s the primary.” The detective ticked his points off on his fingers. “I did some sniffing before I got on scene, and wouldn’t you know, the college pushed hard back on me when I started to poke around a certain leave of absence Morgan took when he had issues with another teacher here, a Professor Kappelhoff.

“Tie that in with the mental issues some birdie dropped into my ear about your brother and the fact Kappelhoff was carved up a few days ago. I’m perfectly within my rights to be looking at Doctor Morgan, Detective. Or are you primary on the Kappelhoff case just so no one will look at your brother?”

“I went to Ireland.” Quinn spoke up. “If you’d asked, you’d have found out I’d been planning to go to Ireland with Simon. I wanted him to meet my gran and the rest of the family. He didn’t want to go. Hell, he didn’t even want people to know he was dating me or that I was gay. It’s why I broke it off with him. We didn’t want the same things.”

“It was a loud and ugly breakup. Cops were called.” Ziortza’s sneer stretched over his face, a parody of a clown’s grin over a scarecrow’s face. “And there was your brother, Kane. Already picking up the pieces. I skimmed the report. The incident at your house could have been staged so when you did Kappelhoff, it would look like you’re at the center of a shit storm.”

“And I somehow murdered LeAnne in the twenty minutes I had between seeing my last student and calling the cops?” Quinn held his hands out, showing the detective his fingers. “No way I could have done that and stayed this clean. Unless I changed my clothes and scrubbed down? It takes me five minutes to brush my teeth. God, I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Sounds like you spent more time digging crap up on my brother than you did the victim or Quinn’s schedule,” Kane muttered, shifting his feet apart. “Your partner’s talking to the students he saw before he walked down here. The two students manning the hall’s info desk said he passed by them and said hello about ten minutes before he hit 911 up. Figure in the minute or two he used to call me because he was rattled. That would have given him eight minutes to walk down here—a pretty long stretch even at a full jog—kill Ms. Walker, arrange her on the car, and then clean up after himself.”

“He’s smart—”

“Smart doesn’t equal speedy. And yeah, I love my brother, but having shared a fucking bathroom with him growing up, I can tell you Quinn does not do speedy in a shower—especially since the closest one to the structure is on the second floor of the hall behind us.” Kane ground his teeth. A deep, rumbling engine drew Kane’s head up, and his eyes followed the progress of a vintage Chevelle cruising up to the edge of the police barricade. “What the fuck? What’s he doing here?”

“I called him.” Quinn shook off Kane’s hand. “Are we done here? Because I can’t—I need to get some space from this.”

“Don’t decide to take any trips out of the country just yet, Morgan,” Ziortza ordered, stabbing a finger at Quinn’s chest. “I’m not done with you yet. Either of you.”

“Morgan!” Sanchez called out over the short wall. “Kane! Not you, Quinn. ME wants to talk to you. Bring Ziortza if he can break himself away from his witch hunt over there.”

“Fucking unprofessional assholes.” Ziortza shot Quinn one last warning look, then ambled up the slight rise to the parking structures.

“Go someplace and wait for me, or tell Rafe to be useful and take you back to my place.” Kane pressed Quinn’s phone into his hand. “I’ll call you when it’s time to leave. They’re going to impound the car for Evidence. College is probably going to want you to take a leave of absence whether you want one or not. There’s going to have to be some damage control.”

“I didn’t kill her, Kane.” Quinn grasped his older brother’s arm, squeezing gently. “I didn’t.”

“I know that. They do too. It’s just how things are, Q-bert,” Kane reassured him. “Just don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of you.”

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