Read Cry Mercy for Free Online

let's talk about mine.” Emme settled back, her elbows resting casually on the arms of the chair, and put on her most confident air.
    For the next hour, they discussed Emme's training, number of years with the Silver Hills force—seven—and her previous work experience. Mallory appeared to be impressed that Emme had started with the police department as a records clerk right out of high school while taking courses at the local community college. From there, she'd gone on to the police academy, and last year had been sent for special training at the FBI Academy. They talked about the number of cases she'd taken lead on, percentage of cases solved, the number and type of professional courses she'd taken since graduating from the police academy.
    “How many homicides have you worked on?” Mallory asked.
    “I'd have to go year to year to count them up. I'd say we had roughly a dozen of what I'd consider routine homicides over the past twelve months. That includes domestics, killings that occurred while committing other crimes, hit and runs, and so forth. And then we have the situation where, Silver Hills being very close to the Mexican border, we have significant drug traffic, with the accompanying thugs sliding back and forth between the two countries. It's not unusual to find bodies in the desert or in the mountains right outside of town. The state does pitch in on those, however.”
    “How many of those ‘routine’ homicides have you taken lead on?”
    Emme paused, debating. It was bad enough she was lying about who she was. She knew Steffie would back anything she said, but if she got the job, she wanted it to be on the merits of her own performance.
    “I haven't been lead, per se, on any of them,” she answered truthfully. “The detectives take lead on homicides in our department.”
    “How close do you think you were to making detective, Ms. Caldwell?” Mallory glanced down at her notes.
    “I guess you'd have to ask Chief Jenkins that.”
    “Actually, I did. She said you'd have been given strong consideration for the first available opening …”
    Thank you, Steffie
.
    “… but that she didn't anticipate having any openings for at least another five, possibly ten years.” Mallory leaned her forearms on her desk. “She added that you possessed exceptional investigative skills and if she had any reason to think there'd be one sooner, she'd have done whatever she could to have talked you out of this move.”
    “That was very kind of her.” Emme smiled.
    “She spoke very highly of you.” Mallory put down the paper she'd been scanning and looked Emme directly in the eye.
“Very
highly.”
    “I appreciate that. What else can I tell you about myself to convince you to hire me?”
    “You can tell me why you pulled up stakes to move from California to Pennsylvania just like that.” Mallory snapped her fingers.
    “I told you on the phone, I saw the press conference. I'd been looking for months to make a move; itjust seemed like the right thing to do.” Emme fought to keep her nerves from making her voice sound shaky. Was it her imagination, or was Mallory suspicious of her motives?
Better make it good
, she cautioned herself, sensing that her future employment—or lack thereof—could depend on what she said at this moment.
    “I mentioned there was a lot of drug trafficking in Silver Hills. Over the past year, there have been several shootings in town involving rival gangs. I have a daughter who is four, Ms. Russo. Her father was Mexican, her mother African American. She is just starting to become aware of the animosity, the name-calling between the two factions. I'd like her to grow up in a different atmosphere, to learn to respect her heritage on both sides.”
    “I see.” Mallory nodded slowly. “She's adopted?”
    “Was it the red hair, the green eyes, the pale skin, or the ‘map of Ireland’ on my face that gave it away?” Her hair wasn't so much red anymore as auburn and she couldn't be