Read Justification for Murder for Free Online Page B

She’s very busy, so if you want to talk to her, I suggest you come over here and talk while she works.”
    Darcy walked to the forensic unit located a couple blocks away. The air was dry and the sky a beautiful deep blue with two parallel white stripes made by a plane flying high above. The structure was old—it could have been a courthouse or a post office in the past. The forensics lab and the morgue shared the entire building.
    He figured Rachel would be in the lab, so he got into the large elevator and pushed
3
. He was alone. The doors closed after several seconds, and the elevator started going up with a whine, as if the effort were unbearable. After what seemed like a full minute, the doors opened and he walked into the lab’s reception area.
    “Mary, how are you?” Darcy asked, reaching the front desk. He didn’t bother showing his badge.
    “Doing great, handsome. When are you going to take me on that date you’ve been promising for months now?”
    “As soon as you divorce that body-builder husband of yours. You know he scares me.”
    She patted his hand. “Who are you looking for?”
    “Rachel. Is she around?”
    “She is, actually. She was downstairs in the garage the whole morning, but she just came up. Do you want me to page her?” she asked, picking up the phone.
    “No, I’ll find her.” He pointed to his left, toward a wide and short corridor that ended in large frosted doors, looking for confirmation.
    Mary nodded. “I’ll let you know as soon as I file those divorce papers,” she called out behind him.
    “And I’ll make reservations,” he replied without looking back.
    Before he reached the doors, he heard a beep followed by the loud click that disengaged the lock. He pulled on the large handle, and the emptiness and silence of the lobby was suddenly replaced by the bustle of technicians working, walking and talking about their respective projects.
    Darcy crossed paths with a few people he barely knew and nodded. He continued down the hall, peeking into each department, looking for Rachel. He finally found her in one of the last rooms. He opened the door and heard classical music coming out of Rachel’s white headphones. She didn’t notice him.
    She stood barely five feet tall. Short silver curls, probably permed, framed her face. She didn’t wear any makeup except for the brown kohl she used to carefully paint her almost nonexistent eyebrows. Her hands were small, but they moved efficiently through the evidence, even though they were twisted by arthritis. She had the most uncanny ability to do several things at once he’d ever seen.
    A large metal table took up most of the room. Several pieces of evidence were spread on top of it, every single one tagged. He coughed, then again more loudly, but she still didn’t hear him. He finally knocked on the table.
    She jumped, clinching her lab coat around her chest. “Jesus Christ, Detective Lynch.”
    “But Rachel, with your adoration to heavy metal, there’s no other way to get your attention.”
    “No, no. You just do it because you enjoy scaring the bejesus out of me.” She pursed her lips but didn’t keep that face for long. “Besides, I don’t listen to heavy metal.” Darcy winked, and she asked, “What can I do for you?”
    “Jacqueline Pritchard’s car,” he said.
    “Ah, yes. Just finished processing the brake lines about an hour ago.”
    She moved a few inches from the table and peeled off her latex gloves. Her nails were painted a Christmas red. Without looking at her notes, she said, “I checked the brake lines and I first was surprised to find brake fluid on the rubber hose going to each caliper in the front. So, I inspected the hoses and found one puncture in each. This would have caused the brake fluid to leak out.”
    “But wouldn’t she have noticed the loss of brake pressure?”
    “Probably, but with such an old car, the brakes were probably soft already and she may have not noticed until it was too