Read Keller County Cops Book Seven: Code of Vengeance for Free Online Page B

and by then they should look okay. She'd been too tired last night to do anything at all with her hair, so she'd left it up in a ponytail. As a result, this morning it was a tangled mess. It also smelled like sweat. Another excellent reason for her to duck into the shower.
    With a weary sigh, Keegan put lubricant tears in her eyes, then tugged the stretchy ponytail holder out of her hair and studied her face. She was only thirty-three, but already tiny lines radiated from the corners of her eyes. She attributed them to the grief she'd suffered after Jenny's death. Dirk had brought her entire family to their knees that day.
    The sparkle of her right earring caught her eye. She'd bought the silver and garnet beauties as a present to herself after landing her current job as a court artist for Keller County. The only bit of fun she'd allowed herself since losing her sister. She angled her head to admire the other one. The hole in that earlobe was empty.
    No earring.
    Panic seized her. She touched her ear. When had she lost the stud? Before she'd left the house last night, or while she was gone? She remembered catching her turtleneck on it as she'd gotten dressed, so it had been on then. After that, she'd paid no attention to the earrings. Then she'd gotten home and the water had been off, so she hadn't bothered to wash her face before bed. Without looking in the mirror, she hadn't known the trinket was gone.
    "If it fell off near the Kitty Kat Klub and the cops found it..." she murmured, the realization sinking in and taking hold. Her hands trembled. "No. It has to be around here somewhere, right? I have to find it."
    She bolted from the bathroom and dashed into the bedroom. Her heart beat hard inside her chest as she examined every inch of the carpeted floor, her bed -- at least she hadn't made it up yet -- and even the closet. No luck.
    Her stomach swirled as she tossed down the sneaker she'd checked in case the earring had fallen into it and marched into the living room. A careful check of that room and the kitchen also left her empty-handed. She even dug through the garbage and found nothing.
    "I don't believe this," she said aloud, her whole body shaking.
    She needed to go back to the scene of Dirk's murder and look for it, but would the crime scene technicians be through scouring the parking lot yet? She glanced at the clock. Nine-thirty. Surely they'd be gone by now. Over eight hours had passed since the murder. Still, they might return at some point to view the scene in broad daylight and pick up any evidence they'd missed.
    Like my earring.
    A fresh streak of terror sliced through her. She gripped the edge of the sink and ordered herself to calm down and think logically. Even if they did find the earring, how would they know it was hers? Anybody could have dropped it, at any time. Last week, last month, or even last year. She'd stayed in the shadows, so no one had seen her. That meant they'd have no way to connect it to her even if they did find it, right? Unless they found skin cells on it and could get DNA, or discovered a partial fingerprint -- and how small would that be? Surely they couldn't get her identity from it. DNA, of course, was another matter.
    She stalked over to the window. Thick gray clouds lined the horizon. A big line of storms was moving in. If she wanted to return to the site, she needed to go now before the rain started. Without thinking about it, she grabbed her jacket and ran out to the car.
    Fifteen minutes later, she turned onto the narrow street leading to the Kitty Kat Klub. Today was Sunday, so the place would be closed. Still, she didn't like being here. The clouds had edged closer, turning the day to a deep, lifeless gray and enveloping the area in a gloom almost as ominous as the darkness last night. She shivered.
    Sure enough, the two parking lots in front of the club were empty -- except for a lone truck belonging to a man on a ladder changing light bulbs in the strip club's brilliant