Read The Last Clinic for Free Online Page A

women’s rights, but…”
    “Tommy, with respect, you don’t know how I feel about women’s rights or anything else.”
    “My point is, that man up there, he ain’t just your run-of-the-mill Yankee baby killer.”
    “I thought Dr. Nicoletti was from Italy?”
    “My gut says he’s Reverend Jimmy’s murderer. It’s my job to see that he pays for what he did.”
    She put the envelope back in the evidence kit, zipped the kit, and pitched it to him. He fumbled it once or twice before securing it.
    “I’ll pick this up from the evidence room later.”
    On her way to the car, she called down to the station and asked to talk to Sheriff Shelby Mitchell.
    He didn’t keep her waiting.
    “I’d like a uniformed officer posted around the clock in front of the Jackson Women’s Health Clinic and at night in front of Dr. Nicoletti’s house. Also, we found some money, three grand, in an envelope in his vehicle. Fives, tens, twenties. I’m going to check with the church to see if it was from collection money. I’d be surprised if it was. In the meantime, I’d like to get a court order to take a look at all of Reverend Aldridge’s bank accounts, and a search warrant for his office at the church and his home office. I need to know where the money came from and where it was going, so I’m going to follow the ash trail.”
    “Like Woodward and Bernstein in All the President’s Men ? You ain’t the only one that gets Netflix.”
    “It’s nice that we can share these things, you and I.”
    “What about ole Tommy? What’s he up to?”
    “I think he’s got a singing engagement up in Madison. Then he’s going to buy a rope to put around Dr. Nicoletti’s neck.”
    “Any trees on the property?”
    “Also, our guy at FUSION, the computer geek. I want him to look at Reverend Aldridge’s BlackBerry and tell me what he finds. It should be logged into the evidence room by this afternoon.”
    “You talk to the doc yet, Nicoletti?”
    “I thought I’d have some lunch first.”
    “You going to the Burger Barn?”
    “I was thinking about something a little more exotic,” Darla said, a plan forming.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    But this time, she’d already hung up.
     
    Arriving at her car, she speed-dialed her friend, Lulu Brister. “What’s cooking girl?” she asked.
    “Why don’t you come on over and find out,” Lulu said.
     

5
 
Tangential.
 
    He discovered the murder quite by accident.
    He was scheduled to roll into Jackson in a week or so, but didn’t know much about the place. He knew that Vicksburg, an hour or so to the west of Jackson, had the National Civil War Park, as well as a few cheesy casinos. But was there anything in Jackson itself worth seeing or doing? If so, he’d try to work a couple of days of sightseeing into his schedule. Shouldn’t be too difficult. He usually had more time than he knew what to do with. A lot of sitting around and waiting. And why waste two or three beautiful spring days in front of a motel room TV or surfing the internet?
    He checked both the state and city websites. Jackson was the capitol of Mississippi, but not home to either of their SEC universities, Ole Miss and Mississippi State, so there wouldn’t be much of a big time college sports offering. There were a couple of minor league baseball teams in town, but watching AA minor league wannabees hardly seemed worth the effort. There were also a couple of decent golf courses, but he didn’t play. Golf was too slow-paced and sociable to suit his disposition.
    As to Southern history and culture, of which he had a passing interest, Jackson didn’t have much to offer. And although Mississippi claimed to be the birthplace of the Blues, it was the Mississippi Delta to the northwest, and not Jackson, that had the bragging rights. Aside from being the city where civil rights activist Medgar Evers struggled and was murdered, Jackson had very little in the way of historical significance.
    The Evers murder,