Read Tied Up in Knots for Free Online

accidentally transferred to you.”
    “What does it matter? It was tested for prints, which you got, and you’ve got the sample of whoever’s DNA was on it, so just get Fiore’s sample and match it… or not. It’s done either way.”
    “It’s not that simple.”
    “Of course it is. The prints will compel the DNA sample.”
    He shook his head. “No.”
    “No? How the hell you figure no?”
    “The ASA assigned to the case—Sutter—she says that without the gun, it’s our word against Fiore’s that the prints were from the gun. She says they could’ve come off anything, and it could look like we’re trying to set him up. Fiore could make a case for tampering.”
    “Are you serious?” I asked, overwhelmed with the stupidity of all of this.
    “Yeah, I’m serious!” Cochran flared. “Without the goddamn gun, we can’t make Fiore give us a DNA sample.”
    If I thought about it logically, that made sense. No judge in their right mind would issue a court order to compel Fiore to give them a DNA sample if the item his DNA was supposed to be on was, in fact, missing. What if it was always missing? Never found? What did that say about the police department that they’d had the weapon in their possession but didn’t anymore? What if the prints in question had come from somewhere or something completely different, and Andreo Fiore had, in fact, never even been in the room where Joey Romelli was killed? It was a mess.
    “I get it,” I admitted. “You need the gun.”
    “Fuck, yeah, I need the gun, and that’s where you come in.”
    “How?” I could hear how icy and stilted I sounded, so no way Cochran was missing it.
    “Chain of custody says it’s in your property room.”
    “But?”
    “But your boss says the gun’s not there.”
    Now I was really lost. “Okay, wait. You’re telling me that you already questioned the chief deputy about the gun?”
    “Barreto and I did, yeah.”
    This finally felt like the gist of it. “And?”
    “And like I said, he told us that it’s not there.”
    “Then what the fuck, Norris? If he says it’s not there, it’s not there.”
    “But I think it is, and I think he’s lying.”
    “ What ?” My brain was ready to explode. “How dare you fucking—”
    “Calm the fuck down!”
    “Don’t tell me to calm down!” I roared, drilling two fingers into his collarbone. “You don’t know shit about Sam Kage because if you did you’d never—”
    “I think your boss is purposely hiding the whereabouts of that gun,” he yelled over me.
    “For what reason ?” I shouted.
    “I have no idea.”
    “Does Sam Kage even know Andreo Fiore?”
    “Not that we can tell. There’s nothing at all that links them.”
    “Then why the hell would you think he would lose the gun?”
    Cochran cleared his throat. “You know, back in the day, his partner was dirty, and guess where that guy went—into WITSEC,” he said offhandedly.
    “What are you insinuating?” I asked, feeling my skin heat under my clothes, afraid of what I would do if the words actually came out of his mouth. Irritation, annoyance, all of it was gone, replaced solely by anger. How fucking dare he.
    “Dirty partner… you understand.”
    “I don’t think I do,” I said flatly, my vision tunneling down to him, lost on the edges, going black, my throat dry, my heart beating so fast I wondered how he couldn’t hear it.
    “C’mon, Miro, don’t be stupid.”
    “That was a long time before my boss was even a marshal,” I ground out.
    “Whatever. It’s not right and you know it.”
    “ What isn’t?” He had to be clear. I couldn’t bury his career if he wasn’t.
    “Your boss is fuckin’ dirty.”
    It was worse than I thought it would be, hearing his words, having them out there, the accusation making my stomach churn.
    “Did you hear me?”
    The rage filled me up, made me see red, and fisted my hands at my sides. Only the thought of Kage, his disappointment if I surrendered to my base