Framed: A Psychological Thriller (Boston's Crimes of Passion Book 2) by Colleen Connally Page B

wasted time. “I take it you hunted me down, so you must want something. What is it?”
    “Wasn’t hard.” She smiled smugly. “You ignored my calls, but I called Waters. He said he thought you would be here.”
    Brophy swallowed back his frustration with his partner. His irritation bore more at Waters’s absence than his divulging his location to Cruz. Waters was always a softy when it came to women.
    No, his annoyance at Waters stemmed from his dinner tonight. Waters was being recruited to an elite tactical unit. For the last month, Waters’s attention centered on the possibility of the new position. Wouldn’t be long before Brophy would be needing a new partner. Hell, he needed one now.
    “And?”
    “You were always so impatient.” Cruz moved into the center of the kitchen, surveying the crime scene. “Walking in the killer’s shoes? Have you come up with anything?”
    That jostled a laugh. “What—are you my partner now?”
    “Maybe.” She shrugged and pointed down the hall. “Don’t tell me anything. Let me guess. You are struggling with the brutality of Helen’s death. How the killer could so violently murder the woman and coolly shoot the son?”
    “What kind of psychopath are we dealing with then? Is it one killer or two? Who was the real target of the killer?” Brophy rattled questions at her as though she were the one being interrogated.
    “Helen Barlow was the target. It was a crime of passion…someone believed she had betrayed him.”
    He stared at her for a moment. She sounded so confident. “ Him ?”
    “Walter Ashcroft,” she stated simply. “We have been looking into him. Seems he’s not exactly the persona that he presents to the public.”
    “We? Don’t tell me…”
    “Kincaid. He’s outside. He wants to talk to you.”
    Brophy was incredulous, but he followed Cruz out back, flicking on the outside light as he did so. Kincaid was there, leaning against Barlow’s old Buick.
    He frowned as he looked at the man. He hated feeling as though he was being manipulated. Probably more than anything, his irritation toward Kincaid stemmed from the fact that they both were thinking the same thing—that the Ashcrofts were involved in some form or fashion.
    His eyes met Kincaid’s. Despite their differences, they both had been around long enough to understand how politics in the real world worked. If it was an Ashcroft, he was going to have to have help taking him down…even if it meant making a pact with the devil.
    “Kincaid,” Brophy said crisply. “Well, let me hear what you have.”
    “It’s only a theory in the making,” Kincaid began. “But after an encounter with Walter Ashcroft, I felt it was one that was worth looking into. Cruz dug deep. We believe we may have found a pattern.”
    “Okay.” Brophy shrugged, waited.
    Kincaid nodded and finally began. “The other day I witnessed Ashcroft verbally attack his niece. He seemed unhinged, making threats, trying to intimidate her. She shrugged it off and called his bluff, which told me she had dealt with this behavior before.”
    Brophy said in a reasonable voice, “Tell me what you considered unhinged.”
    “To start, the man was in a rage and stormed into the house early in the morning.” Kincaid continued until he had told the whole story. “Given the circumstances, seemed odd behavior for the man.”
    “You are talking of the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the United States. You can’t just sling an accusation like that without evidence.” For the last couple of days, Brophy had lived and breathed this case. He had become extremely familiar with the Ashcrofts. “Not to mention, I don’t think it’s a secret that there is little love lost between the two. She is suing him.”
    “That makes his behavior even more suspicious. He also has plenty of people on his payroll who could have addressed any concerns with Riley, but he had to do it. He had to have control…he’s an absolute control freak.”