Carter Brothers: Adrian (Rated R Novel)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Had it not been for the steaming, tall hot cup of Caramel Mocha, then Sam’s sure she would have evolved into some female version of the Grinch. Thankfully, by some miracle, Briggs seemed to know that she really needs it today, especially since Adrian Carter’s raunchy photo was stuck in her mind all fucking night.A few hours of paperwork later, Sam manages to score an actual job. Which is great because at least it gets her outside and in the field. Taking Briggs with her they drive to a shadier part of town and park up in some dingy alleyway.
“So why are we here Ma’am?” asks Briggs as Sam locks up the car and makes sure it’s secure. There’d been a few times last year when some stupid kids had tried to car-jack one of the cop cars for a ‘laugh’.
“Some prostitutes been...murdered,” replies Sam in the most professional, detached tone she can muster. There’s only been a handle of cases she’s had to deal with to do with murder. She’s dealt with death, many times, more often than not it’d be a car-collision that is the cause of the tragedy. However it’s very rare it’d be murder and in those instances the murdered and murderers were shady people, who had a little too much of alcohol or some other drug. Only once has she had to go along to inspect a deceased prostitute but it turned out that she’d overdosed rather than it being a homicide.
Still, Sam was warned when she signed up for the job there’d be some pretty gruesome stuff to deal with and well...looks like they weren’t lying.

Sam’s partner, Briggs says nothing in response and both stride forward in silence. As they round the corner and pace down the narrow alleyway, Sam can see numerous paramedics standing around and looking perplexed.
Relief washes over one of the paramedics as they spot Officer Sam Torres and Officer Gale Briggs.
“Hi, I’m Ricky. I’m the one who called you guys,” he introduces walking alongside them as they cautiously approach the body.

She’s young-notes Sam with surprise. Her youthful face is dusted with make-up however even that can’t quite disguise her now ghostly pale complexion. She’s a slim girl and as expected she’s dressed scantily. Sam would have guessed her to be another overdose case, were it not for the inch wide hole straight in the middle of the girl’s forehead.
“We got a call and came right away. The caller said he’d just found her like this and he’s in shock at the moment so he’s in the van,” explains Ricky pointing to the ambulance parked outside on the road.
“Right, okay, thanks. Have you moved or examined her in any way?” asks Sam unable to stop staring at the horrific sight before her.
“No we haven’t touched her at all, we thought it’d be best to wait for you guys,” replies Ricky with a grim smile as he glances back at the girl.
“Good,” mutters Sam hypnotically.
“Alright. So...um, I guess you’ll have your own team out on this then? So we’ll just get going,”  awkwardly requests Ricky. Sam gives a sturdy nod at his actions and waits as the team packs up and takes off.
As they take off a man, presumably the one who first spotted the body, stumbles shakily towards them. Snapping herself out of it, Sam tries to focus on the task at hand. She assigns Briggs the responsibility to call up the homicide unit while she strolls over to deal with the witness.

“Sir? I’m Deputy Chief Torres, I believe you were the first to spot the body?” she asks. The middle aged man, merely nods. He’s quite a frail, worn out looking thing; with an old, worn out, blue suit that seems too large for him. Along with his appearance, his frantic, wide eyes and long grown facial hair suggests to Sam that he could be some kind of drug user.
“Okay, I understand this is traumatic but I’ll need you to come with me to the police station so we can ask you a few questions. There’ll also be a psychologist there who will need to asses you. Do you understand?”
“Y-Yes,” he shakily nods.
“Good. My team mate, here-Officer Briggs- will accompany you to the station and answer any queries you have,” instructs Sam nodding for Briggs to come over and take care of the man.
“I’ll come along in a moment. I need to wait for the homicide team to get here first,” says Sam in a hushed tone to her comrade.

Pretty soon just after Briggs and the guy has left, a couple of analysts arrive to examine the body. Amongst them is one of Sam’s only friends- a woman by the name of Carmen Hall. Unlike Sam she’s a completely red-blooded Latino, with straight, bronze hair streaked with golden highlights. She has a slim figure, with her hips and shoulders balancing perfectly. Sometimes Sam feels envious of the beautiful woman but Carmen’s much too bubbly and lively to truly be jealous of. 
“Wow, how old is she?” whistles Carmen, in shock, sharing the same sentiments as Sam.
“I have no idea, but definitely not legal,” replies Sam stepping back to letting them to carry the body bag through to their van.
“Christ! Right, well, looks like we’ve got our hands full today then,” sighs Carmen. Sam gives a conquering smile and follows her to the van, allowing the rest of her team to photograph and clear up.

Carmen and Sam lightly chat but it’s hard to converse when there’s a dead girl in the back of the van, and guys in white, jumpsuits are squished together in silence.
The unbearable journey soon comes to an end and with relief, Sam’s glad she doesn’t have to see the body again. Trying to shake that image out of her mind, Sam walks through the office only to see the witness sat on one of the chairs outside her office. Giving the man a slight smile, she signals for him to wait a moment as she grabs her clipboard, interview paper and pen.
Emerging back out, she leads the guy into one of the interview rooms and starts questioning him on his finding.

Half an hour later and she was getting nowhere. Mr Hadley was keeping something back. She just knows it. After all, who just ‘wanders’ across a dead body in the alleyway on a busy weed-day morning? No, the guy went there for something...it’s just what? Drugs? Possibly but...something’s off. Call it intuition but Sam’s pretty sure, he didn’t kill her though. He’s just too...he just seems too shaken up about it to be the killer. But appearances can be deceiving, so she’s not going to go easy on him just yet.