Race With a Heart
Chapter 132: Almost Like Stepping Into a Lion’s Den

Chapter 132: Almost Like Stepping Into a Lion’s Den

"That text message" asked Steve Paxton, trying to calm down "was the last one in her life?"

"Yes," Moore admitted. "Do you know what message I’m talking about?"

Steve slowly withdrew his trembling hand so that the others would not notice it.

"How did she ... die?" Paxton asked, ignoring Kevin’s question. "When?"

Moore gave him the date without ceasing to watch him. Steve’s reaction was very nervous, and by this point any policeman would have been convinced of his guilt by now, but Kevin knew about Paxton’s history of anxiety, which was in the media, for simplicity’s sake, thrown into the bag labeled PTSD along with other similar disorders.

Paxton took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"So I’m a suspect?" he asked directly.

"Yes," Moore admitted. "It’s probably logical considering the content of this message."

"Yes," Steve agreed, and Kevin was pleased to note that Paxton had contained his anxiety. "Do I have to ask for total discretion?" Steve looked at the policemen. "I promise full cooperation, only ..."

Kevin turned off the recorder without asking for permission and picked it up, showing everyone what he had done. Sullivan puffed a curse in his mouth, but nodded. Denning did the same (no curse).

"Thank you." Paxton showed genuine relief. "When you told me about the text, Professor Moore, I remembered that girl. I didn’t recognize her right away because I only saw her once and she looked completely different. Makeup can really change a person. "

"When did you meet her," Kevin asked.

"That night," Paxton had almost complete control of his emotions. "I am probably one of the last people to see her alive."

"Why did you meet her?"

"Isn’t it obvious?" Paxton asked in return. "I wanted to pay her. But I didn’t. I have asked her for evidence to support her threats. She had nothing. She was bluffing. "

"You must have been very nervous and furious."

"Yes," he admitted without thinking for a moment. "I was furious. I wanted to teach her a lesson. "

"And you taught her," Sullivan interjected bitterly. Kevin shot him a sharp look admonishing the lieutenant not to interfere.

"Yes," Steve admitted brusquely. "I did. When I left, she cried with fear and remorse. "

"What did you do to her?" the policeman growled. "You beat her so bad she couldn’t move, then you strangled her and stuffed her behind the dumpster, right? Or maybe you were under the illusion that she was still alive, so it’s not murder, is it? "

"Lieutenant!" Moore called, trying to stop Sullivan. Paxton testified voluntarily, there was no need to pressure him to testify.

"You really think so?" Steve, furious, leaned forward. "Do you really think that I ...? Evidence! Show me the proof! You’re a policeman and haven’t heard of the presumption of innocence ?! You didn’t come to investigate, but blame it all on the first suspect to show up and close the case quickly! This is the police? This is a mockery, not the police! Get out! Get out everyone! I don’t want you...! "

Suddenly Paxton grabbed his injured side and started breathing hard. Something began to beep and an alarmed nurse ran into the room and screamed them out of the door.

As he left, Moore looked back to see the nurse setting Paxton back on the pillows and peering into his wound.

"Bloody bastard!" Sullivan cursed as they walked a few paces away. "He did it! He only killed a poor girl because she dared to blackmail him! "

"You don `t know it!" Moore snapped furiously. "You were supposed to leave an interrogation to me!"

"Yes? And as if I about to listen to his lies ... "

"How the hell do you know it’s him ?!" Kevin raised his voice and lowered it immediately, remembering he was in the hospital. "If Rita had blackmailed him, she might as well have done it to someone else. And by any chance you have not thought of how she had the knowledge to blackmail Paxton? "

"Didn’t you see how he reacted when he found out we came to question him for a murder? That’s how the guilty react. "

"Not necessarily," to their surprise, Paul Denning interrupted. "Paxton is a victim of an attempted murder, so just hearing the word he may react in exactly the same way."

"Good observation," said Moore and turned to Sullivan. "Because, you’ve never interviewed a victim who had a similar experience? Maybe not, it’s a quiet city ... "

Sullivan fell silent. Yes, he had a handful of attempted murder and murder cases, but the victim of the first had never been a suspect in the second.

"You see?" Moore remarked calmly. "Paxton is right, you came to question him convinced of his guilt. I thought you considered him the pride of this city. Is that why? "

"Get off my head, okay?" Sullivan snarled at him, and Kevin knew he was right.

The lieutenant was proud that Paxton belonged to their city, so when suspicion fell on him, to avoid the pain of subsequent disappointment when the statue fell from its pedestal, Sullivan chose not to wait for this moment and overthrew it in his heart now.

"I think he’s innocent," Denning announced with a sigh. "I watched him carefully and saw that he was very nervous, but not like someone trying to hide his crimes."

"But he definitely wants to hide something!"

"He was being blackmailed, obviously he has something to hide," Moore pointed out. "I’m sure he was ready to tell us everything"

Or almost anything, Kevin thought, because some of the secrets were too delicate and irrelevant to that case. So why should he talk about them? It was the trembling of the hand ... Moore knew exactly what the symptom could be.

"You both think he’s innocent?" Sullivan asked. The tone of his voice indicated that the lieutenant was starting to feel guilty.

Denning and Moore nodded.

"All right," the lieutenant took a deep breath. "We’re not done with Paxton yet, but you got it right, professor, Rita got information somewhere that she could blackmail Paxton with. The question is, did she get it by accident, or did someone give her on purpose? We will focus on that for now. "

"Rita’s friend said one of her clients was the driver," recalled Paul Denning. "Since the blackmail involved Paxton, I guess we can assume that he was one of the three drivers of the Fergus Stable."

For reasons known only for him, Kevin has excluded Jack Lambert. He tried to imagine him using Rita’s services, but the thought was just too ridiculous.

"Right," Sullivan agreed. "We’ll have to question them. It probably wasn’t Paxton, but we still need to verify it. But he won’t want to talk to us anymore ... "

"I think I’ll try," said Moore. "I’ll wait until Paxton calms down and try again."

"All right," Sullivan agreed. "Then we will go to the stable ..."

***

Being invited to a meeting after only twenty minutes of waiting, especially since the meeting had been requested without prior appointment, was considered a real success by Jack Lambert. He really couldn’t regret having to wait politely on the couch in the office. After all, he might as well be dragged out of the building grounds. Jack wouldn’t be surprised at all because the person he wanted to meet didn’t like him very much. But she didn’t like him very much.

It probably had something to do with the fact that Jack was fucking his only son.

Michael Moore had every right to be pissed off at Lambert to the point of asking security to get him out of the building without having to be too polite.

Michale Moore, however, showed class and announced through the secretary that yes, he would receive an unannounced guest, but first he had to take care of the arranged matters.

Lambert met Michael at one of the parties and they even got on quite well at the next social gatherings. For a moment, Michael was even interested in working with Jack on a new product advertisement, but then Jack fell head over heels in love with his son, which aroused the understandable anger of the older Moore. And when Kevin began to feel Lambert back, Michael Moore was just furious. There was no longer any question of cooperation between the driver and the company. Their private relationships were even worse. So Jack just had to appreciate the fact that he will be meeting the CEO of a fairly large corporation.

The Moore family was one of the oldest and richest in the country. Their business spanned five foreign countries and touched so many industries that Jack was afraid to even count.

Despite their enormous amount of money, the Moors never became too arrogant, and instead of sulky millionaires, they produced explorers, scientists and reasonable altruists. Reasonable, because instead of giving away their wealth to the poor, the Moors were opening new jobs while making sure that there was no abuse. In this way, they strengthened the economy and pushed their pockets out so much that they had to wear pants with braces.

Currently, the entire circus is managed by Michael Moore, who became fascinated with coffee plantations in Vietnam and was just launching a new, excellent blend (which, by the way, Kevin and Jack liked to drink at home). It was a beloved child project of this brilliant sixty-year-old businessman. But the real eye in his head, his hope, his pride, and his greatest disappointment was his only son, whom a certain arrogant racing driver had seduced by depriving him of the possibility of producing an offspring.

And this driver, aware that he could lose his head at any moment, was just crossing the threshold of Michael Moore’s office ...

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