Page 11 of Dead Man's List

Connor rolled his eyes. “Suck-up.”

Navarro shook his head. “Was he killed in the desert or his own garage?”

Kit opened the Notes app on her phone. She and Sam had stayed at the scene until both SDPD’s CSU and ME teams had arrived and had begun processing the scene. “From what I saw, there was blood in the sand under the body after the ME removed it. I don’t know yet how deep it went. But that alone indicates he was likely killed there in Anza-Borrego. ME’s initial opinion was that he died from the wound to his throat.”

Beside her, Sam shuddered but said nothing. She wanted topat his hand again, but she was acutely aware of Navarro’s gaze. So she soldiered on.

“I don’t know where the stab wounds were made. I counted at least twenty. Alicia says she’ll give me an exact count when she gets the body on the table.” Dr.Alicia Batra had arrived on the scene about forty-five minutes after CSU had trudged in from where they’d parked their van. “Sand covered part of his lower body, so there could be more. Or wounds on his back.”

“Will she be able to give us some idea as to the murder weapon?” Navarro asked.

“Maybe. The wounds looked different, one from the other. Some looked deep, others looked shallow. Some were just slices through his skin. My first impression was that someone had wanted him to suffer.”

“I wish I were shocked,” Navarro said dryly.

“That man made a lot of enemies,” Connor said. “This is gonna be fun.”

From his tone it was clear that he meant the opposite.

Sam had begun to frown, and Kit quietly murmured, “Sam?”

Sam blew out a sigh. “I met him only once and instantly hated him.”

“Join the club,” Navarro said. “What did he do to you, Dr.Reeves?”

“Back in August, I was tasked by the New Horizons board to meet with the city council members because they were about to vote for a funding package.”

Navarro leaned forward, brows knit. “New Horizons, the teen shelter?”

Sam nodded. “I’ve volunteered there for several years now. I did a presentation to the whole council, but a few members were absent, so I made one-on-one appointments with them. Munrowas my last appointment. Only about half of the members had been receptive to the funding and Munro might have been a tiebreaker. He seemed on board, at first. But as I was packing up my materials to leave, he said that he expected I’d be ‘grateful’ for his vote.”

Kit tensed. Sam was the nicest guy, and Munro pulled that shit with him?

“Did you ask what he meant?” Navarro asked.

“Oh yes. I was…stunned. I wasn’t expecting it and I should have. I’d heard the rumors, but he’d been so agreeable up until that moment.” His cheeks darkened. “I’m embarrassed to say that he caught me off guard.”

“Don’t be,” Navarro said. “He was a smooth character. Oozed charm when he wanted to. We’ve suspected him of taking kickbacks for years but haven’t been able to make anything stick.”

“Still is embarrassing. I’m supposed to be able to read people. Anyway, he said that he heard that I was responsible for the psychological exams on defendants currently up for trial, andthenmy guard went up. I asked him which defendant, in particular. He said, ‘Ronald Tasker.’ I’d just been assigned Tasker’s exam the day before.”

Navarro whistled softly. “Tasker tried a mental illness defense for the murder of his wife. He slit her throat and chopped her into pieces.”

“Munro’s throat was slit,” Kit said. “And before that, he’d been sliced and diced. Connection?”

“Maybe,” Navarro allowed. “Put it on your list, Kit. At least Tasker’s defense didn’t work. He’s doing life without parole. You didn’t do his psych exam, did you, Sam?”

“No. I was so shaken when I left that I didn’t know what to do at first, but then I called Joel.”

Sam’s best friend, Joel Haley, was one of San Diego’s leadprosecutors. Kit was glad he’d had someone to turn to. Still, she wondered why Sam hadn’t called her first.

And then she got it. He’d met with Munro in August, when she’d been actively avoiding Sam Reeves at all costs.

You could have helped him, but you were too chickenshit to admit you liked him.

She swallowed her sigh. She couldn’t change that now. She could only be there for him in the future.

“Joel said there wasn’t anything we could do,” Sam went on. “That it was my word against Munro’s. But he got me pulled from the case. Joel gave the new psychologist a heads-up that he might be approached to alter his testimony, but that didn’t happen.”