But Not For Lust by BJ Bourg (comprehension books .txt) 📕

on me.” She paused for a second before continuing. “But you’re right. We did a presumptive drug test on the residue in the baggie and it’s meth.”

“And…”

“And my guys also found a fingerprint on the baggie,” she said. “It wasn’t Mrs. Richardson’s print and it didn’t match the prints on the shed door, the camper door, or the pipe, but we did get a hit on it in AFIS.”

“What?” I bolted upright in my chair. “Whose is it?”

I heard some paper rustling in the background. “It’s some guy named Jerome Carter.”

“Jerome Carter?” I settled back into my chair, trying to remember where I’d heard that name. “What’s his record look like?”

“He’s got five arrests on his record. His last conviction was for distribution,” she said. “He was arrested on that charge a little over six years ago, pled guilty a year later, did three years hard, and then was released on parole two years ago. Since getting out, he’s kept his nose clean—until now.”

“He’s either kept his nose clean or he’s gotten smarter,” I said, suddenly having an idea. I reached for my computer and ran a search of Carter’s name through my investigative database. I watched for a second as the computer worked. Finally, one file popped up. I grunted and clicked on it.

“What is it?” Tracy asked.

I didn’t answer as I scanned the report. I wasn’t finding the name fast enough, so I searched within the file. As soon as I hit the Enter key, a blue highlighted name appeared alongside his nickname.

“His alias is J-Rock!” I said, jumping to my feet. “That’s why his name is familiar. I worked a case involving this kid when I first blew into town.”

“What’d he do?”

“He was the drug supplier for one of my murder victims.” After asking Tracy if there was more—she said there wasn’t—I thanked her and ended the call. I needed to find J-Rock, and I needed to find him fast.

  CHAPTER 16

“Sue, it was J-Rock,” I said, thundering down the hallway and into Susan’s office. Her head was bent over her desk as she read a police report. She looked up when I entered.

“J-Rock?” Her face scrunched up. “The same guy who sold drugs to Betty Ledet before she was murdered?”

I nodded. More than six years ago, Betty Ledet had been in the middle of a drug transaction with J-Rock when she had been murdered. J-Rock was nowhere to be found when we had arrived at the scene, and he quickly became a suspect once it was learned he had been present during the murder. Ultimately, he had been cleared of any wrongdoing with regard to Betty’s murder, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t involved in what had happened out at the Richardson home.

“Can you call Trinity and find out if she knows what he’s been up to lately?”

Without hesitation, Susan picked up the desk phone and stabbed in the number.

Trinity Bledsoe was a narcotics agent from the Chateau Parish Sheriff’s Office. She had helped us take down J-Rock back when I was working the Betty Ledet murder case.

After a moment of waiting, Susan’s eyes lit up.

“Hey, Trin, it’s Sue,” my wife said with a smile. “What’s up?”

After they exchanged pleasantries, Susan got down to business. They talked for a few minutes. When things got quiet, Susan mouthed that Trinity was searching her files and speaking with a few of her agents to see if they had any current information on J-Rock.

“She’s in charge of the narcotics division now,” Susan explained. “She said she got promoted last year and hasn’t been as active on the streets since then.”

That made sense to me—the part about Trinity being promoted. I remembered how natural it had seemed when she had taken command of the SWAT operation to arrest J-Rock and his drug buddy, Neal Barlow.

Trinity came on the phone after a short break. Susan nodded and then frowned up at me. “Okay, Trin,” she said. “I appreciate it. Call if you need anything from this way.”

After hanging up the phone, Susan shook her head.

“Nothing?” I asked.

“He hasn’t made any noise since getting out of prison,” Susan explained. “In fact, she said she didn’t even realize he was out. She said the state has released a number of drug dealers and other criminals without notifying anyone in law enforcement. She said they’re running into people on the street today who got convicted of hefty drug charges just last year. It’s become a revolving door. She said they’re fighting to keep up, but she feels they’re losing the battle.”

I nodded grimly. Working in the trenches of law enforcement every day, we were forced to see the adverse effects of ill-advised rules and laws enacted by politicians who were far removed from the problems these criminals caused. These politicians lived in gated communities and had their own security force, so they weren’t terrorized by the criminals they released. They either didn’t stop to think about where the criminals would go once released, or they didn’t care. The reality was that these criminals would usually return to the same neighborhoods they had left, or some other unsuspecting neighborhood, and they would continue to disrupt the lives of the good people who resided in those neighborhoods.

The majority of the people in most of our neighborhoods were hardworking folks who simply wanted to raise their children in safe and secure environments. Sadly for them, they would not be able to afford to uproot their families and relocate them to one of those safe, gated communities if a criminal moved next door to them and started terrorizing their neighborhood.

As an agency, the most we could do was try to arrest the criminal element and clean up the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it definitely was starting to feel like a revolving door, with the criminals receiving shorter and shorter sentences