Sex and Homicide: The Death Betrayal and Love Series, #2

By Paula-Michelle Trotter

His job is to hunt the killer. She's an independent career woman, with no time for games. He didn't expect his love to become the target of the killer.
Nick and Izzy knew it wasn't love at first sight. They have a chemical, biological and magnetic pull. They didn't know how strong that pull would be, until the time came to test it.
Will their passion conquer the evil criminals they come face to face with?

**A portion of the proceeds from each purchase go to a local charity to help prevent Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Victims**

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paula-Michelle Trotter
• Release date: May 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781981226337

Book preview

Sex

&

Homicide

By Paula-Michelle Trotter

Table of Contents

Prologue – Nick 10

Chapter 1 – Nick 16

Chapter 2– Nick 24

Chapter 3 – Izzy 27

Chapter 4 – Nick 32

Chapter 6 – Nick 53

Chapter 7 – Nick 59

Chapter 9 – Nick 69

Chapter 10 – Nick 80

Chapter 11 – Izzy 91

Chapter 12 – Nick 105

Chapter 13 - Izzy 111

Chapter 14 – Nick 117

Chapter 15 – Nick 123

Chapter 16 – Izzy 129

Chapter 17 – Nick 143

Chapter 18 – Nick 154

Chapter 19 – Nick 159

Chapter 20 – Nick 163

Chapter 21 - Nick 169

Chapter 22 – Izzy 173

Chapter 23 – Nick 178

Epilogue 183

Stay in contact with Paula-Michelle Trotter

Want more Jake, Nick, Izzy, and Julia?

Drew has a lot to say in his book Gray Hat

Garcia is hard at work in his book too.

You’ll find them all in the rest of this series.

Join the mailing list for newsletter updates or

join Grandma Betty’s mailing list for random gifts from Granny B

go to the contact us page

on her website.

www. PaulaMichelleTrotter .com

Don’t forget all five books will make great gifts

You can purchase all these books online

Prologue – Nick

Iam Nicholas Caprisi . I wouldn’t be the best of the best, the number one homicide investigator in California if I couldn’t figure out the reason my partner is obsessed with this Big Fish case. He doesn’t need to tell me. He knows I know, and I know it is eating at his soul every single day. I know he’s worked hundreds of hours and has single-handedly gathered ninety percent of the evidence we have in this case himself.  You know that intuition twins have? My partner and I have developed that over the years we have worked together. I can tell just by the clothes he’s wearing if he woke up late or if he is pissed off because he spent most of his night gathering evidence or checking out another dead-end lead.  When we do make a conviction, I know he will write my name down as the lead investigator on this case. Even if it means he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. I know the reason for that too.

Alright, I’ll spell it out for you. The murder victim in the Big Fish case is his high school sweetheart, Samantha Frank.  There is also the fact that his daddy and her daddy played ball together growing up. They raised their families together.  I get it. If my father’s best friend’s daughter was murdered, I’d do what I could too. My partner is overly obsessed because she’s the one he lost his virginity to. He loved her for many years since they were in grade school together. My partner always hoped she would have made her way back to him after college, but she never did.

Hell, I remember the day she married that asshole of a husband. How can I forget, because of her wedding I did my best to pull him out of the depths of despair by taking Jake to Vegas to get him shit faced drunk! I mean hell, why not, we were both single at the time. The next day when I was saying goodbye to the twins I spent the night with, Jake’s hotel room door opened and not two, but three, women walked out to do the walk of shame. He spent the night with three fucking hot women. That asshole never gave up details about it either. Years later, he’s happily getting married and has a kid on the way. I mean as happy as he can be with this case haunting him. I will do whatever it takes to solve this murder.

The case details read, our victim went with her husband to a small town of maybe five thousand people for a surprise weekend getaway. Surprise to her! She didn’t know it was planned. It happens to be in a mountainside town known for its snowmobiling trails. He rented a private cabin from Air B’n’B’s website and a snowmobile from a shop in the little town. The husband says he hit a bump, they crashed and he was knocked out at the time he landed on top of her. She just happened to be face-down in a two-inch puddle of melted snow water. This meaning his nearly three hundred and fifty pounds of body weight held her face in the shallow pool of icy slush long enough for her to drown. And that’s a fucking lie. I will prove it. A group of avid snowmobilers just happen to be on a trail passing by the couple not long after it happened. Unfortunately, long enough for it to be too late to get the wife the medical help she needed.

The details don’t add up. More than one emergency room doctor felt his damages weren’t significant enough to render him unconscious. However, the husband just happened to have remembered his lawyer’s phone number and called said lawyer from the emergency room. His lawyer showed up at the hospital and insisted the doctor’s order an MRI. The MRI did show a spot that could prove to be damage, but the radiologist could not determine if the spot was new or old damage. This is leaving our murder charges shaky at best.

The husband took a life insurance policy out on his wife and asked for two million dollars.  The life insurance company pays a little more attention when the new policy is cashed in before the ink is dry. They pay even more attention when the policy holder’s home mortgage is a few months past due at the time the policy is written. Why wouldn’t you pay your mortgage before your life insurance? I questioned how the company allowed the husband to get such a large policy on a grocery store cashier. I mean, hell, my personal plan only pays off my mortgage and gives my wife enough money to replace my income for a year and that’s not two million dollars. I don’t like the fact that the wife never signed any of the insurance paperwork.  The insurance company has shed the light on the questionable details of this case and has asked the district attorney’s office to investigate this as a murder. The coincidence comes into play because we all work for the city where the victim lived, and the insurance company is located. The case landing on Jakes desk is the luck of the lottery system we have for case assignments.

Jake and I found a dude ranch appropriately named, The Ranch, a few miles from the little snowmobile town where the Big Fish case took place. In the Sierra Nevada foothills, a bit more than four hours north of the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the months this investigation has taken, we’ve spent a few fun-filled weekends there. It is like a home away from home for my partner.  Before I met my sexy as hell wife, I went on too many dates to spend as much time there as he has. I would go with him every once in a while. On the rare occasion, my social calendar was clear, but Jake takes vacation time and weekends to go there. Usually, when he finds a new lead or witness to question for the case. Just last year he took his soon to be wife there too, and they had such a good time she ended up pregnant after that weekend. Now they are scheduled to have their wedding at The Ranch.

Chapter 1 – Nick

I t’s the middle of the night, I’m at a damn double homicide, and I have to deal with this shit? I need a cup of coffee! Jake grumbles as he walks under the crime scene tape.

I’ll take care of this little fucker, I wave my partner off like it’s really no big deal.

The dog growls viciously, shows his teeth, then snaps his jaws. Then he runs back to his spot. He does this over and over to anyone who threatens to enter the room. I’m known for my charming skills with animals these days. I was once known for my womanizing skills before I married my beautiful wife. I see the little dog lunge for Jake. It’s funny as hell to see my partner, who is as big as a linebacker, jump and run like a little girl so this five-pound chihuahua doesn’t shred his pant leg.

We are on the fourth new case this week, and it’s only Wednesday. This crime scene seems to be a double homicide from a drug deal, but we won’t know until this little dog is moved out of the way to let us do our job. The loyal little dog is shaking and rolls up into a ball like he’s hurt next to his owner’s dead body. This dog is willing to protect his dead owner with his own life. I ask the forensic team to give me a minute to take care of the little guy, knowing what needs to be done. I retrieve the bag of beef flavored dog treats and a leash from my car. At the entrance of the house, I take off my shoes and cover my socks with a fresh pair of paper booties. I don’t want to contaminate the area around the victim’s body. Walking sideways towards the dog, I take slow steps, reminding myself not to make eye contact and toss one treat with each step. He allows me to get close enough to smell my hands and feed him more treats. When he’s no longer starving, and his demeanor softens, I offer a rub behind his ears. The little dog crawls into my arms and buries his face in my armpit. From the overwhelming stench of death in the room, strong enough to make my eyes water, it’s apparent this pup probably hasn’t been fed for days. 

The blood splatter on the walls shows this dog’s owner didn’t have a chance to defend himself. He was outgunned. If we are going to have to leave the comfort of our beds in the middle of the night, this is the kind of case we prefer. The suspect made it easy for us by being arrogant enough to think he could dodge a barrage of bullets. At least, we don’t have to go chasing down who could have taken this pup’s human away from him. These two crack addicts shot each other over their next fix.

The piercing sound of a woman screaming and the booming voice of my