Love and Homicide: The Death Betrayal and Love Series, #1

By Paula-Michelle Trotter

He never expected falling in love would threaten his career or her life. She never thought she'd be suspected of murder or become the next victim. Crashed together by chance and united by desire. Will the truth be discovered before another murder? 
Julia - A Successful children's book author, seemly the typical girl next door struggling with the possibility she might be to blame for murder, after an auto accident she can't remember.
Jake - A homicide investigator with an accurate gut instinct, meets his match as he lands what should be a simple case of vehicular homicide.
Granny B - An Eccentric eighty seven year old millionaire, everyone would love to have as a fairy godmother who will do everything possible to protect her granddaughter from halfway around the world. Will it take another tragedy to solve this murder?
*** A portion of the proceeds from each book purchase will go to a charity to help Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Victims***

***With the help of the main character, Julia Ramos, Paula-Michelle has created a fun children's book series for Mr. Pickles and all his great adventures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paula-Michelle Trotter
• Release date: May 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781978148246

Book preview

Love & Homicide

Paula-Michelle Trotter

CONTENTS

Love & Homicide

Prologue -Julia

Chapter 1 – Jake

Chapter 2 – Julia

Chapter 3 – Julia

Chapter 4 -Julia

Chapter 5- Julia

Chapter 6 – Julia

Chapter 7 – Julia

Chapter 8 – Julia

Chapter 9 – Jake

Chapter 10 – Julia

Chapter 11 – Julia

Chapter 12 -Jake

Chapter 13 – Julia

Chapter 14 – Jake

Chapter 15 – Julia

Chapter 16 – Julia

Chapter 17 – Julia

Chapter 18- Julia

Epilogue – Jake

Love & Homicide

By Paula-Michelle Trotter

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Prologue -Julia

Fighting, screaming, and arguing with my fiancé, hell, I don’t know ex-fiancé. Driving a little too fast, I see a green traffic light. Then I see a white minivan in the middle of the intersection. Everything goes black. The sound of two cars smashing into each other. Glass shattering. A sharp pain in my stomach. I can hear sirens, people yelling, people crying, talking on radios, the sound of a chainsaw. My body is moving, but I can’t see anything but black. I feel the swaying and pulling. People are moving my body, another sharp pain.  Why can’t I move my arms, my legs, and why can’t I speak? A heavy weight is pulling me down. Sleep, I need to sleep. Empty is how I feel now.

Chapter 1 – Jake

My name is Jake Ramos . I am one of California's top homicide investigators.  I wake up every day with a drive to catch the big fish. The guy I know who has done the worst of the worst.  The Big Fish case has eluded me for years now.  This one was close to being filed away as a cold case, but I could not let it go.  My captain insists I move on and clear off the current homicide cases on my desk.  That means I grab pieces and parts of details when I am technically off the clock.  I use vacation or sick days that I am forced to take to work on it. I use every second off the clock to keep it going in my heart and brain.

See this big fish case is the one with my high school girlfriend. She was murdered.  She married a man she met in college.  He is a pretty boy, a fast talker, who makes five times the amount of money in a year that I do as a cop.  I was happy for her to find a man who could give her everything she wanted in life that I couldn’t.

It was a stab to my heart when Samantha’s case landed on my desk. She was the prettiest girl in school.

Her pretty rich husband is the prime and only suspect.  There is simply not enough evidence to make an arrest or conviction.  The crime scene photos make her pale blue skin look like someone used the wrong filter on Instagram while taking a picture of her sleeping.  Only she isn't sleeping. She is dead. She looks like a beautiful glass doll.  The only thing I am thankful for is her killer did not chop her up into pieces or shoot her so there are no bloody crime scene pictures her family would have to see on the news or from social media outlets.

Her husband insists it was a drowning in a two-inch puddle of melted snow.  He claims they had a snowmobile accident in the Sierra Nevada foothills, four hours North of the San Francisco Bay area. I have never believed him.  There is no damage to him, no damage to the snowmobile.  The only damage was to the beautiful most popular girl in our high school, who is now dead.  I’m damn thankful her brother, and her parents do not believe her husband either.  They were beyond thankful to hear her case landed on my desk. I will not mention to my captain the fact that our families have been close for three generations until I know this case is ready for prosecution.  I have no doubt it has something to do with the fact that her infant son, at the time, is set to be the sole beneficiary of her grandfather’s multimillion-dollar estate. I am like a dog with a bone. Some could say I am a bit obsessed. I will never let this bone go. I might bury it like my captain insists, but he’ll never know I will dig up that bone every chance I get.

My partner, Nick, is beyond the asshole good looking as hell cop.  I am sure there are no less than a dozen children out in the world from him. It is simple math with the odds against him. He sleeps with most any woman willing.  Every day there is a different one. Just knowing his schedule of women, I feel the need to buy stock in Trojan condoms.  In fact, I buy him a five hundred pack of condoms from Costco every year at Christmas, so I guess I will have to take some blame for his ways.  Don’t get me wrong at times it gets annoying. I mean he’s the only man I’ve ever met who would hit on a widow at a crime scene. Hell, the blood hasn’t even coagulated. Shit, who does that?  The ladies love him. He can sweet talk his way through any situation.  It does help to get the information we need from the less cooperative women.  I, however, do not have that same skill.  I have a very accurate gut instinct.  There have only been two times in my life that I have regretted not following that gut feeling.  Nick and I trust each other with our lives. When shots are fired I know, he has my back. I would take a bullet before I would ever want to face his family to tell them I let him down.  We have been through a lot of bullshit.  We’ve been partners for twelve years in one of the state’s busiest homicide divisions.

However, this moment is one of those moments I wish some woman would give him a case of crabs.  He just announced he sent the blonde with double d’s he tried to set me up with last weekend a dick pic from my phone because I canceled on him at the last minute.  His date made him take both of them out on a date because she didn’t want to leave her friend home alone. Too bad for him.

While I am getting a cup of coffee, I hear my Captain’s screeching voice. My Captain needs to lay off the old English cologne.  The smell is so overwhelming, in fact, it is a distraction.  It is hard to concentrate on his words as he hands me a new case. All I can focus on is that cologne stench.  This case is special. He says it is close to his heart.  He wants me to overturn every aspect of this case. He normally wants us to wrap them up as soon as humanly possible. Has the Earth fallen off its axis?  We are never given an open amount of overtime and any resource available to investigate one single homicide.  The catch is that we keep him informed weekly until this one is closed. The main obstacle in this new Green Light case is one of the witnesses is in a coma and has been for days. The last thing I want is this new case.

When Nick and I get to the hospital for our new Green Light case, we find Julia Webber in a coma. She looks peaceful. She looks innocent. That gut feeling is a full on knock the breath out of you hit to my gut. There is something in me telling me there is more to this case than a simple traffic-light violation. It's not just a homicide.  I need to follow my gut.

Nick has focused his hound dog skills on the woman in her room visiting. I’d bet my favorite lunch at the taco truck he has her number and a date planned by the time I get the nurse to release our witness’ medical records, even with this warrant in my hand.  Oh hell, if I’m gone long enough, he will have her dragging him to the nearest utility closet.  All the nurses seem to be busy today. When I go back into Ms. Webber’s room, I introduce myself to the woman visiting, and she introduces herself as the best friend, Izzy. Then admits the hospital staff may be under the impression she is the sister to our witness. Within two minutes of entering the room, Nick and Izzy are making eyes at each other.  While trying to ignore Nick’s flirting I notice the monitor next to the bed is on and looks like it is logged into the hospital’s computer system.  I give Nick my I have something up my sleeve look, and he instantly knows to play along.

Nick, would you mind finding a vending machine to get me some grape juice or something to raise my blood sugar levels? I ask.

I will show you where the vending machines are Izzy offers.

As soon as they leave the room, I know I have five minutes at best to get the information I need.  Thank goodness for understaffed and overworked nurses. They left this computer logged into the hospital system.  It takes a matter of seconds to find the patient files I am looking for.  With the thumb drive I keep on my keychain, I take advantage of this opportunity and download our witness’ records before Nick and Izzy come back. I have a few moments with this sleeping beauty by myself.

I wish you could wake up and tell me what really happened. This doesn’t feel like a traffic violation. I say to her, the only witness who could help wrap up this case.

There is something about watching this gorgeous woman sleep.  There is a calm, peaceful vibe in the room. I feel the need to keep talking to her. It feels weird to talk to a person in a comatose state. I’m not sure if she’s going to instantly open her eyes or start talking back. If she did move or talk back, it might startle me. I don’t want to be the badass homicide cop who screamed like a little girl in front of their fragile witness. The draw to talk to her is very overwhelming. I find myself rambling off facts about the case to her.

When Nick and Izzy come back to the room, Nick informs me he has a text message from the Captain. He says we will need to get back to the station as soon as possible. He hands me a box of kid’s grape juice and a candy bar. This time, it's Nick with the I have something up my sleeve look on his face. So, I thank Izzy for helping Nick find the machines and hand her a business card with my phone number. I ask her to call anytime if Ms. Webber wakes up or if there is a change in her health status.

When we get to our car, Nick starts offering up all the details of his conversation with Izzy. I stop him before he can give me the details he got from flirting with her.

I don’t think this is going to be a simple case. Nick offers.

Me neither. Go on.

Izzy says the boyfriend, John Nelson, is a dirtbag and admitted he was fighting on the phone with Julia as she was driving. They were arguing over who was going to notify their family members the wedding was called off.  It was our witness who decided she had enough of the fiancé. Izzy doesn’t think the fiancé has held a job for the last few years and was using Julia’s money and accounts or name on stuff.  Funny thing is Izzy has a brother who is a PI and some supercomputer hacker, and he says the guy is in with some sticky people but always manages to keep his hands clean.  This Julia is the picture-perfect hometown girl.  In fact, she writes kids’ books. Fucking children’s books.  She works hard and keeps to herself.  Her parents are on some missionary trip and don’t even know about the accident.

Sounds like she’s the perfect mark.

I just don’t know how the accident feeds into this guy and or if he is up to something.  What’s your gut telling you?

It doesn’t feel like a traffic violation, and why is it personal to Cap?  Why didn’t he give it to the new detectives, Frankie and Joe? Why us?

Hopefully these medical records will help, but it would be easier if she wakes up soon.

I notice Nick isn’t bragging about what base or home run he scored with the best friend, Izzy. He seems more focused on this case than scoring a date. There is something about this case, this witness, something we aren’t seeing

Chapter 2 – Julia

Three weeks and four days Later

Isee white. I’m in a white room.  I hear a constant beeping piercing my brain. This bright light wakes me from a deep but not so restful sleep. A stranger, a friendly looking man is looking down at me, and he is smiling. I can see he is speaking to me, but the