Carnal Sin by Allison Brennan Page B

minutes when Johnston said, "Nelson? You okay?"
    Grant turned his back on Stephanie Frazier's frozen remains, her body folded improbably into Kent Galion's freezer. He didn't work Missing Persons, but he'd heard from Julie at Velocity that Stephanie had been missing since she'd complained about Galion hitting on her Wednesday night.
    Missing Persons hadn't taken Stephanie's disappearance seriously until her roommate, a flight attendant, came home a week after Julie had last spoken to Stephanie and said her car was in the garage, she hadn't fed her cat for days, and none of her clothing was missing. While Missing Persons was retracing her last steps, two neighbors came forward and stated that Stephanie was last seen in the passenger seat of a black Mercedes.
    Galion drove a 2009 Mercedes coupe.
    Because of Grant's involvement with Galion's case, Missing Persons contacted him after the body was found in Galion's Glendale home.
    "It makes no sense," Grant said as much to himself as to Johnston. "Why did Galion do this?"
    Johnston wasn't so sure. "We don't know he--"
    "Like hell we don't! He attacked a waitress at Velocity last Friday. I wouldn't have believed it except I saw it. So did Julie and the bouncer. Galion broke the girl's arm."
    After what Grant had witnessed, it wasn't difficult to believe that Galion had killed Stephanie Frazier and stuffed her in his extra freezer.
    "Galion has a brother; maybe--"
    Grant knew where Johnston was going with the questions, but that didn't mean he was right. Grant trusted his gut, and his gut told him all the evidence would point to Galion-- Kent Galion, not Marcus--as being the killer. But he also knew they had to cover all the bases. "Work with Glendale PD on the case, check into the brother, anyone else who had access to the house. It's not our case, but I want to know what they find."
    "Roger that," Johnston said. "And for what it's worth? I think your instincts are right on the money. But it doesn't hurt to rule out the brother."
    Grant strode over to the head of the CSU. "How do you handle a frozen body?"
    Isabelle Juarez looked at him over the top of her reading glasses. "Since we can assume foul play--most people don't accidentally die naked in a freezer," she added sarcastically, "we'll transport the freezer with the body intact to the coroner's office and thaw her out there in a controlled environment in order to preserve potential evidence."
    "How long does that take?"
    "We don't want to warm her up too quickly because that'll mess with time of death and bacterial evidence, so probably twenty-four hours. I'll let you know."
    "Any sign of assault?"
    "We haven't processed the entire house," she replied. "It's been cleaned recently. But we'll go over the house with a fine-toothed comb. I know you'll need everything for a case like this."
    "Our chief suspect's dead. This is Kent Galion's house. The victim's been missing since Wednesday night, and I have witnesses who place her in the same make and model car as Galion's."
    Juarez nodded as she put the information together. "Right, I heard about that. Galion died in the alley behind Velocity. Attacked a waitress and was killed by a cop."
    Grant bristled--he hadn't killed Galion, he'd used proper force for the circumstances--but he felt no need to explain any of it to the CSU.
    "That makes this very interesting," she continued, sticking her glasses in her pocket and pointing to one of her team to finish photographing the freezer.
    Interesting .
    Grant wouldn't have used that word.
    Rafe wanted to talk with Moira, but he didn't know where she'd gone. He took a few minutes to pack for their trip, and when he returned to the kitchen Rico was there alone. Rafe glanced out the back window and saw Anthony and Skye standing close together on the cliffs, far beyond the deck.
    He didn't mince words. "What did Moira mean about her blood?"
    "She shouldn't have said anything," Rico said.
    Rafe glanced at Rico as he leaned against the kitchen