Page 137 of Hard Evidence
But once Jez got into the mindset of this being a professional op rather than a collab between a lawyer and a motorcycle club, she’d considered how the Choir would manipulate the evidence.If they really wanted to make Justin appear guilty, they’d pile on another layer of seemingly irrefutable proof.It was DNA that had sent Levi to prison.They’d tried to do the same with Justin.
“Are you serious?Wait, how didyouget my DNA?”
“From your coffee mug.”A triviality.“The bigger concern is how Amie got it.”
“I…I don’t know.”
“It wasn’t the only genetic profile present.The team went over her entire body and all her clothing with specialised swabs, and they also found touch DNA that matched the motherfucker Jessalyn shot in the woods.But they had to look hard for that.A second-rate ME like the one assigned to Amie’s autopsy would have homed in on the semen leaking out of her and assumed he’d found his man.”
“And I would’ve been sharing a cell with Levi.”
“I doubt it.He had to earn his way to Level Four.Newbies start by talking to walls in Level Six for a year first,” Jez said, and Justin blanched.“I need a list of every woman you’ve slept with in the past year.”
“Melanie and Jessie.And there was a blonde from a bar, but only once.”
“Did you use a condom with all of them?”
His cheeks reddened.“Not Jessie.Do we have to go into the details?”
“Yes.Is now really a good time to add a kid into the mix?”
“How do you know Jessie isn’t on some other form of birth control?”
“Because Alexa’s a nosy bitch.”
Justin took a calming breath.“Not that it’s any of your business, or hers, but Jessie has fertility problems.”
“No, her idiot of a husband had fertility problems.”
His eyes widened.“What?No, she said it was her.”
“I can believe the asshole made her think it was her fault rather than his.”
“What kind of douche would make his wife go through unnecessary medical procedures?”Justin answered his own question.“Fuck.She said the doctor was one of his golf buddies.”
“Well, there you go.Let me know when the baby shower is so I can make sure I’m busy that day.Tell me more about the blonde.”
If the Choir needed to collect that type of DNA sample, they generally sent Barbie or Tulsa.When you wanted to win at all costs, nothing was off-limits.The problem?A new team had entered the game, and they played with the same attitude.
“She was a nobody.Brax insisted I should expand my horizons, Ava said she was into me, and Grey gave me a condom.We ended up in a hotel room, and the rest is hazy.You really think Jessie could be pregnant?”
Basic biology said yes, but that wasn’t Jez’s problem.“Hazy how?Were you drinking?”
“I’d just broken up with another fiancée; of course I was drinking.”
“And…?”
“And I fucked her.Then I fell asleep.When I woke up, she was gone.”
“What happened to the condom?”
“How the hell should I know?I didn’t even think about it.”
“Well, presumably it was no longer on your dick.Where did you put it?”
He screwed his eyes shut, thinking.“In the trash can.”
Mental note: what did Levi do with his used accessories?He’d always claimed the sex with Ruby was consensual, and given the presence of new information, that seemed like a reasonable possibility.Ruby and Levi?Jez could see it.Yes, Levi was weird—usually quiet, often intense, occasionally spaced out—but also hot in a nerdy way, and he’d always been a nice guy until…until he was framed for murder.Shit.
