A Slow Walk to Hell Read Online Free PDF

Enrique, there were some rumors about Major Talbot. The military is concerned whether he might be—”
    “The answer is, we don’t know,” Enrique said, smiling at her awkwardness. “We haven’t turned up anything which suggests Talbot was gay.”
    “You checked his computer?”
    “Doing it now. The problem is Talbot had one of those programs that scrambled the internet addresses of sites he visited. That doesn’t necessarily mean much. A lot of straight people cover their tracks on the net.”
    I said, “I don’t.”
    He looked at me. “You’ve never visited a porn site?”
    I hesitated. “Well…”
    He winked. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
    Amanda appraised me with an amused smile. I did my best to ignore it and her.
    But she kept right on smiling at me.
    “Anyway,” Enrique said, thankfully changing the subject, “they’re reading his emails. Might be something there. Simon asked if I’d seen Talbot at some of the clubs. To be honest, he looked a little familiar, but I can’t swear to it. Could be I remembered him because his picture had been in the paper.”
    Amanda asked if Simon had questioned the housekeeper.
    “He tried. Mrs. Chang’s from China and her English is pretty poor. Finding the body also threw her for a loop. She was shaking so badly, she could barely talk. Simon had her driven home. He’ll question her tomorrow, with an interpreter.”
    We were approaching the French doors and Amanda and I stopped to don latex gloves. Enrique was already wearing a pair.
    “So,” he said, eyeing us, “you figure out that Major Talbot was one paranoid man.”
    I said, “The electrified fence?”
    “For starters. Notice that?” He pointed above our heads, to what looked like a light fixture. “That’s a video camera. There are fourteen on this property. Eight monitor the fence, six the house. All computer controlled and linked to motion sensors. Simon and I were checking out the surveillance room when you drove up. It’s a concrete box in the basement with a keypad entry system. The door’s made of steel that has to be two inches thick. You should also see the alarm system. Infrared beams on all the windows and doors. It’s even got a back-up power supply, in case the electricity was ever cut off.” Enrique shook his head. “Major Talbot didn’t screw around when it came to security. If someone did manage to get inside his house, Talbot was determined to preserve them on tape. Now the question is, what the hell was Talbot so afraid of?”
    Amanda and I exchanged glances. I could tell she was getting excited and so was I.
    Beating me to the punch line, she said, “With that many cameras, the killer must be on videotape.”
    “Depends. We need to review the remaining tapes. Could be the killer missed one.”
    Amanda and I were deflated by his response. She said, “Missed one?”
    “Five tapes were removed from the video recorders. Had to be the killer. Billy Cromartie’s in the surveillance room, checking out the ones that were left.”
    Amanda swore.
    I was frowning, trying to understand. “But the surveillance room door. You said it had a secure entry system.”
    Enrique was reaching for one of the French doors, when he turned back to me. “Right. We had to call the security company to get inside.”
    “That must mean—”
    “I know where you’re going, Marty. You think the killer must be someone pretty damned close to Talbot for him to have entrusted that person with the entry code. Not necessarily. We figure the killer could have obtained the code from—”
    At that instant, the door flew open, striking him hard. He spun. “Dammitt. Why don’t you look where—”
    A young woman rushed past us and ran over to a flowerbed at the edge of the decking. She bent over and began throwing up.
    Enrique looked away from her, his annoyance fading. “Marva’s new. Worked in CID less than a month.”
    Amanda said quietly, “That bad, huh?”
    Enrique nodded. “That’s why we