A Thorn Among the Lilies Read Online Free PDF Page B

as well stop fighting it and just give in and get it over with.
    â€œWhat made you so smart, anyway?” she asked Hank.
    â€œWatchin’ you grow up,” he replied.
    â€œWe both know what I’m gonna do,” she said.
    â€œYep, you’ve decided already,” Hank said.
    Leah sighed. “I guess I have. Sometimes I hate my gut instincts.”
    â€œYour gut instincts are what make you good at your job.”
    Turned out, this time, she didn’t have to listen to any instincts.

C HAPTER 5
    T he body was discovered washed up on the shore of Willet Lake in the northwestern part of Alvin at approximately 6:55 A.M. Tuesday, just as the sun was rising. Leah had calls from the station being forwarded to her house, and she took the initial report from a witness named Luanne Cooper. Luanne was a photographer who just happened to be up early in Willet Park. She was taking pictures of winter birds and anything else she could find worthy of picture taking. Willet was a pretty little park, and its lake probably the prettiest in all of Alvin. With everything near on frozen and crystalized, it looked even prettier than usual.
    When Leah asked why Luanne was in the park so early, she replied, “I don’t want pictures of people, I want pictures of nature. And by eight, even in the winter, people are out doin’ stuff. Walkin’ their dogs, walkin’ their spouses, just goin’ for walks. Gettin’ in the way of all my good shots.”
    Leah asked her to remain at the site but not to touch anything. “If any other member of the public shows up before I do, please make sure they stay well away from the crime scene. The last thing we need is someone corruptin’ any evidence we might have.”
    Luanne agreed to keep an eye on things.
    Leah called Chris, waking him up from what must’ve been a helluva good dream to make him so cranky. “Why the hell you callin’ me at not even yet seven?” he asked.
    â€œWe got ourselves a body. Washed up in Willet Lake. Get yourself in uniform and meet me there. Sooner is better.”
    â€œAll right. I’m up. I’m comin’. I don’t suppose there’s any chance of there bein’ any coffee when I arrive?”
    â€œJust get there,” Leah said, and hung up the phone.
    It took her under twenty minutes to get dressed and make the drive to the park. It took Chris an extra ten or so before he arrived. By the time Leah got there, she could see what Luanne meant about the public starting to come into the park. They’d already begun encircling the crime scene, although Luanne had done a good job keeping them away from anything important.
    The body was a woman who had washed up beneath one of the two wharfs that stretched out into the lake. She was lying facedown on her stomach with her arms outstretched, one in the sand on the beach, the other waving in the water. She wore a white collared shirt that floated ghostly. Her blond hair was long and full and matted with algae. From where Leah stood, it looked like the dead woman was wearing a long skirt. Leah couldn’t see her feet in the murky water’s depths, but she imagined that an outfit like this would probably go with heels, and that heels or any other kind of slip-on shoe would’ve likely fallen off into the lake.
    Leah immediately cordoned off the surrounding landscape with police tape, giving the crime scene a very wide berth. She wanted to keep the public as far away as possible. It was now going on eight and already over a dozen or so had collected to see what all the fuss was about.
    Luanne Cooper, a short, slender woman with cropped, spiky, deep red hair and bright green eyes, stood to one side with a Canon camera slung over one shoulder and a camera bag over the other. She had red lipstick that reminded Leah of Christmas. Her ears were full of hoops (four in each); the last two on both ears had crosses hanging from them. The camera had