Alien Heat Read Online Free PDF Page A

hallway to the conference room. An Elaki slid by him in the hallway, her eye prong twitching.
    David raised a hand. “Hello, Walker.”
    â€œYes, yes, the constant greeting all day long. I say hello to you at beginning of week, Detective Sssilver, do I keep the greet up for all the times in between?”
    â€œNot you,” David said. He slid into the conference room, easing the door shut behind him.
    Teddy Blake dropped the red sweater and pushed away from the table, a puzzled look on her face.
    â€œInterrupt something?” David sat down and set the glass of water next to the book.
    She tapped a finger on the table. “So what’s the problem, Detective? Some fortune-teller drop you on your head when you were a baby? I tell you what. I’ve worked with police departments in New Orleans, Wichita, Chicago, and New York. I’ve worked in LA, for God’s sake, where everyone and their brother is psychic. I’ve even worked in Alabama, and I’ve never met anybody hostile as you.”
    â€œI should be flattered?”
    She snatched his hand, and the contact startled him. He started to pull away, then changed his mind, letting her keep it.
    â€œHow about I read your palm?” She touched the sensitive skin beneath his wrist, then traced the life line across his palm. “Looks like you lost something. Somebody named Elliot? Yes, Elliot. But not someone, it’s a lizard, right?” She looked at him steadily, eyes big and brown.
    He nodded, wondered how she knew.
    â€œI heard you talking on the phone, that’s all. Confirms your opinion, right, Silver? Psychics are nothing but cheats.”
    David thought of Mattie, sobbing into his shoulder the night Elliot ran away. He reached across the table and took Blake’s wrist, turning her palm up. He felt the resistance of her muscles, the weight of her hand when she relaxed.
    He looked into her eyes, not bothering to glance down at the palm he pressed with his thick rough thumb.
    â€œLet me tell your fortune, Ms. Blake. You take advantage of people. People who are hurting and vulnerable and sad. People who have money. Little boys who miss their mothers. Fathers who don’t know how to be comfortable around their own sons, who want their wives back to make them a family again. You do it because you like the money, and because you like the attention. My guess is you were a lonely little girl.”
    She bit her lip, then lifted her chin. “You done? Had your say?”
    â€œFor now, anyway.”
    She stood up. “Okay, Detective. I got better things to do than fight with you. You’re a very perceptive man, for all your faults. Thank you for clearing the room.”
    â€œThe boy shouldn’t be here.”
    â€œNo. He’s upset. Jenks says he cries himself to sleep at night.”
    David nodded, thinking this was a mental image he could do without.
    â€œAnyway, I’ve done my reading. I have no questions for you and I’m ready to go.”
    â€œThat’s it?”
    â€œDid you expect me to wrap myself in a shawl and pull out a crystal ball?”
    â€œWhat do you think’s going on, then?”
    She leaned back against the table and rubbed her temples. “She’s dead.”
    David nodded. He thought the same, but he was only a cop. A homicide prima donna, at that.
    â€œUp till now, I thought she was alive.”
    â€œThe sweater changed your mind?” David asked.
    â€œYeah, right, there was a message on the label.”
    â€œYou told Jenks and the boy you thought she was alive.”
    â€œI thought she was, till you brought the sweater in. When I saw it, I knew that the person who wore it was gone.”
    â€œToo bad, since you’ve been keeping their hopes up.”
    â€œLook, Detective, I didn’t create this situation, and Jenks came to me for help. I do my best, but I don’t guarantee happy endings.”
    â€œJust endings,” David