Along Came a Demon Read Online Free PDF Page A

reflective glass windows which dazzle you if you drive near when the sun hits them. The acoustics in the place make voices echo and bounce around and you can’t tell from which direction they come, and stiletto heels rattle like hailstones on marble. The old building on Madison, built in the 1930s, has more character but no longer has the capacity. In addition, the city jail abuts the new building, making everything more convenient for police and court alike.
    A few people sat on uncomfortable wooden benches along the perimeter and more milled about. Despite my Civilian Consultant’s badge, I had to cross the gargantuan entry hall and report in to the desk sergeant. I went up the escalator and took an elevator to the fourth floor, where I moseyed along the corridor, through the Squad Room and in Lieutenant Mike Warren’s office.
    I had worked with a number of police officers, and Mike was the only one who didn’t roll his eyes when he listened to me, plus he headed up Homicide. If anyone knew about Lindy’s case, he did.
    Mike is a very large man, all over. He’s not fat, it’s mostly muscle, but he’s widely built, if you know what I mean. His flat slick of wheat-colored hair sticks out over slightly prominent brows and a bulbous nose, and his reddish pockmarked skin gives him a permanently overheated look. He tends to hunch his shoulders, and he hunched over his desk as I walked in.
    I plopped down in the chair facing his desk. “Favor, Mike?”
    He grimaced at me as he leaned back. “Depends… .”
    “ Coralinda Marchant.”
    Looking interested, Mike squinched up one eye. “Lived up behind you, right? You sensing something?”
    Bless him, he didn’t even accentuate “sensing,” saying it like a regular word where I was concerned.
    Of course, the drawback of pretending to have a psychic talent is I can’t repeat the lengthy conversations I have with the departed, so I couldn’t always give Mike the whole story. I would get his take on the case before I told him I thought Lindy was murdered.
    “ I’m getting she’s worried about her little boy.”
    He made a harrumph noise in his throat. “Then you’re mistaken. She didn’t have a child.”
    This stopped me cold. No child? No little boy? “Are you sure?”
    He laid his hand flat on the manila folder on his blotter. “It’s all here. We’ve talked to every resident in her apartment block over the last two days. Asking if they know of any next of kin, other relatives, or friends, is standard procedure. Nobody mentioned a son.”
    Trying to block out the background hum of a busy precinct, I thought hard for a second. “What about personal effects? Pictures in her wallet? Kid’s stuff in the apartment?”
    He shook his head side to side. “Nothing.”
    “ I don’t understand,” I muttered more to myself. I gave him my best pleading look, which produced a deep sigh from him. “Could you dig a little, Mike? Pretty please? Just for me?”
    He rolled his eyes before closing them, hefted a sigh. “Not officially, but if it makes you feel better, I can make a few calls.”
    He meant if it will shut you up . I smiled my thanks. “Would you? I’d really appreciate it. Lawrence Marchant, like his mother.”
    He got to his feet, my signal he was done with me and wanted me gone from his office. “Consider it done.”
    But I was not through. “Autopsy?”
    He tapped the folder with his index finger. “We’ll know more when the medical examiner is through with her, but preliminary results seem to indicate heart attack. I got someone talking to her family physician right now.”
    Is this a day for surprises. “But she drowned!”
    “ Did you get that from her?”
    I pulled on my lower lip with my teeth, gave him a thoughtful look. “No.”
    “ But you read in the paper she was found in her tub, so you jumped to the conclusion. Right?”
    Crapola. Lindy didn’t say she drowned. She didn’t know what happened. I couldn’t argue on this one. I