Ashes to Ashes Read Online Free PDF Page B

Sabin to Liska to Kovac, and back to Rob Marshall. Gauging. Assessing.
    “I saw him in the flames,” she said at last, dropping her gaze to the floor. “He lit the body on fire and he said, ‘Ashes to ashes.’”
    “Would you know him if you saw him again?” Sabin demanded.
    “Sure,” she murmured, bringing the cigarette to her lips for one final drag. The tip of it glowed like an ember from hell against the pale white of her face. When she spoke again, it was on a breath of smoke. “He’s the devil.”
     
     
    “WHAT WAS THAT about?” Kate went on the offensive the second they stepped from the interview room into the hall.
    Sabin turned on her, his expression furious. “I was about to ask you the same thing, Kate. We need this girl’s cooperation.”
    “And you think you’re going to get it by coming down on her like a ton of bricks? In case you didn’t notice, she wasn’t responding.”
    “How could she respond with you butting in every time I started making some headway?”
    “Force meets resistance, Ted. And it’s my job to butt in—I’m an advocate,” she said, realizing she was inviting the wrath of a very powerful man. He had the power to take her off this case.
    I should be so lucky
, she thought. Already this investigation had the makings of a world-class cluster fuck. She couldn’t possibly want to be stuck in the middle of it.
    “You’re the one who dragged me into this,” she said. “You want me to be this girl’s friend, remember? That’s going to be a tough enough job without you setting us up as a group force against her.
    “She has to want to tell us what she saw. She has to believe we’ll take care of her. Do you honestly think she trusts you not to take what she has to give and cut her loose? How do you think a kid like Angie ends up in a mess like this in the first place?”
    “You didn’t want this case because she’s a kid,” Sabin said irritably. “Now suddenly you’re an authority.”
    “You wanted me on this because of my expertise, my frame of reference,” she reminded him. “Then you have to trust me to do the job. I know how to interview a witness.”
    Sabin dismissed her by turning to Kovac. “You said the girl was apprehended fleeing the scene?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “She ran out of the park as the first unit arrived,” he said impatiently. “She was running away from a burning body. That makes her a suspect. Shake her down. Rattle her. Threaten her. Scare the truth out of her. I don’t care how you do it. I’ve got a meeting in two minutes with the chief and the mayor. The press conference is set for five. I want a description of a killer by then.”
    He walked away from them, straightening his jacket, moving his shoulders like a boxer who’d just gone five rounds. Kate looked to Kovac, who made a sour face.
    “See the kind of shit I have to put up with?” he said.
    “
You
?” Kate sniffed. “He could fire my ass. And still I don’t care if he’s on his way to a tryst with Janet Reno. Power doesn’t give him license to harass a witness—or for you to do it for him. If you run over this kid with hobnail boots, I’ll make your life a misery, Sam.”
    Kovac grimaced. “Jesus, Kate, the big dog says toss her in the can. What am I gonna do? Thumb my nose at him? He’ll have my
cojones
in his nutcracker for Christmas.”
    “I’ll use ’em for tennis.”
    “Sorry, Kate. You’re overruled. Sabin can castrate me
and
my pension. Look on the bright side: The tank’ll be like Club Med to this chick.”
    Kate turned to her boss for support. Rob shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “These circumstances are extraordinary, Kate.”
    “I realize that. I also realize that if this kid had watched our psycho light up one of those hookers, there wouldn’t be a press conference pending and Ted Sabin wouldn’t even know her name. But that doesn’t change what she saw, Rob. It doesn’t change who she is or how she needs to be handled.