Blind: Killer Instincts Read Online Free PDF Page B

meeting for the Pride Week festivities. Local businesses and organizations who would never have considered such a move five years ago were turning up to support the movement. This year, he’d cracked the motorcycle community. On the weekends bracketing Pride, there were organized rides and even a dirt bike competition. They were doing a big push this year on the new acronym, QUILTBAG, which besides sounding like a new sort of insult was actually an inclusive representation of the community. Instead of just standing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans or Queer, QUILTBAG would bring all of the identifications together. It would be a while before it caught on, but Harold had hope.
    Things were seriously getting better. He wished his brother from another mother had lived long enough to see this, but AIDS had taken Jose’s life five years ago.
    Harold dropped the rest of his mail onto the kitchen counter. The permits called for a celebratory drink. He poured two fingers of scotch into a crystal glass Jose bought him one year for Christmas.
    “Jose, you’d be shocked to see how far we’ve come.” He lifted the glass, saluting the picture of Harold and his chosen family on his refrigerator.
    He swirled the amber liquid in the glass, watching the light refract off the crystal. Maybe he should whip up some cocktails tomorrow to kick the meeting off with a bang? He could do the sangria recipe that had been Jose’s favorite.
    A creak of wood sounded through the house.
    He paused, listening for the sound again. Was that the back door?
    Harold peered at his back door. The kitchen and patio were next for his renovations, which would cut down on the creepy noises at night. Nothing was out of place. Chalk one more up to things that go bump in the night. He shook his head, but caught a glimpse of something on the floor, past the counter, in front of the back door.
    He crossed to the piece of paper.
    “You’re losing important stuff,” he said out loud. It had to be one of the permit documents. He really needed to be more careful. Jose wasn’t there to keep him on track anymore and the city offices weren’t that understanding of lost paperwork.
    Except, he stared at the piece of paper and couldn’t make heads or tails of the orange hodgepodge of images. Was it a flier of some sort? He turned it ninety degrees and saw the text. He needed his glasses to read something that fine.
    Now, where were his glasses?
    Jacob Payton climbed out of his Jeep, a sense of dread settling in his stomach.
    “Detective. Where’s your partner?” One of the patrol officers crossed the lush, well-manicured lawn toward him.
    “Morning, Aaron. Freeman’s going to be out for a few days. It’s just you and me. Some family thing.” Jacob shook the officer’s hand. “What do we have?”
    Dispatch had only informed him of a dead body and a bad scene, but these days any dead body made him anxious.
    “It’s...” Aaron shook his head. He seemed a little green around the gills, which was saying something. Aaron was a seasoned officer who had been around it all. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    “Show me. Anyone else here?”
    “EMTs and another patrol. We set up a perimeter.”
    “EMTs weren’t able to help?”
    “Fuck, Jacob, no one could help this guy.” Aaron led him toward the house. “Elderly neighbors called it in. I guess he picks up their newspaper and has breakfast with them every day, and when he didn’t show up they got worried. We knocked, no answer. Went around back and saw it.”
    “Who called the EMTs?”
    “Dispatch had trouble understanding them, so they sent the EMTs out just in case. The husband’s had a couple of falls. Guess they figured it was better to cover all the bases.”
    Jacob swallowed as they stepped over the threshold. He could hear the buzz of flies and smelled the nauseating aroma of human excrement mixed with the metallic tang of blood. He breathed through his mouth as Aaron led him through a very