Chance Collision Read Online Free PDF

head there and to not give you a hard time.”
    “Thanks. Good job.” Pete nodded. He could only pray that the Be On The Lookout would yield something.
    They would have to hightail it to the hospital. But he wanted to talk to Nikki first. “What’s your take?” He studied his longtime colleague. She’d been a cop longer than Pete, and knew her stuff. Had anyone else been on duty, he would’ve asked for a lieutenant to run the scene, but Sergeant Stein was more than capable.
    “It was quick. They were in and out.”
    “Like a hit?”
    Chloe nodded, her light brown ponytail bobbing. “They were definitely after her. No one else was hurt.”
    “She gonna make it?”
    “The doctor here got her stable, but I don’t know. He said she lost a lot of blood.” Chloe’s eyebrows drew tight.
    “Pete.” Jared leaned out of the room. “C’mere.”
    Pete trotted back to the room, pulling elastic blue foot covers from his back pocket and tugging them over his cowboy boots. “Whatcha got?”
    Neil glanced over his shoulder from the windowsill. “Some blood over here. Looks like someone got cut on the way out the window. Maybe we’ll get a DNA match.”
    “Good deal,” Jared said, before looking back at Pete. “Two different guns. A forty and a nine.” Squatting down, he gestured to numerous shell casings on the floor. “Looks like about fifteen shots.”
    Marion hovered over the bed behind him, snapping pictures of various spots of blood. They were on the sheets as well as the bedframe.
    She threw a wink at Pete. Tall for an Asian chick, she was a stunner, her dark hair in a librarian bun at the back of her head. Her ever-present camera bag slung across her body was almost as big as she was.
    Looking around the room, Pete mentally catalogued everything. Blood on the floor, glass scattered everywhere. Smeared bloody shoeprints on the way to the window, but no full print.
    “Neil, is there a flower bed outside? Below the window?” Pete asked.
    The older, balding man nodded. “Yup. Got nice prints. I’ll get out there to take an imprint ASAP. I see one complete boot outline and maybe another partial from here. Hope I get something from them both.”
    “Great,” Pete said.
    “No prints on the sill, though,” Neil said, shaking his head.
    “Damn,” Jared muttered, straightening to his full six-foot-plus height. Cole’s partner scooted around the photographer and she glared at him.
    Pete arched a brow as Jared averted his gaze from her dark, almond-shaped eyes.
    Jared cleared his throat and grabbed a notebook from his back jeans pocket, looking a little too conveniently busy as he jotted down some notes.
    Pete bit back a snort. Case in point. Dipping your pen in company ink never resulted in anything good. But why would the sweet photographer mess with Cole’s partner? Everyone at the PD knew Jared was a flavour-of-the-week kind of guy. Marion had always given off the impression of innocence.
    “Neil, I’m done in here,” Marion said, purposefully looking away from the dark-haired detective.
    Shaking his head, Pete glanced at Neil. “Sarge said there didn’t appear to be blood spatter on Nikki or Mrs Jenkins, but you might want to do a once-over.”
    “Already on it. There was nothing to collect, but the bedframe and spatter on the sheets clearly show direction of the fire.” Neil turned his body towards the door and gestured away from the window.
    Marion shoved her camera in the bag and hefted an evidence case. “I’ll do the boot imprints and get some pics outside.”
    “Where’s Chuck?” Pete asked, speaking of the third—absent—member of their team.
    “At the lab. He was in the middle of something, so I told him to stay there,” Neil said.
    “I’ll help out any way I can,” Jared said.
    The pretty photographer harrumphed on her way out of the room.
    Pete smirked and Jared winced, but Neil didn’t seem to notice.
    “I’m gonna talk to Nikki and her grandmother, then we need to hit the