Circle of Influence (A Zoe Chambers Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Seth’s cell phone rang. “With the looks of the weather, I’ll probably see you again before the night’s over.”
    “Wouldn’t doubt it.” Zoe left him digging for his phone.
    When she climbed into the passenger seat, Earl was scribbling notes on the call report. Zoe unclipped the mic from the dashboard. “Control, this is Medic Three. Show us back in service.”
    “Copy that, Medic Three. Your time is twenty-three forty-one,” responded the voice from the Emergency Operations Center.
    Earl heaved a growling sigh. “Damn it. It’s almost midnight already. I was hoping to get some sleep.”
    Zoe clipped the mic back in place. “Well, if our local residents are smart and stay home, we might have a quiet night from here on.”
    Someone thumped on the driver’s side window. Earl flinched. “Shit. Now what?” He rolled it down.
    Seth stood there, a grim look on his face. “Chief just called. He wants us all to meet him at the game lands exit on new Route 33 for a DOA. He said not to put it over the air, so you might want to phone it in to the EOC.”
    “Gotcha. See you there.” Earl rolled the window up and glared at Zoe. “You just had to jinx it, didn’t you?”
    “Me? You were the one wishing for sleep.” She dug her phone from one of the pockets in her cargo pants and called the dispatcher to report their status.
    “I wonder why the chief doesn’t want this going over the air,” Earl said.
    She wondered the same thing.
    The ambulance’s headlights glared off the wall of white snow blowing sideways across the road in front of them. High beams only made it worse. Zoe clutched at the armrest, knowing that Earl was making an educated guess as to where the edge of the road was. Thank goodness for tire chains.
    “At least the victim’s already dead,” he said. “We don’t have to worry about being in a rush.”
    “That’s the exit everyone’s been complaining about.”
    “Yeah. If someone got lost out in the game lands and died of exposure in this weather, there could be a lawsuit in the making. Might be what it takes to get those signs changed.”
    Zoe thought of old Joe Mendez at the next supervisors’ meeting. He would be wagging his finger at everyone now, saying, “I told you so.”
    But mostly she was thinking of the call ahead. She had taken on the duties of deputy coroner three years ago. What she’d imagined would be an intriguing job involving sleuthing and mystery-solving instead mostly involved calling the official time of death for elderly or drunk corpses discovered days after the fact. Monongahela County Coroner Franklin Marshall always made it a point to show up in person for all the interesting cases. This time she figured she’d have to pronounce a lost stranger dead. Cause of death: hypothermia. Manner of death: accidental.
    A trip that should have taken ten minutes took over half an hour. As Earl wheeled the unit around the exit ramp, Zoe spotted the amber lights of a PennDOT salt truck beside the red and blue flashing lights of Pete’s vehicle. The headlamps of both vehicles were aimed in the same direction, away from the ambulance’s approach. Strategically placed flares provided additional illumination.
    Earl parked alongside the idling yellow dump truck, adding yet another set of headlights to the scene. “At least we won’t get stuck trying to get out.”
    Zoe phoned the EOC dispatcher before climbing out of the ambulance and following her partner toward the scene.
    He pointed to the snow-covered vehicle in front of the police cruiser. “I don’t see the chief.”
    The driver’s side door was open on the victim’s car, and Zoe could make out the glow of the dome light through the iced windows. As she and Earl approached, a strobe briefly lit the night.
    Something wasn’t right. Pete was photographing the car. So the victim hadn’t gotten out and frozen to death trying to find help as she’d assumed.
    Then, Zoe spotted the license plate.
    “Hey,” Earl