City of Fire Read Online Free PDF Page A

she’d read it as a student at UCLA before she’d ever dreamed or even thought about being a cop.
    She looked back at the shelves, scanning the titles with surprise when she didn’t find a single work of fiction. At eye level every book was about business. At knee level the subject switched to art.
    “We’re ready, Lena,” Novak said in low voice.
    She turned to the door. He was entering the foyer with Rhodes. Lamar followed them in, along with Ed Gainer, an investigator from the coroner’s office Lena had met several times. Their preliminary sweep would remain small.
    “Let’s do it,” Rhodes said.
    They started down the hall. They moved slowly, without words, the only sound coming from the hardwood floor creaking beneath their feet. Closet doors and a laundry room filled out the left wall. They passed a bathroom on the right, halfway down, and didn’t stop until they reached the door at the end. The reason the case had been bumped up to them.
    Rhodes gave her a look. She saw the deputy coroner flinch and thought she heard Lamar whisper, “Oh, shit.” She gritted her teeth and peered into the room.
    The curtains were drawn, the handles tapping in the breeze. It took a moment for her to realize that the walls had once been painted white. That she wasn’t standing in a slaughter-house at the edge of civilization, but in someone’s home on a quiet street. She took a deep breath and exhaled. There was more blood than she had ever seen. The spatter fanned out from the middle of the room, blowing against the walls, dusting the vaulted ceiling, and splashing across the floor. Yet in the center of the room, the eye of the storm, there was a certain peace. A small body, seemingly at rest, was carefully posed beneath a clean white bedspread.
    It wasn’t a murder room, she thought. It was a death chamber.
    Lena’s eyes cut through the darkness, searching out the victim’s face. When she couldn’t find it, she realized that the young woman’s head was wrapped in a plastic grocery bag.
    “Watch the steps,” Rhodes whispered under his breath.
    Lena glanced down at her feet. Like the living room, the bedroom was three steps below the rest of the house. As she followed the crime scene tape, she wondered how Rhodes had managed to find a clean path to the body. The task seemed impossible, but somehow he had.
    She needed a moment to collect herself. When the blue-shaded room lit up in a quick succession of white flashes, she stepped out of Lamar’s way and joined Novak and Rhodes at the foot of the bed. She noticed a photograph set beside the clock radio on the dresser. She glanced at the picture without touching the silver frame. Nikki and James Brant were sitting in a field of grass with their arms around each other. They seemed so innocent, so happy. Lost in their dreams and ready to face a future together that didn’t include this.
    Lena shook it off and moved to the open window, parting the curtains and checking the floor and sill for blood. Next to the body itself, she knew the point of entry was the most likely place to find blood. She didn’t see any and wondered if the open window was in play. Moving closer, she drew fresh air into her lungs and studied the backyard. The fog had become more dense, lingering beneath the roofline and settling onto the ground. Still, she could make out the faint outline of a tennis court on the other side of the fence and knew that she was looking at Rustic Canyon Park.
    She turned back to Lamar, watching him cover the body in wide shots and close-ups. After burning through a roll of film, he pulled the camera away from his eye and gave her a look. The department had upgraded to digital cameras a few years back but still relied on film to record crime scenes.
    “Let’s pull the covers,” Novak said in a low voice.
    Lena stepped out of the safe zone and worked her way around the spatter to the far side of the bed.
    “I’m going to pull the spread off first,” she said.