Evil Without a Face Read Online Free PDF Page A

injury, Baker had torn her T-shirt and she smelled like puke, but topping her WTF list, she’d lost her White Sox ball cap. Damn it! She wanted to collapse at the curb but had to put distance between her and Baker’s computer. She wanted a crack at it before the cops.
    As a distraction from the pain and insult, Jess reached for her com set. The earpiece and microphone dangled from her shirt, out of place, but the unit itself had stayed put. A regular miracle that ranked right up there with how she’d survived another clash with Baker.
    “Seth? You…there?”
    “Where are you?” he cried, worry heavy in his voice. She heard the sound of his engine in the background. He was on the move.
    “No time…to explain,” she gasped, out of breath. “I stashed…Baker’s laptop.”
    She quickly told him where to look. “Cops are gonna…take me into custody soon. I’m not gonna make it hard for them…to find me, but don’t worry. Just get that computer. Start working on it. You got that?”
    “Yeah, but Jess—”
    “No buts, Seth. Just work your magic, genius. I’ll catch you later.”
    With every muscle in agony and protesting, Jess took off her com set and ditched it under a withering shrub in front of a house up for sale. The ramshackle dump didn’t look like hot property, so her equipment was probably safe until shecould pick it up later. She was in enough hot water. No need calling attention to Seth, her Boy Wonder and resident Einstein with a computer.
    Besides, she had bigger problems.
    A siren closed in. They’d be on her soon. Jess heard the crunch of gravel under a tire as the patrol car pulled to the curb. She kept walking, keeping her back to the cops. No sudden moves. Spiraling red and blue lights filled the dark sky with color. Party time. She slowed down, nice and easy, heard the cop’s voice pierce the fog building in her brain.
    “Stop right there.” A stern voice. “Put your hands up. Now!”
    “Okay, okay. I’m all about cooperation here.”
    She did as she’d been told, stopped and raised her hands, still not turning around. She knew the cop had a gun on her. Protocol. She wouldn’t do anything to provoke a fight with the boys in blue.
    “Get on your knees, hands behind your head. Do it!” Another voice. A cop and his partner.
    Feeling beat up and raw, Jess didn’t have any more fight in her. Sinking to her knees, she yelled over her shoulder, “Officers? I’m a freelance Fugitive Recovery Agent. And I’ve got a permit to carry and a Colt Python under my shirt. I can explain everything.”
    “Yeah, I bet you can…” one of them said. “Bounty hunter.”
    The cop said the words like he’d just been forced to eat raw monkey brains on a cracker at gunpoint and couldn’t spit it out. She hated the term “bounty hunter.” Cable TV hadn’t done her profession any favors. And today her obsession with Baker hadn’t helped.
    Ignoring the cop’s cynicism, she closed her eyes as they manhandled her to the sidewalk, yanking her hands behind her back to fit her into cuffs. And, of course, they took her gun. Back at the local cop shop, word would get aroundshe’d been at it again. Her crusade against Lucas Baker would be under harsher scrutiny.
    Jess appreciated the challenge of talking her way out of this, but knew she’d never fool one set of dark eyes. Detective Samantha Cooper had her number. And they went far enough back to make lying impossible. If Sam got called in at this hour, Jess knew her night had only just begun.
     
    For a cop, the ringing of a phone in the middle of the night meant only one thing—bad news.
    Samantha Cooper awoke as if waiting for it. Her eyes popped open on the first ring. No need to wait for cobwebs to clear. In the dark of her bedroom, she reached for the phone on her nightstand, her voice steady and calm.
    “Cooper.” Already on the job, she answered like an on-duty cop.
    “Hey, Sam. Sorry to wake you. Miller here.”
    She recognized the voice