Eye of Vengeance Read Online Free PDF Page B

again feigning surprise.
    “Oh, Mr. Cameron,” Nick said. “This is Dennis, Mr. Cameron. I was just interviewing him.”
    Nick could see the shadow of confusion cross the little man’s face.
    “Mr. Cameron is with the Sheriff’s Office, Dennis. They might want to talk with you also, but could I get your last name and your title at the clinic first, Dennis?” Nick said, taking out his notebook and pen.
    But Dennis was already starting to back away, maybe a little pissed, maybe just a little confused. And Cameron was turning Nick in the other direction with a subtle hold on his elbow.
    “Jesus, Nick,” he said. “What the hell were you doing up there?”
    “Just reporting, Joel.”
    “You just happened to leave a press briefing to take a walk on a roof?”
    “Well, it’s obviously a spot of interest for your guys,” Nick said, nodding up toward the building.
    The press officer said nothing. It was a game reporters played with public information officers. Cameron had been at it for a while. Nick had been at it longer.
    “Does Detective Hargrave think the shooter fired from up on the roof?”
    “That’s under investigation, Nick. You know I can’t tell you that without telling everyone else in the pool, man.”
    “That’s a pretty tough shot, Joel. Seems a long distance for some street slob trying to do a little vigilantism.”
    “Nobody said it was a vigilante.”
    “Nobody said it was a sniper yet either. But you’ve got the body of a prisoner over there and some pretty precise blood spatter on the wall and nobody else injured or wounded, which deals out the scattershot gangbangers.”
    “Nobody said it was gangbangers, Nick.”
    “So the victim isn’t a gang felon?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “Nobody said it was an asshole pedophile who killed two little girls either,” Nick said and watched for the quick twitch in the corner of Cameron’s mouth that always gave him away
    Both of them stopped the dance for a silent few seconds. Cameron put his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground. Nick put his notebook away and started spinning the pen in his fingers like a miniature baton and watched the top of the ladder where Hargrave and his partner had not yet shown themselves.
    “Nick,” Cameron finally said. “How did you know to go up there? Were you tipped off?”
    This was what they called trading information. It was a subtle agreement to give each other what they had. The only rule was truth. But it worked with certain press officers, the ones with personal integrity and the ones who trusted that Nick wouldn’t burn them with the other media. Cameron was one of the few.
    “No,” Nick said. “It was just a guess based on your guys lining up the shot and the spatter pattern that our photographer caught with the zoom.”
    Cameron nodded. “And the pedophile thing?”
    “Just a tip, Joel. Nothing insidious.”
    Cameron shook his head. He knew Nick had made contacts over the years. He also knew he’d just made a bad bargain.
    “You’ll confirm if I get anything first, right?” Nick said just to make sure.
    Cameron kept shaking his head, this time with a grin. “Yeah, I’ll confirm. You just can’t use my name.”
    Nick returned the grin, slapped the press officer on the shoulder and walked away.
    Back out on the street, the media gang was peeling away. But the camera guys were still there. And two remote television news trucks were still on the sidewalk. That meant the body was also still there and hadn’t been moved and nothing with more violence or potential for blood had hit the police scanners in South Florida this morning. They were all waiting for the shot of the body bag being loaded into the medical examiner’s black SUV, the shot that would inevitably lead the local news.
    Nick made two stops on his way back to the newsroom. First to the coffee shop on the ground floor of his building, where he picked up a large with cream and sugar and then stood in the lobby letting