Hunter's Way Read Online Free PDF Page A

then nodded. “We’ll be over at nine.”
    “They already have lab results?”
    “They will.”
    “Are you thinking serial?”
    “Yes. This girl, Crystal, I spoke with her the night she died,” Tori said quietly.
    “You what?”
    “I saw her on the street. It was nearly two. I showed her our Jane Doe. She knew her as Lorraine.”
    “Why are you just now sharing this?” Samantha demanded.
    “What difference does it make?”
    Samantha slammed her fist on her desk, causing the papers to fly around her. “We’re partners,” she said slowly. “I know you don’t know the definition of that word, Hunter. You can’t just drop information like that in casual conversation. They think she was dumped during the night. You knew all along that wasn’t true,” she accused. “I spent half the day trying to find out who she was with
before
midnight!”
    “I’m sure the ME will give a time of death. And it’ll be after two.”
    Samantha stared at Tori with flashing green eyes.
    “Morning, ladies.”
    Tori turned to Malone, away from the angry green eyes of her partner.
    “Morning, Lieutenant.”
    Samantha shoved her chair away, walking purposefully behind Lieutenant Malone, following him into his office.
    “Kennedy? What’s up?” he asked as he hung his jacket on the coat rack.
    “She’s impossible,” Samantha said, slamming the door behind her. “Impossible!”
    “Ah. Third day. You’ve done good. I expected you in here yesterday,” he said. “Sit. What’s the problem?”
    “What’s the problem? She’s insane,” she said. “Psychotic.”
    He nodded.
    “She keeps things from me, she goes out at all hours of the night, she barely speaks to me.”
    He nodded again.
    “She’s impossible to work with. No wonder Kaplan jumped. I’d have jumped, too.”
    Malone laughed, then stifled it as angry green eyes shot his way.
    “Please tell me it’ll get better,” Samantha said quietly. “It’s almost as if she doesn’t want anyone to like her, Lieutenant. She goes out of her way to antagonize people. And one minute she’s nice, the next a total bitch. It’s like we almost connect, then she goes off and does something to intentionally piss me off!”
    “Calm down, Kennedy.”
    “I am calm!”
    “Look, I told you she was… difficult. She has her own rules. But they are effective. Would I like six detectives like her? No, of course not. And if not for departmental rules, I’d let her work alone. She can handle herself out there. She knows the streets. I don’t envy you, Detective. But like it or not, she’s your partner.”
    “Why doesn’t she want anyone to like her?” Samantha asked quietly.
    Malone stared at her. Samantha Kennedy had been with Hunter two days and had already figured out what the others hadn’t in years. Tori Hunter was abrasive. Not by nature, he knew. But by design. It had taken him four years to figure that out. And one night in a quiet downtown bar, Tori Hunter had bared her soul to him. He hadn’t been able to look at her the same since.
    Malone glanced out his windows, finding Tori’s chair empty. It really wasn’t his place to tell Samantha Kennedy about Tori’s past, but he thought this time, maybe he’d found someone who could stick by Tori. Samantha Kennedy wasn’t in competition with Tori, unlike other partners.
    “What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this room, Detective,” he said.
    Samantha nodded.
    “Tori’s father was on the force. A detective, too. When she was twelve, one night at dinnertime, a man broke in. He tied them all to chairs in their dining room. Mother, father, two brothers and a sister. And her. One by one, he killed them. Tori was the last alive. He held the gun to her head but didn’t shoot. He never spoke a word. He just left. Left her tied to her chair with her dead family all around her. The case was never solved.”
    “Oh my God,” Samantha whispered.
    “She has all the files, all the old data. She still works the