Murder Season Read Online Free PDF

one. I kept hoping we were wrong.”
    “I’m okay, Frank. I’m okay.”
    “Maybe so. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re using you. The way your last two cases played out. You’ve got capital to burn, and they’re gonna burn it.”
    “I’ll do whatever it takes to put this behind us,” she said.
    Barrera flashed a warm smile beneath his mustache. “That’s what I told them you’d say. Now grab Rhodes and hit the road. And remember, Hight lives next door. Keep your eyes open. Be careful and be safe.”

 
    6
    The wall of heat hit them as they exited Club 3 AM and started down the steps. Lena glanced at Rhodes, caught his weary smile and pointed at the Crown Vic parked in the back of the lot.
    “Hope the air works in that thing,” he said. “How’d you get a take-home car with all the cutbacks? You pay somebody off?”
    She knew what he was up to. Next-of-kin notifications were never easy. Under the circumstances, letting Jacob Gant’s father know that his son had been murdered tonight was almost beyond the pale.
    “I stole it,” she said. “Two days ago when my car died. No one’s noticed.”
    Rhodes laughed. “But they will. And then a little man with a clipboard’s gonna show up and ask you for a credit card. I’m not kidding. They’re gonna charge you for the ride. The money goes to—”
    Lena grabbed Rhodes’s arm and pulled him to a stop, her eyes on the Crown Vic. There was movement in the car. It was difficult to see, yet it was there in the darkness. A set of bad shocks moving ever so slightly on a still night. A rear window cracked open to let in air.
    “I locked the car,” she whispered.
    “You sure?”
    “I locked it.”
    They traded looks and separated. Rhodes drew his gun, moving slowly around the passenger side. As Lena approached the left rear door, she slid in behind the slope of the roof and hit the clicker. Then the alarm chirped, the locks popped, and the interior lights switched on.
    She peered through the darkened glass and saw a man in the backseat hiding below the window line. He was staring up at her through a pair of glasses and trying to conceal his face beneath the bill of his baseball cap.
    “Out of the car,” she called through the window.
    The man shook his head at her.
    “Step out of the car right now, mister.”
    The man shook her off again without saying anything.
    Lena’s eyes flicked up to his hands gripping the front seat. When she didn’t see a weapon, she nodded at Rhodes and they ripped open the doors. Unaware that Lena wasn’t alone, the man panicked and started squirming. As Rhodes dragged him backward, Lena pushed his legs through the car and they wrestled him onto the ground. The guy was still kicking, still pushing and pulling, but they had him. Rhodes rolled him over onto his stomach, driving a knee into his shoulder and pushing his face into the pavement. Once Lena got him cuffed, she turned him onto his back and looked him over.
    The odd-looking man appeared soft and round. His suit and tie, rumpled and sweat stained and permeated with body odor. For some reason he couldn’t stop bouncing up and down off the asphalt. She had seen it before when she worked narcotics, particularly with people overdosing on ecstasy. Once their core temperature overheated, they became the equivalent of a live fish hitting a hot frying pan. As Lena watched, she couldn’t decide if he was using or just writhing in anger. Either way, the ground was hard and it looked painful.
    She reached out to check his forehead. When he tried to bite her, she pulled her hand away, leaned over him, and shouted.
    “You got a name, mister?”
    He shook his head back and forth and started grunting. It sounded a lot like he was telling her to fuck off.
    She glanced at Rhodes. “We don’t have time for this, Stan.”
    Rhodes agreed and they started going through the man’s pockets and tossing his possessions aside as quickly as they could. When Lena found his wallet,