Next Victim Read Online Free PDF Page B

hasn’t broken open the kitchen cabinet by now and foraged for his own dinner—and there’s a stack of three-oh-twos I’m overdue about reading."
    "Sounds like fun."
    "I lead a full life, Tess. Call me if this clown turns out to be the real thing. Believe me, I’ll be happy to pick up the tab at that restaurant." He turned to Larkin. "Step into the hall, Peter. I want a moment in private with Agent McCallum."
    Larkin, peeved, did as he was told. Andrus shut the office door. "So, Tess…how are they treating you?"
    She shrugged. "The way any interloper would be treated. With suspicion, aversion, and disdain."
    "I can talk to them."
    "Please don’t. That only…"
    "Makes it worse?"
    "It’s office politics. They know I worked under you in Denver. They see me as some kind of threat. At least, some of them do. The more paranoid ones."
    "And the rest? How do they see you?"
    "As a washout."
    "You’re not, you know."
    "I’m not sure what I am."
    "If it weren’t for Mobius—and what happened that night—"
    The key in the lock. Water in the sink. Her footsteps on the stairs as she climbed to the second floor…
    "I’d be in a different place right now," she said, finishing his statement for him. "Don’t I know it. But thinking ‘what if’ doesn’t get you anywhere."
    Andrus hesitated, evidently dissatisfied with this answer. "What I really want to know is…how are you holding up?"
    "Just fine."
    "You’re handling this okay?"
    "Don’t I seem to be?"
    "I didn’t mean professionally. I meant…on an emotional level."
    Up the stairs to the upper floor, the gun in her hand, no sound anywhere in the house…
    "I’m great," she said. "Really. Never better."
    "We both know that’s not true."
    She saw his disappointment. He wanted her to trust him enough to level with him.
    "Okay," she admitted, "I’ve been better. I’ve also been worse. Working other cases, waiting for this one to open up again—that was harder."
    "At least now you’re back in it."
    "Right. And I’m hanging in there."
    "Aren’t we all." He hesitated. "Maybe I shouldn’t have brought you in."
    "You had to. And I have to be here. I have to be involved."
    "Then I hope it brings you some closure."
    Closure. God, how she hated that word, with all its smug psychoanalytic neatness. As if there could ever be closure. As if grief were a room in a house, and she could just shut the door and seal it away.
    On the upper floor, moving down the hall toward the bedroom, the door ajar, her heart beating loud against her ears…
    "Thanks," she answered. "I hope so too."
    There was a short silence as both of them tried to think of something more to say.
    "If you need to talk…" Andrus managed.
    "You’re available. I know."
    "Please keep it in mind."
    She wouldn’t, though. Andrus was not a man she would feel comfortable confiding in. He was too coldly analytical, too fussy and well organized. Besides, he knew too much already. She could preserve her privacy only if she kept her feelings to herself. Because her feelings were the only private part of her she had left.
    But she couldn’t tell him any of this, so all she said was "I will. ’Night, Gerry."
    "’Night, Tess."
     
    She joined Larkin in the hall. They headed deeper into the maze of squad rooms and offices.
    "Despite what the AD thinks," Tess said, "Mr. Hayde sounds promising to me."
    Larkin grunted. "Mr. Hayde. You know, that name’s almost like ‘Mr. Hyde.’ Only with an A."
    "So?"
    "Think it’s an omen, maybe?"
    She looked at him and saw that goddamned smirk. More games.
    "Have we got a warrant for his house?" she asked.
    "No probable cause. They checked his car, though. Without a warrant."
    "I guess that’s why Andrus didn’t mention it."
    "Probably. Anyway, they gave it a quick once-over—no forensics, just a visual. Didn’t find anything."
    "Anything else the AD neglected to tell me?"
    "Only that Hayde’s a cold fish. Didn’t even break a sweat when we left him alone in the interrogation