Night Kills Read Online Free PDF Page B

been a missing persons check on the two victims,” Fedderman said.
    â€œSure. No women their sizes, ages, or ethnicity have been reported missing lately in and around New York. Both were in their early thirties.” Quinn leaned back slightly in his desk chair and began swiveling gently an inch or so each way. He’d oiled the chair recently and it didn’t make a sound. “Another thing. A journalist, Cindy Sellers of City Beat, knows everything I just told you and is sitting on the story as a favor to Renz.”
    â€œI remember her,” Pearl said. “She’s an asshole.”
    â€œNo more so than the other media wolves,” Quinn said, thinking Pearl would have made a good investigative reporter.
    â€œPearl’s right,” Fedderman said. “The Cindy Sellers I remember won’t sit on the story for long. Not unless Renz has got something on her.”
    â€œIf he does,” Quinn said, “it isn’t enough to keep the lid on very long. That’s why he activated us. He wants to be out in front of the story.”
    â€œWants to be mayor,” Pearl said.
    Still astute, Quinn thought.
    Pearl suddenly wondered what she was doing here. Why had she chosen this option? She seemed unable to escape Quinn’s presence and influence. Another appeal from Renz to Quinn, another critical case, another psychopath, the call to her from Quinn, and here she was again. This held the repetition of madness. It was as if she were on a masochistic treadmill that she couldn’t get off because some part of her didn’t want to leave. This case…she felt in her bones it was something special. She had to be in on it.
    â€œGo over the files on both killings,” Quinn said, “and we’ll meet back here tomorrow and brainstorm.”
    â€œWe gonna keep meeting here?” Pearl asked. She had lived here with Quinn and wasn’t comfortable with the idea. Their bedroom had been right across the hall.
    â€œRenz has promised to get us office space, as usual. He won’t want us in a precinct house. The idea is we can be NYPD, but at the same time more independent than ordinary homicide detectives. We’ll be reporting only to him.”
    â€œIt’ll be a roach-infested dump, as usual,” Pearl said. “But anyplace is better ’an here.” Maybe not. She remembered the last office space Renz had found for them, and the shrill scream of the drill from the dental clinic on the other side of the wall.
    Quinn looked at his watch. It was almost midnight. Fedderman’s flight out of Florida had been delayed, so the meeting had started late. “Nine o’clock tomorrow morning okay?”
    Both detectives agreed to the hour, then stood up. Quinn got up to show them out.
    As they passed the bedroom, Pearl couldn’t help herself and glanced in at the bed. It was made, but not very neatly. A book lay on the table by the reading lamp on what she still thought of as Quinn’s side, but she couldn’t make out the title. Nothing seemed to have changed since she’d moved out two years ago. Quinn caught her looking and she glared at him.
    She knew he was still in love with her, and it was a damned inconvenience. They’d tried to live together and found it impossible. Pearl didn’t want to repeat the experience. It was obvious what the trouble was. Quinn was self-controlled, deliberate, and quietly obsessive. Pearl was impulsive, combative, and volatile. They clashed. Another difference was that Pearl knew when to give up on their relationship and Quinn didn’t. He didn’t know when to give up on anything.
    At the street door, Fedderman said, “I’ve still got my rental. I’ll drive you home, Pearl.”
    â€œOkay. Better than a subway.”
    â€œBetter company, too,” Fedderman said.
    â€œIf you don’t count dress, manners, and intelligence.”
    Quinn was glad to hear them bickering. That was