Night Sins Read Online Free PDF Page A

body. She had a certain squareness about her that suggested immovability, but she draped that squareness in a rust and purple ensemble that more than suggested taste. Her skin was the color of polished mahogany, her face as round as a pumpkin and crowned with a fine cap of tight black curls that looked like the wool of a newly shorn sheep. One hand propped on a hip, the other braced against the doorjamb, she gave Megan a hard once-over from behind the lenses of huge, red-rimmed glasses.
    “Girl, you are
late
.”
    “I'm well aware of that,” Megan replied coolly. “Is Chief Holt still in?”
    Natalie made a sour face. “No, he isn't
in
. You think he'd just be sitting here, waitin' on you?”
    “I
did
call to say I'd be late.”
    “You didn't talk to me.”
    “I didn't know that was necessary.”
    Natalie snorted. She pushed herself away from the door and bustled around her desk, adding papers to a file, filing the file in one of half a dozen black file cabinets behind her. Every move was efficient and quick. “You
are
new. Who'd you talk to? Melody? That girl would forget her own behind if some man didn't always have his hand on it to remind her.”
    Noga edged his way toward the door, trying to be unobtrusive. “Noogie, don't you try to sneak out on me,” Natalie warned, not bothering to look at him. “Have you finished that report Mitch asked for?”
    He made a pained face. “I'll finish it in the morning. I've got patrol.”
    “You got trouble, that's what you got,” Natalie grumbled. “That report is on my desk by noon or I take the electric stapler after your ass. You hear me?”
    “Loud and clear.”
    “And don't forget to drive by Dick Reid's place twice. They've gone to Cozumel.”
    Megan heaved a sigh and wished she were gone to Cozumel. A faint tic had begun in her right eyelid. She rubbed at it and thought about food for the first time since breakfast. She needed to eat something or the headache would take a stronger hold and she wouldn't be able to keep medication down.
    “If Chief Holt is gone for the day, then I'd like to reschedule our appointment.”
    Natalie pursed her thick lips and fixed Megan with a long, measuring look. “I didn't say he was gone. I said he wasn't
in,
” she qualified. “What kind of cop are you, you don't listen to nuances?” She made a sound of disgust and led the way out of the office. “Come on,
Agent
O'Malley. You're here, you might as well meet him.”
    Megan marched along beside the chief's secretary, careful not to step ahead, well aware the woman was taking her measure.
    “So you're here to fill Leo's spot.”
    “I couldn't hope to fill Leo's spot,” Megan said, deadpan. “I don't eat enough fried food.”
    A muscle ticked at the corner of Natalie's mouth. Not quite a smile. “Leo could pack it away, that's for sure. Now they've packed Leo away. I told him to watch his cholesterol and quit smoking those damn cigars. He wouldn't listen to me, but that's a man for you. Look up
obtuse
in the dictionary—they ought to have a picture of a man beside it.
    “Everybody liked Leo, though,” she added, her gaze sharpening on Megan once more. “He was a hell of a guy. What are you?”
    “I'm a hell of a cop.”
    Natalie snorted. “We'll see.”
    When she first heard the music, Megan thought she was imagining it. The sound was faint, the tune something from the Christmas season. Nobody played Christmas music in January. Everybody had OD'd on it by the middle of December. But it grew louder as they went down the hall. “Winter Wonderland.”
    “The cops and the volunteer firemen put on a show for Snowdaze and give the proceeds to charity,” Natalie explained. “Rehearsal goes on till seven.”
    A roar of male laughter drowned out the music. Natalie tugged open a door marked CONFERENCE 3 and motioned for Megan to precede her. Half a dozen people lounged in chrome-and-plastic chairs that had been set up in two haphazard rows. Another half dozen stood along