No Hero Read Online Free PDF Page B

of kids who felt safer on the streets than in their parents’ homes.
    He’d talk to them sometime today, unless Penn volunteered to do it. The center was paying for her to get a degree in social work, and she was already using her knowledge and compassion to help the kids. He glanced at the stairs, wondering if she was awake.
    He vaulted up the steps. As he reached the third floor, he saw a dim light shining through the transom over Penn’s door. He knocked quietly. Within seconds, she opened up. She was dressed in an oversized T-shirt and bicycle shorts. Reading glasses perched on her short nose, and her finger was stuck in a book—her sociology text.
    “You’re up early,” he said.
    She gave him an indulgent smile. “Apparently you haven’t been paying attention during my last seven semesters. I’m up early every morning. When do you think I study?” she asked, indicating the textbook. “Want some coffee? I was about to make some.”
    “Nah.” Dev shut the door behind him and flopped down on her threadbare couch. “If I drank a cup of your coffee after being up all night, it would probably eat a hole in what’s left of my stomach.”
    She pulled a bottle of water out of a mini-refrigerator. “How about this?”
    “Great, thanks.” He lifted and drained it, then wiped his mouth. Leaning his head back against the couch, he pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. “I haven’t seen Katie in a couple of days. She okay?”
    Penn sat down in a recliner and crossed her legs in a half-lotus. “She’s fine. She wants to try out for a part in a play the community center is putting on, so Tracy’s been helping her study lines.” Katie was Penn’s daughter, and Tracy was one of the new kids at the center. Penn set her book aside and pulled her braid around, methodically undoing it and combing her hair out with her fingers.
    “Katie really likes her a lot, doesn’t she?” Tracy had shown up during the two months Dev had spent in Seattle. Penn and Katie had taken to her right away, and it was obvious that Tracy adored ten-year-old Katie.
    Penn nodded. “Tracy’s great with her. She brought her a harmonica and she’s teaching her how to play it.” For a moment she didn’t say anything and Dev was happy to sit quietly. She rebraided her hair and tossed the braid over her shoulder, then grinned at him. “I am so glad you’re back.”
    He eyed her with affection. “Me too. Two months away from the center was much too long, and I still say all of the paperwork and depositions could have been handled from here. I shouldn’t have had to be in Seattle but for a couple of weeks for the judiciary hearing.”
    “Do you realize that’s the first time I haven’t had my brother around since you and Thibaud rescued Katie and me?”
    “I guess that’s true,” Dev said as he tried to rub the ache out of his eyes.
    Penn’s expression turned worried. “So what was the call about? Please tell me it wasn’t—” She paused.
    “Body pulled out of the river down by the Alabo Street Wharf,” Dev said. “It was Darnell.”
    “Darnell? Oh no.” Her eyes filled with tears. “First Brian and now Darnell? I’m so sorry.” Beneath the pain she looked thoughtful. “Didn’t Darnell just qualify for a scholarship?”
    “He and Brian were my first two kids who qualified.” The brand-new federally funded Safefutures Scholarships were designated for college tuition for qualified eighteen-year-olds who were homeless. “Two kids in less than two weeks, and both just received scholarships—it doesn’t make sense.”
    “How did Darnell die?” Penn asked.
    Dev stood and paced, rolling the plastic water bottle between his hands. “Would you believe he was killed in the same exact way as Brian?”
    “No! His throat was slit, too?” Penn’s voice was hushed.
    He nodded grimly. “Something sharp. One neat slice, right across the carotid artery. Then into the river, just like Brian.”
    “Who do you think could