Round and Round Read Online Free PDF Page B

saved lives in that fire.”
    “So it’s Kevin, is it?” Antonio Reyes looked up from the papers on his desk as Angus closed the door. The rest of the department didn’t need to hear their conversation. The guys were gossipy as hell.
    “Is that what this is about? I thought you were just being your usual dickhead self, but you’re jealous.” He stepped closer to the desk. “We’ve been through for a long time, and the crap you pulled today was over the top. They found something they thought might help, and they called it in. Jesus.”
    “I saw you with him yesterday. You two looked pretty cozy.”
    “I thought he was cute, and he knew the partner of the guy who died and consoled him. He was only a friend of a friend, and yet he was right there.” Angus sat down in a once familiar chair, one he hadn’t seen much of recently. “I haven’t met someone open and caring in a while. I’m sure you can see the attraction.” His relationship with Antonio had started hot but burned out pretty quickly. Antonio was deeply in the closet, and Angus hadn’t been willing to live a lie. He still wasn’t. Some of the guys in the department gave him shit, and a few had asked for transfers so they didn’t have to work with him, but all that was better than pretending.
    Antonio blinked at him. “All right, I was kind of sharp with him.”
    “Kind of sharp? You pretty much accused him of starting the fire. That was harsh, and if you’d read the report, you’d know that he’s already been cleared. He was nowhere near where the fire started.” Angus settled down. “Were we able to get anything off the note?”
    “Just like the others, it was clean. There were a few smudged fingerprints, and the lab is trying to see if they can get anything through enhancement. It seems our boy was in a hurry to leave this time and may have actually touched the envelope.”
    “What about DNA?”
    “They’re trying that too, but there were so many chemicals on the paper they aren’t sure they can get anything.”
    Angus didn’t see why this one should be any different from the others. “I wonder if there’s any security video in the club that we can use.”
    “I pulled the tapes, but the actual start of the fire was just off camera.”
    Sometimes Antonio could be so unimaginative. “We don’t have to have the guy on tape starting the fire. All we need is a picture of him that we can put out there. Figure out who this guy is so we can get a lead on him. Now if he was just off camera when the fire started, then he had to leave the area just before. So let’s take a look and see if there’s anything we can use.”
    “Don’t you think I already did that? There’s nothing to suggest who the guy is.” He opened his desk and handed Angus a thumb drive. “Here’s a copy of the footage. If you want to take a look and see if you see anything, great. But we came up with a whole lot of nothing.” The frustration rang in the room. Antonio was a good investigator and wanted to solve his cases. This particular one had gone on long enough that it was starting to get to him. On top of that, Angus knew his workload was piling up to the ceiling. It wasn’t like on television, where the case happened and all they worked on was that one thing. There were always multiple cases and assignments pulling on his time. Sometimes Angus wondered how Antonio kept from going crazy.
    “Did you lodge a complaint with your department about me?” Antonio asked, trying not to appear as though he cared.
    “No. Because I know you were doing your job. But you need to get it together. Those people might have been able to help you, but you alienated them within seconds. Those guys you were picking on don’t work at the club—they’re the owners’ partners and like family. A real family.” Antonio’s was so screwed up that it was a wonder if he had any concept of family at all. “Just relax. They want to help you.”
    “Yeah, I know,” Antonio admitted,