Savage Echoes (The Nickie Savage Series, Short Story Prequel) Read Online Free PDF Page A

here?"
    Nickie looked at Eddy like he had three eyes. "I'm not going to honor that statement with a response. The boyfriend's roommates may have been blowing us crap or could have gotten the place wrong." The bar was scattered kids in their early twenties. Too early for this age to be out. The few that were there looked too young to be drinking. Nickie decided then and there if anyone called her ma'am, she was going to book 'em.
    Ordering a single club soda, she leaned against the only remaining spot at the small bar and scanned the place. The music was just as frigging loud as a late Saturday night. Eddy stepped close to her and placed his hand on her lower back.
    She let her glance drop to his hand, then back up to his eyes. Her sagging lids must have spoken for her.
    He lowered his lips to her ear and said loudly, "We already stick out. Work with me here, Nick."
    Shifting away from him, she scanned the area. The picture of the boyfriend was clear in her mind. Maybe not as clear as it would be for Duncan, but clear enough. Thinking of Duncan made her second-guess if she should have brought him instead of Eddy.
    Duncan was probably sitting on his stool in front of his easel, brows pulled together, concentrating on a canvas in front of him. She warmed at the image just as she spotted the boyfriend. He stood at a table big enough for two with three other boys his age. He didn't look distraught that his girlfriend had been missing since seven a.m.
    Getting Eddy's attention, she jerked her head over her shoulder. "Let me try this alone for now. I don't... stand out as much without you. You look like a cop."
    He gave her a look like she'd just run over his cat, but took her spot at the bar anyway.
    Shouldering her way between the boys, she set her badge on the tiny table. Facing the boyfriend, she yelled over the music. "I'd like to have a word with you. Alone." The others were gone before she finished her sentence.
    The dude's irises looked like saucers. Of course this could be about drugs. It could be about anything.
    "It's Serena. Is she... okay?"
    "Now, why wouldn't she be okay?"
    "She hasn't answered her phone all day," he said.
    "You were the last one to see her." That wasn't completely fabricated. Nickie knew they had met up in the middle of the night. He was her last known contact early that morning. Her blood started to boil just thinking about it. "Where were you at eleven thirty this morning?"
    He looked down but not to the side. What he was about to say might be the truth.
    "I..." Droplets of sweat accumulated on his upper lip.
    "You what? Did she steal from you?" She was fishing she knew, but had to get something going between the two of them.
    "No! I was with someone."
    "Who someone?" She stepped close to his face now. At her five-foot-ten, plus the heels of her boots, she looked down on him.
    "A girl."
    She didn't back away. "Convenient." Leaving her face in his, she reached in the pocket of her coat and pulled out her small notepad and a pen. Slapping them on the table, she retrieved her badge at the same time.
    "Name, phone number and address, Romeo."
    * * *
    Rolling down the windows of her unmarked, Nickie welcomed the cool night air. She loved her car. Duncan called it an oversized piece of shit town car. Prejudices. It was safe, it had pick up and hardly anyone could spot it as a police issue.
    Eddy led the way in his Buick. Whatever. He'd called in the name and number Romeo gave as his alibi. One of the second shift desk guys would run it for them before they gave the girl a visit.
    Right then, all Nickie wanted to think about was the missing teacher. Coincidence? She believed in coincidences less than she believed in hunches. He lived in a studio apartment far too close to the students. His file read that two years prior he was an undergrad himself.
    She pulled into the parking lot and followed Eddy to a spot two doors down. When she turned off her car, she heard her phone buzz. Turning the screen to face