Sin City Homicide Read Online Free PDF Page A

and he could feel the grease soaking through the boxes.
    They walked into a building that ignored them. Uniforms, detectives, sheriffs, lieutenants, secretaries, lawyers, and paralegals bustled from one room to the next, answering calls and having meetings. The energy was vibrant, and Stanton could feel the drive of the people in the building. They were focused and disciplined. He watched them just a little too long, and Marty asked him if he was okay.
    “Fine.”
    “Sheriff Hall’s office is upstairs.”
    They took an elevator to the top floor , then Marty led him down a long hallway to a corner office.
    “I’ll see if I can find him.”
    Stanton sat down in the brown leather chair set out for guests. The office was cluttered but not messy, and it was filled with photographs of Orson with sports figures and local and national politicians. In each one, he was wearing finely tailored suits. Not a single photograph showed him in a uniform.
    “Jon Stanton,” a voice bellowed. “Didn’t think you had the balls to come back here after the ass -kicking you took from me last time.”
    Stanton smiled and rose to shake Orson’s hand. “Two strings on my racquet were loose, and you wouldn’t stop long enough for me to grab a new one.”
    “Your racquet was fine. It was your attitude that was bad. You think too much and choke. You gotta learn to turn off your brain sometimes.”
    “It may not turn back on, as you’ve demonstrated.”
    Orson laughed as he went behind the desk and sat down. “How the hell are you?”
    “Good. Better than I’ve been in a long time. How’s everything here? You keeping this cesspool relatively clean?”
    “You have no idea, brother. San Diego’s got its scumbags, but every piece of shit in the world comes here, at least for a couple of nights. We busted someone from fucking Tuvalu few days back for beating up a hooker. You know that Tuvalu was even a country?”
    “No.”
    “Me neither. But that’s what we got.” He played absent-mindedly with a pen on his desk, rolling it a few inches one way then the other. “Sorry as hell to hear about Melissa. She was a good woman.”
    “She is. Sometimes , it just doesn’t work. It’s nobody’s fault.”
    “Did you have any idea it was coming?”
    “Yeah, some. Just a vague feeling. We knew it was over, but we kept trying to make it work for the kids. I think we went on for about six months like that. Then we just couldn’t take the denial anymore.”
    “Well , you’re young and good-looking. What the hell would I do if Wendy ever left me, Lord forbid?”
    “Probably just get fatter. What have you been eating , by the way?”
    “Hey, don’t knock it. I can rough and tumble with the best of them still at two-sixty. Man needs some fat on him to tell the world he doesn’t care that much about what it thinks.” He leaned forward on his elbows. “I appreciate you coming out here, Jon. I really do.”
    “I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I really don’t know what you expect me to do. You got some of the best detectives in Robbery-Homicide that I’ve ever seen. I’m sure I can’t do anything they already haven’t done.”
    “Maybe, but I gotta try. We’re getting desperate. The file’s with the assigned detectives. I’ll call over and get them to bring it here.”
    “No, don’t do that. Let me meet them on their turf.”
    “Gotcha. I was gonna ask you that, but I didn’t know how you’d take it. Their names are Jay Reed and Javier Trujillo. Marty’ll take you over to ’em when you’re ready.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Marty’s going to be your guide while you’re here. He’s a good guy but a little slow, so go easy on him. He’s had some brain trauma from a motorcycle accident.”
    “He’s great. Thanks , Orson.”
    “No, thank you. I’m sure you wanna get started so you can get back to the beach, but let me just say, anything you need, you call me directly. You have my new cell