The Dolomite Solution Read Online Free PDF Page B

intrigued.”
    Herr Martini gazed down at his notepad again and said, “You know the dead man?”
    â€œI don’t know. He might have looked familiar, but I only saw him for a second before someone bashed my head in.” His head started to swirl, as if his brain were sloshing back and forth in heavy seas within his skull.
    The man loosened the leather straps on his wrists and the large one across his waist, that Jake didn’t even know was there.
    â€œI had a doctor check you over. He doesn’t think you fractured your skull. It’s only a concussion. A mild one at that. Apparently someone knew how to hit you without leaving much surface damage to your scalp. Or perhaps your long hair softened some of the blow.”
    Mild concussion? That’s not how Jake would describe how his head felt. But he knew already from his days in high school football that it was probably a concussion. As a linebacker he had hit one too many running backs using his head as a battering ram. He had even ended up in the hospital once. Yet, he had never been knocked out so completely. It was as if he had been drugged after the blow. Either that or he really had too much to drink.
    â€œHow long have I been here?” Jake mumbled, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.
    â€œA few hours. The doctor gave you a sedative. He thought you should rest. Can you walk, Mr. Adams?”
    â€œWhy?” Jake tried to put pressure on his feet and his head swept sideways until he finally controlled it by squeezing his ears between his palms. He stood, wobbled momentarily, and then found his equilibrium.
    â€œI’d like you to take a look at the man who was killed. He’s down the corridor in the morgue.”
    â€œSure.” That would give him a chance for a better look at the man’s wounds also.

    Outside the room, two men in green polizei uniforms were posted on either side of the door. They were carrying Styer automatic rifles, with Glock 19s on their sides. That was a lot of firepower for an unarmed man in a hospital bed, Jake thought.
    The corridor was dark with battered gray tile. Something wasn’t right about the place. It didn’t look like any hospital Jake have ever been in.
    Down the hall they went through a swinging door marked ‘Leichenschauhaus,’ the two armed guards right on their heels, resuming positions outside these doors.
    The Tirol police captain stopped next to a metal table, where bright overhead lights shone down on a body covered with a white plastic sheet. He pulled the sheet back, exposing the man’s head and chest.
    â€œDo you know him now?” the captain asked.
    Jake moved in closer. Even with the throbbing head and swirling eyes, Jake recognized the man. They had served together in the Air Force. Had even made captain together while stationed in Germany. “Yeah. I know him.”
    â€œWell?”
    â€œIt’s Allen Murdock.”
    The captain scribbled the name into a small notebook. “How do you know him?”
    â€œWe worked intel together in Germany years ago. Murdock was a computer expert. I heard he married a Fraulein, got out of the Air Force, and stayed in Germany. I haven’t seen him in years.” Jake looked at the man more closely. He had bruises on his neck. There was a single bullet hole in his chest.
    â€œIs there anything else?”
    â€œLike what?” Jake tried to read the Austrian cop, but was having a hard time under the circumstances.
    â€œI don’t know. Why would this man from your past show up dead in an Innsbruck alley with you standing over him with a recently fired handgun?”
    â€œSo you knew all along that Murdock was already dead,” Jake said, rather irritated. “You’re just fucking with me.”
    The man hesitated, selecting his words. “By the time we got to the alley, the snow had covered the both of you. You were laying over the top of a dead man, a gun just