The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

a king crab, too.
    “Thanks for coming. Let’s talk in here.”
    He guided me toward a conference room.
    “Coffee or tea? Earl Grey. It’s my private stash.”
    “I’m good. Thanks.”
    “Need the bathroom?”
    The world’s most hospitable cop.
    “No, thanks. I’m fine.”
    The conference room was small, but pleasant, with an oval table and a glass wall. Drapes were drawn to cover the glass. Carter told me to pick a seat and took a chair across from me. He left the door open.
    “Would you identify yourself for me, and let me see your DL?”
    I rattled off my name and address, and showed him my driver’s license and my California private investigator’s license. He put them aside as if he planned to keep them, then recited the Echo Park address.
    “Okay, Mr. Cole. At or about eleven tonight, you saw a man leave this residence?”
    “Yes, sir. I did.”
    “I’m told you chased him.”
    “Yes, sir. Was he caught?”
    “Not yet, but we’ll find him. Can you describe him for me?”
    I described the man in the sport coat to Carter exactly as I had described him to Alvin. He scratched at a notebook a couple of times, but mostly he watched me, and mostly he stared at my mouth, as if he needed to read my lips to understand what I was saying.
    “Not a lot to work with, but it is what it is. Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”
    “I didn’t see his face. He was too far away, and it was dark. I can’t even say if his sport coat was dark gray or dark blue or dark purple.”
    He jotted another note.
    “All right. So tell me, why did you chase him?”
    “An officer named Alvin told me a homicide suspect was in thearea. The way this guy crept out of the house, I thought he was probably the suspect. I was closest, so I alerted the officers and tried to catch him. I might’ve been able to run him down, but I don’t know. An officer ran out from behind the house, pointed a gun at me, and that was that.”
    “This was Officer Alvin?”
    “No, a K-9 officer. He had a dog. Alvin and the other officers were behind me.”
    Carter’s phone buzzed with an incoming text. He read it, picked up my licenses, and pushed to his feet.
    “I’ll make copies of these, and get them back to you. You sure you don’t want something? Coffee or tea?”
    “How about an answer. What happened tonight?”
    Carter shook his head like he didn’t know what I was talking about.
    I said, “The neighborhood was evacuated. The Bomb Squad showed up. What was in the house?”
    “I’ll be back in a few. Wait here.”
    Carter closed the door and left me for over an hour. I got up at the thirty-minute mark. Locked. I didn’t bother to check it again. Carter would speak with Alvin. He would check my story through incoming field reports and on-scene investigators, and wouldn’t return until he had more questions or no questions.
    One hour and twenty-six minutes after he left, Carter returned with an attractive African-American woman wearing jeans and a blazer. She carried a cup in one hand and a silver laptop in the other. Carter had a cup, too, but it was hidden by his enormous, crab-sized hand.
    The woman introduced herself as Detective Glory Stiles and flashed a beautiful smile.
    “Man, crazy night. Is this off the hook or what? Sorry you had to wait.”
    “Worth the wait, seeing you.”
    The smile amped a thousand watts.
    “My! Aren’t you the charmer?”
    “They call me Mr. Charm.”
    Glory Stiles was a tall woman with close-cropped natural hair and immaculate bright blue nails. Carter returned to his original seat and Stiles took a seat nearby. I glimpsed a flick of gold on her right thumbnail when she opened the laptop, but couldn’t make out what it was.
    Carter was different. The offers of tea were history. His expression was stern with conviction, and designed to intimidate. It’s a look I’ve seen before, and seen done better.
    He said, “Okay, Mr. Charm. Tell me again about the man you chased. Describe