Ultimate Fear (Book 2 Ultimate CORE) (CORE Series) Read Online Free PDF

the car door.
    After checking the traffic, he shifted the Camaro into DRIVE and pulled onto the street. “Fully stocked?” he asked and turned left at the intersection.
    “Just like the pawn shop we checked yesterday. How is it that these shops have so much merchandize after just being robbed? I think their insurance company has a right to be concerned.”
    He shook his head. “I don’t know. With both cases, the owners were assaulted in their homes, pistol whipped, then forced to open their stores to the thieves. I have a hard time believing the shop owners would willingly allow themselves to be beaten to scam their insurance company. The last owner was in the hospital for two days recovering from his injuries. He also lost his two front teeth. Pretty extreme way to pull one over on the insurance company.”
    “True. Except I find it interesting that, in both cases, the owners’ wives and kids happened to be out of town when the thieves forced their way into their homes. A little coincidental, don’t you think?”
    “I think the similarities are definitely coincidental and, based on the MO, we’re looking for the same group of thieves. As for the owners being in on it with them, I’m still not sold. If there was another case, like these two, then you’ll have my attention.”
    “You’re serious? Seriously, serious?” She let out a sigh. “Dante, you don’t need three robberies to know something isn’t right with this investigation.”
    “No, but you do need evidence. Until we have that, all we have is assumptions and theories.”
    “Well, I’m going to assume the pawn shop owners are in on the robberies. What I’m trying to figure out is how they ended up with stocked shelves so quickly.” She pulled out an emery board from her purse and began to file her thumb nail. “What would be fantastic is if we could locate some of the stolen merchandise.”
    He made another turn. “That’s going to be next to impossible.” The majority of the stolen items had been jewelry. Without serial numbers or personal engravings, it would be difficult to link the jewelry back to the two pawn shops in question.
    “We can try. The best place for thieves to dump stolen property is a pawn shop. And owners are required to keep a copy of the driver’s license of whoever’s doing the pawning. If we find the stolen jewelry and connect it with a driver’s license, then—” She let out another sigh, this one bordering on exasperation, and stopped filing her nail. “Never mind. You’re right. It would be next to impossible to locate the jewelry. Who’s to say the thieves haven’t already pawned the merchandise out of the city, or even the state.”
    “Or melted the gold down, or sold off only the precious gems.”
    “Okay, okay.” She put the emery board back in her purse. “I said you were right.”
    He grinned. “You can say it again. I rather enjoy it.”
    “I’m sure you do. I’m also sure you have a reason for heading in the opposite direction of our next stop.”
    He rubbed the back of his neck. “I need to run past my house. We’ll be there in a few.”
    “Okay. I’m not looking forward to meeting with that pompous claims adjuster anyway.”
    Another thing he liked about Lola was that she also knew when not to pry. Telling her he had to stop home to water his vegetable garden before his wife had a conniption wasn’t something he wanted to share. That could lead to questions he didn’t want to answer.
    A few minutes later, he turned into Beverly, one of the community areas on the south side of Chicago, and headed for his Bell Avenue bungalow. He and Jessica had bought the eighty-year-old home fifteen years ago, shortly after they were married. Although in need of major updates, he and Jessica had loved the all-brick home on sight. The house had great bones and, for the area, a large backyard. As much as he still loved the house, without Jessica living in it, the place now stood as an icy