What She Doesn't See Read Online Free PDF Page A

missed.
    “I think perhaps you should read this for
yourself.”
    He made the short journey to and around
behind her desk. Alex leaned back out of the way while he spread
the paper in front of her. He tapped the headline
Detective’s
Death Under Investigation.
    “Isn’t he a friend of yours?” the Professor
asked.
    Somehow her cup found its way back to her
desk as she skimmed the front-page article recounting the tragic
automobile accident of a longtime criminal investigations
detective...
    Detective Louis Hitchcock
    “Ohmigod...” Alex looked up at the Professor.
“I saw him yesterday.” Her breath caught. “I talked to him last
night.”
I slept with him three months ago...
    Dread and hurt welled in her chest. How could
this have happened? Hitch been fine when they talked.
    The Professor gestured to the paper.
“According to the article, the accident likely occurred between ten
and eleven last night. There aren’t that many details given.”
    Her thoughts whirling, Alex grappled to
remember the approximate time he’d called last night. After her
bath… she’d thought she’d heard someone on her porch.
    Nine-thirty or tenish maybe. Jesus.
    He could have died only a few minutes after
they’d talked. Why hadn’t she said something like how good it had
been to see him that day? Why hadn’t she just said yes to dinner on
Friday?
    Hitch was dead
.
    She blinked away the disbelief. “Thanks,
Professor.”
    Alex didn’t notice when he left the room, but
he was gone the next time she glanced around her office. She tried
to reconcile herself to what she’d just read.
    Hitch was dead.
    She forced herself to read the entire
article. It didn’t specify the details, but it did mention that the
one-car accident was under investigation. When he’d called her,
he’d said he was going to see the computer whiz kid who’d
unofficially analyzed the contact lens.
    Had he made it to the guy’s house?
    Did the police even know where he’d been
headed?
    Alex sagged in her chair, let the cold, harsh
reality wash over her. Now she’d never get to tell him that if
she’d been the type for commitment, he could have been the guy.
    Shaking off the painful thought, she
considered that she had spoken with Hitch last night, possibly only
minutes before he died. Any information she could offer that might
help the investigation was not only her civic duty, it was her
obligation as a friend.
    Alex grabbed her bag and put thought into
action.
    The Professor and Hernandez had this
morning’s schedule under control. Unless something new came up, she
could spare a couple of hours. The final reports she’d been meaning
to complete and the other paperwork she needed to review could
wait.
    Her friend was dead.
    That wouldn’t wait.

    Miami Beach PD, 1100 Washington Avenue
    The Miami Beach Police station was located in
a building that defined the Art Deco style. The Criminal
Investigations Unit called the third floor home. The division was
laid out in a grid pattern with dozens of metal desks floating amid
a sea of gray carpeting.
    She waved to a couple of the detectives she’d
worked with on occasion and basically ignored the guys who openly
leered. Not that she minded when a man showed his appreciation for
her hard work and good genes, but these guys were just being jerks.
Most had wives and kids at home.
    Yet another reason to stay unattached. You
didn’t have to worry about a cheating husband if you didn’t have
one. Didn’t have to worry about mismatched socks. Dirty boxers or
dishes piled in the sink. Life was just less complicated when one
stayed single.
    She wove through the maze of desks until she
reached the one belonging to Detective Jimmy Patton. He and Hitch
hadn’t been partners that long, only since Hitch’s longtime partner
had retired and moved to Maine last fall.
    When Patton looked up Alex recognized the
exhaustion and the pain in his eyes. He’d likely been up all
night.
    “Jackson,” he said, acknowledging