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

expecting anything
unusual, according to Hitch’s notes.”
    She nodded. He was right on all counts. Hitch
hadn’t said anything different to her. “I gave him a peculiar…
thing.” God, how did she say this? “It was part of his eye. Like a
weird contact lens.” Well that surely explained what she meant.
Frustration brimmed. “Hitch took it to a friend for an unofficial
analysis,” she offered in lieu of a better explanation. “When he
called me last night he was wound up about it. He said he was going
over to pick the lens up and that he’d be taking it to the state
lab this morning. He sounded pretty excited.”
    Patton’s gaze narrowed with keener interest.
“Do you know who he was going to see?”
    Alex shook her head. “Not a clue. Some
computer whiz. Like I said, he was excited. I can’t see him falling
asleep at the wheel when he’d sounded fully alert when we
spoke.”
    Patton glanced at his watch and swore. “I
have a meeting.” He stood. “Listen, if you think of anything else
Hitch said that might be relevant, give me a call.” He passed Alex
a business card. “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything
about the memorial service.”
    Alex tucked the card into her bag, thanked
him, and made her way through the maze of cold metal desks without
stopping to chat with anyone. She wanted to get out of here and to
some place where she could think. The idea that just yesterday
Hitch would have walked her out if she’d dropped by to see him had
her on the verge of hyperventilating.
    A detective who looked vaguely familiar
almost bowled her over as he bounded past her. Alex felt like
slugging him but didn’t want the hassle. She needed out of here.
She couldn’t breathe.
    “Patton,” she heard the cop who’d been in
such a hurry say, “I’ve got the preliminary on that Morningside
house explosion.”
    Alex’s feet slowed. Maybe it was oxygen
deprivation. Morningside? Wasn’t that neighborhood where Hitch had
been going last night? She lingered, wanted to hear the rest of
what the detective had to say.
    “They found a body, but it was burned so
badly it’ll take some time to ID.”
    Alex told herself she was probably
overreacting. A lot of people lived in Morningside—this explosion
likely had nothing to do with Hitch’s friend who lived there. It
could be anything from a secret meth lab to a gas leak.
    “You take a ride over there,” Patton
suggested. “I’ll join you after my meeting.”
    Alex turned around, waited for Patton and the
other detective to catch up to her. There was one more thing she
had to know. “By the way, where did Hitch’s accident happen?” The
paper hadn’t given the location.
    Patton looked mildly annoyed that she had
waylaid him or maybe the exhaustion was making him testy. “Over on
1-95 near Hallandale. Why?”
    She shrugged. “Just wondered.”
    Patton eyed her suspiciously. “Is there
something more you need to tell me, Jackson? He was my
partner.”
    She shook her head. “It’s nothing like that.”
The white lie felt bitter on her tongue. She should just tell him.
“I was just curious that’s all.” But he’d basically blown her off.
What was it he’d said?
If you think of anything else Hitch said
that might be relevant.
..
    “See you around,” he muttered.
    Watching Patton go, she realized what she had
to do next. She had to know why Hitch’s vehicle had been found way
north of where he’d told her he was going. But first she wanted to
know if a computer genius had lived in the Morningside residence
where the explosion had occurred. She also wanted to know if the
crime scene techs had found the contact lens in Hitch’s car. Or if
they’d found anything at all that suggested the accident wasn’t an
accident.
    She wanted to know a lot. She needed enough
to give Patton reason to consider Hitch’s death suspicious. Since
she wasn’t a cop, the chances of Patton listening to her until she
had something substantial were slim to