Blood Will Tell Read Free

lobby."
    This was interesting. “Oh?” Brandy asked.
    “There were some computers stolen a few years ago,” Martin explained. “Thieves broke a ground-floor window to get in. The ceilings are false, with heating and cooling ducts and the sprinkler system above them."
    The university was notorious for lack of security; funds barely covered maintenance. Broken windows set off no alarms. Offices and laboratories, where equipment and vital data were kept, were all on upper floors or on inner walls with no windows. Most, like Land's, required not only a key to the office itself, but a different key to the suite door.
    But now that Martin mentioned it—"I remember,” said Brandy. “They went over the ceilings into some offices and stole several PC's. I was a student at the time."
    “It was before I arrived,” said Martin, “but they still talk about it. Wouldn't be worth a thief's while today; most of the equipment is badly outdated."
    “That must be frustrating,” said Brandy, “trying to teach computer science on outmoded equipment."
    “Oh, we've got some new technology for the upper-level students. Anyway, the ceilings are just a thought, if the coroner says the body was moved."
    Brandy found herself smiling at Martin. She liked him—and didn't know why. He certainly wasn't her type.
    She didn't care much for intellectual men, although she got along well enough with the university faculty on professional matters. Murphy was three hundred miles from the police laboratories at Frankfort. It was easier to ask a local expert than someone that far away, and JPSU had the largest variety of experts in Western Kentucky.
    Brandy didn't generally think of herself as preferring a particular type of man; she had dated blonds, brunettes, and redheads over the years. However, they had always been large and strong and all-American. This man was lean and wiry and faintly exotic.
    Like many of the JPSU faculty, he didn't sound like a West Kentuckian, but his accent was Midwest American, nothing foreign about it. His hair and eyes were midnight black, his skin a fine, even gold, but his voice, deep and just a touch gravelly, was both memorable and sexy.
    He was nothing like any man she had ever taken an interest in before.
    And what was she doing taking an interest in the middle of an investigation? What in the world had sent her mind wandering in that direction? Brandy realized she had been smiling at him like a fool for several seconds, and broke the gaze to pick up her pen.
    But she had nothing to write. Professor Mason had gone back to her office, and the custodian was waiting to lock up. “I guess I'm finished here for tonight,” Brandy said. “Let's check your theory before I seal Dr. Land's office."
    Back in the office, where the tape on the chair did not look anything like the shape of a body, they saw no sign that the large ceiling tiles had been moved. But Martin spotted something else. “Rett's backup disks are gone."
    “His what?"
    Martin gestured to an empty spot on the neat desk. “There should be a box of zip disks right there with all his backup files.” He looked over at the bookcases, but there were no boxes of disks there, either. “No one that I train relies on a hard disk as his only copy!” he commented.
    “Maybe he took them home. But I'll add it to the report, and we'll see what the autopsy says,” Brandy said, locking the door. Then she ran the yellow tape across the doorframe, to warn anyone from disturbing the scene.
    “Where are you going now?” asked Martin.
    “Back to the station. I have to write up a report."
    “Now?” he asked in surprise.
    Brandy looked at her watch. “It's only 8:50. I'll still get home in time to start a lazy weekend."
    Martin walked with her through the corridor and punched the “Down” elevator button. Then, rather sheepishly, he said, “Look—this may sound foolish, but I guess we're all curious about real police work, as opposed to what we see on