Hidden Fire, Kobo Read Free Page B

Police Department's
other detective got out and strode toward him. Under the bright lights, his
close-cropped blond hair glowed almost pink from the scalp beneath it. He
smiled his crooked grin.
    "Glad to see you back, big guy. I
didn't expect you until tomorrow."
    "Can't say I'm glad to be here. This
is a mess."
    Kovak nodded. "Once I saw the scene,
I knew we had an all-hands-on-deck case and called the chief. How'd you get
here so fast?"
    "My last case wrapped up early. I
was already in town when the chief called me."
    Kovak's gaze swept over Randy. "And
from the way you're dressed, he called you away from something. Let me guess.
You were having dinner with Sarah. Rob's or Martinelli's?"
    Randy shook his head. "Rob's. I
trained you too well, partner."
    "Sorry to cut your evening short."
    "Not as sorry as I am." He
pushed those regrets aside. "You get anything from the neighbors? Gunshots
should have been loud enough."
    "Yeah, right." Kovak thumbed
through his notebook. "The usual excuses. Not home, watching television,
in the shower. Asleep, thought it was a car backfiring. Kids take pot shots in
here all the time, nobody pays much attention. A lot of wild oats sowing, maybe
a little grass smoking. 'Kids will be kids' seems to be the attitude."
    "What about the busybodies? There
are always a few," Randy said.
    "Of course. They saw suspicious
characters lurking last week, last night. Saw someone in the grocery store who
looked like a criminal. Might be male, female, black, white, or anything in between."
He glanced at his notes again. "Mrs. Crenshaw is positive she saw the
latest America's Most Wanted suspect."
    "I'll get back to her. Cars?"
    "Always, but no two said the same
thing. Houses are set back from the road and it's not a high-traffic street. We've
got a van, SUV or sports car. Maybe a pickup. Or a Corvette. Red, or black, or
blue. Going to be impossible to track down."
    But they'd have to try. Thoughts of sleep
flew away like a scattered flock of pigeons.
    Connor called out. "Hey, if you two
are done with the reunion bit, I could use some help. We have a scene to
process. County's sending backup with their fancy gizmos, but no reason we can't
make some headway while we wait. For now, our lower tech equipment will have to
do."
    "Let me grab a coverall from my
truck and I'll be right with you," Randy said.
    "Get my metal detector," Connor
said. He tossed Randy a set of keys. "With all the leaves and undergrowth,
it's going to be hard to spot a shell casing without it."
    Kovak followed Randy to the edge of the
woods where they'd parked. "You want me to go run databases or help with
the scene?" he asked.
    "Technically, it's your case,"
Randy said. He found his kit behind the seat of his truck and pulled out his
coveralls. "You got the call out."
    "I've got no problem turning it
over. I've got enough to do closing the cases I've worked while you were gone.
Nothing like this, of course, but you're the senior detective and I'm happy to
let you bask in the glory."
    "Yeah—you mean you don't want to
deal with reporters." Randy climbed into the blue jumpsuit and zipped it
closed, then got his flashlight from under his seat.
    Kovak grinned. "See—that's why you're
the head detective. You've already deduced an important fact."
    "With any luck, we can toss the
media to the chief. He's the master of the 'talking without saying anything'
hype. But fine, I'll lead. And as leader, I say we work the scene until the
county CSIs get here. Maybe we can impress them with an amazing find."
    "You got it. I'll change and get a
camera." Kovak headed toward his unmarked unit.
    Randy filled his pockets with evidence
bags, hung a camera around his neck, then unlocked Connor's van and retrieved
the metal detector. "I'll start where they found the body," he said.
    "I'll see if I can find where they
came in," Kovak said. "They didn't beam down into the middle of that
copse of trees." He stood at the edge of the property and scratched the
top of