Lure Read Free Page A

strength bolstered her and helped her to believe. So many others had given up on her, turned their backs and pretended she no longer existed, or thought she was the lowest of the low.
    The fact that Greg had removed her from the scene of the accident and hadn't administered a Breathalyzer was now becoming a serious issue for him as well. He hadn't said anything to her yet, but she knew Internal Affairs would be all over that. Chances were that his working that night had nothing to do with a bug going around the force. He could be sitting on the wrong end of an interrogation table, and Sam knew how terrible that felt. It had been chaos at the scene of the accident, and people had simply reacted as best as they could, given the scale of the disaster. The sight of it was burned into Sam's memory.
    "So what are the claims of activity?" Shells asked after confirming that all of the equipment was now up and running, and that the mugs had all been circled with bright pink chalk they had found by the specials board.
    Sam repeated the claims twice, since Alton sneezed in the middle of the first take. "I gotta take a leak," he said as soon as Sam paused to take a breath. He put down the camera and walked toward the makeshift hallway that led to the bathrooms. One wall was nothing more than a wooden latticework partition with bags of chips and doodles clipped to it, not to mention a life sized St. Pauly's girl cutout, which did its best to remind Sam how small her breasts were.
    The spring loaded door squealed in protest before slamming shut as Alton entered the men's room. Moments later it did the same when Sam entered right behind him.
    "What the hell?" Alton said, already in mid-piss.
    "Grow up. You don't have anything I haven't seen before."
    "You wanna make sure?" he asked while shaking it off.
    "I'm good," Sam said. "I just always wondered what it was like in here."
    "A piece of heaven," Alton said, as he pushed through the lighter but also spring-loaded half-door that had afforded him some privacy at the urinal. The door, like everything else in there, was painted dark brown and pitted with layers of graffiti that had been carved into the multiple layers of paint.
    "Why do men feel the need to carve stuff into bathroom walls?"
    Alton just shrugged and pushed his way to the sink, "I don't know, why do women urinate in pairs?"
    "It gives us time to laugh at whatever stupid things the men are doing."
    "Uh huh." Alton let the door slam behind him as he left.
    For a minute longer Sam remained in the men's room, staring at the mirror. It was an old mirror, the backing chipped and distorted in places. Almost imperceptible flaws in the glass warped the image, and a hazy film coated it, adding texture until what Sam saw seemed distorted and alien. Lines crept outward from the corners of her liquid blue eyes, and the cold air blowing from the register above made her nipples stand out against her t-shirt. No doubt about it, even with a distorted reflection, she was hot. She knew it pissed off Alton and Shells, mostly because Shells didn't look as good and because Alton knew he wasn't getting any. Maybe they were both pissed about that last part; Sam wasn't really sure. Either way she made sure her ass looked good in her jeans before walking back out to the bar.   Smiling confidently, she made sure to give it a good shake as she passed by the St. Pauly's girl.
     
     

Chapter 2
     
    With the infrared illuminators only allowing the night vision cameras to see, the group sat in darkness, the LCD panel on Alton's camera the only source of visible light. The mugs were where they had left them; Alton had gone around and checked them all while Sam and Shells used an audio recorder to try to capture ghost voices.
    "We know you are here," Sam said. "Come closer to the device I'm holding in my hand and speak into it; then I'll be able to hear you and I'll know for certain that you are here."
    "Don't you have to pause every once in a while and let