Ogrodnik Interior 2.0c Read Free Page A

beyond.
    There was no charge to park there, thus no parking meters were needed. A quick scan of the surrounding parking area also showed Elliot that no security cameras were mounted on the light standards, so if the killer did park there, there would be no electronic record of it. He sat on the guardrail for ten minutes and silently counted the joggers, walkers, and cyclists as they passed. He was already familiar with the roads that crossed the mountain and knew that the Lookout parking lot was the only parking area on the east side of the mountain. Parking on the road would be unlikely as it would surely attract the attention of the parking police, so unless the killer was dropped off and picked up, he would have parked here. Satisfied that he had a good feel for the foot traffic going past, Elliot started the walk back down the trail to his car and called his partner, Rivka Goldstein.
     

Chapter 5   
     
    “Morning, Riv, did I catch you at a bad time?”
    “Mornin. No, not a bad time. Just watching the hair on my legs grow.”
    “I thought you Ironman types didn’t grow hair on your muscly parts?”
    “That’s true. Hair doesn’t grow on steel. No wonder this is so boring.”
    “I know we have a few pokers in the fire, but I have something important that will require our undivided attention.”
    “What, did we get a job to find a chaste priest or something?”
    “No, and you won’t be peaking in bedroom windows on this one either. We’re going after my father’s killer,” he said with more zeal in his voice than intended.
    “Fey! The prodigal son wakes up. I’ve been waiting for you to get your brain back in gear and start looking into this one. The old man deserves better than that sideshow the police called an investigation. I’m almost ashamed to admit I was once one of them. When do we start?”
    “I’m on my way to the university now but will be back at the office later. Let’s meet around noon. I’ll pick up lunch on the way and get you up to speed.”
    “See you there, Chief.”
     

Chapter 6   
     
    Elliot parked in his assigned spot at the university and checked to see if Randy Mesman’s car was also there; it was. Randy was the Dean of Social Sciences, Elliot’s boss at the university and his best friend. He knocked on the door once and entered without waiting for a response “Morning, Randolph.”
    “Hey, Stretch, what are you doing here? I haven’t seen your sorry ass in this early since Christ was a cowboy,” said Randy as he looked up.
    “Christ was a cowboy? I must have missed that Testament.“
    “New Testament, in the Book of James, Jesse James.”
    “Ha-ha. And I can say the same for you. 8:30 and you’re already buried in paper,” said Elliot as he folded his lanky frame into the chair.
    Randy pushed himself back from his desk and looked over at his friend. “So… We haven’t talked in a while. How have you been coping since the funeral?”
    “I’m doing okay. I decided I’d let the investigation run its course. It’s now complete, and I don’t care for their findings, so I’m going to investigate it myself, which is the reason I’m here.”
    “What did they come up with?”
    “After three weeks of half-assed research, they’ve come up with the theory that it was a robbery gone bad. I don’t buy it though. “
    “Oh?” replied Randy.
    “The robber didn’t take Dad’s credit cards nor did he take his Rolex. Their theory was that during the course of the mugging, the thief killed my father by a blow to the head. Maybe he didn’t mean to kill him; maybe he just wanted to knock him unconscious. We’ll never know. He then took Dad’s wallet, stole the cash and tossed the wallet in the bushes. What they couldn’t explain was the broken jaw he suffered during the robbery or the complete absence of foreign fingerprints on the wallet. The coroner confirmed that the killing blow came from a big rock to the side of the head, and we know the rock was not