TRACE - CSI Reilly Steel #5 (Forensic novel Police Procedural Series) Read Free

popped it in his mouth, chewing meditatively. His wife Josie was always nagging him about his weight and his heart, but at the same time she also liked to cook him all his favorite foods. Reilly often heard him on the phone to her, requesting shepherd’s pie or roast beef and Yorkshire puddings for his dinner.
    ‘I think this guy is organized,’ said Chris. ‘I think he takes pride in the fact that he doesn’t leave a mess. He’s in control and he doesn’t get nervous. He’s smart. Smart enough not to leave a decent fingerprint in the place, anyway.’
    ‘Here we go,’ said Kennedy. ‘The great philosopher begins to analyze every last little piece of information.’
    Chris was notorious for his musings after they had been at a crime scene. He would surmise at length, often guessing at traits about the unsub that would later turn out to be true. Kennedy didn’t give him any credit for it though. He was a traditionalist: hard evidence only.
    ‘We don’t even know that it is a he,’ Reilly pointed out. ‘That could have been a dinner between friends last night, or two sisters. How do we know that it wasn’t an elaborate suicide even?’ This was part of the pattern the three had. They would bounce ideas and theories off each other, spurring the other on to think harder, to really dig deep for a solution.
    ‘That set-up was definitely for a date,’ said Chris. ‘Believe me.’
    ‘I don’t doubt you there, Chris,’ joked Kennedy with a heavy dose of irony, ‘since a handsome lad like you is off on a date every night of the week.’
    Chris rolled his eyes and concentrated on picking the shriveled tomato out of his salad. He was as health conscious and as fit as Reilly was.
    ‘Well, we just have to dig deeper into the victim’s life. Friends, family, habits. You know the deal.’ She didn’t want to discuss Chris’s love life, any more than she wanted to talk about her own.
    The truth was, she had been feeling a little off throughout lunch. The sight of Kennedy’s burger leaking grease was enough to turn anyone’s stomach. She had been back at work for a week now, after her extended Florida sojourn, but still wasn’t over her jet lag. It was unusual for her, but she thought she would get back to normal after a few morning runs and a couple of early nights.
    Though if she was being honest, Reilly would hazard that thoughts of Todd Forrest had been keeping her awake at nights. Their affair had ended so abruptly, and he hadn’t reacted at all when she told him she would be returning to Dublin.
    Perhaps it was best in the long run. A relationship that straddled two continents was bound to fail. But there had been so much about Todd that had appealed. Not to mention all they had been through together over those few weeks. She’d been drawn into an investigation that was deeply personal to him and his father, her old Quantico mentor Daniel. ‘Put it out of your head,’ she warned herself. She’d made her choice and now here she was back in Dublin and back in the heart of a brand new investigation.
    That was part of it, she guessed, that Todd symbolized sunny, fresh Florida. His tan skin and white teeth instinctively reminded her of her native California. They had both grown up around beaches. He knew what it was to watch a game of baseball. He knew how to make a Chimichanga. He had memories of Thanksgiving, just like her. She had thought herself reconciled to life in the Ireland, but being in the US last month had revived her, in more ways than one. Now, back in grey and drizzly Dublin, everything seemed more tiresome and more complicated.
    Back in the lab at the Garda Forensic Unit, she felt more comfortable. It was easy for her to lose herself in her work anywhere. This was the reason she got up in the morning, and if she ever faltered, she had good reason to pick herself up and keep going.
    It was good to be back working with Chris and Kennedy too. She didn’t have the same fraught relationship with