Wolf's Deal: A Nick Lupo Novella (The Nick Lupo Series) Read Free Page A

they’re Native or not. This happened on my watch. I take it
personally. We just wanna catch this asshole before he hurts anyone else.”
    Lupo agreed.
This one felt like a beginning rather than an ending.
    No idea why, but it does, doesn’t it?
    Almost like
a voice was whispering in his ear, but that was ridiculous.
    Lupo
surveyed the scene.
    The Milwaukee
PD lab guys had finished setting up and were descending on the body, going
through the usual routines. Bagging hands, checking for obvious fibers, taking
photographs. Lupo figured none of it would help, because the shooter never came
close enough. Unless there was something on the bolt, the body would yield next
to nothing. Then again…
    Lupo nodded
at one of the lab guys. “You have any ideas, Brian?”
    Brian nodded.
“Hey, Detective Lupo.” He was tall and lanky and hunched over the body like a
geeky vulture. “We’re probably wasting our time doing the close sweep,” he said
after a moment’s thought. “Looks like the guy with the crossbow was definitely
too far away to leave anything here, unless he walked up afterwards.”
    Lupo tilted
his head. “I was just thinking the same. But maybe – just maybe –
they knew each other and had contact before.”
    “Right, if
it’s not random. Anyway we’ll do the usual bit.” Brian said. “We’re sweeping
wider, too, just in case. It looks like he was in a car, though…”
    Lupo turned
to Bear. “We're gonna want a list of her coworkers. All shifts, and a list of
her friends you know of.”
    “Shit,
coworkers, that’s probably a couple-three hundred names. But yeah. I’ve already
asked around about friends and she didn’t seem to have any on staff.”
    “None at
all?” DiSanto said. “Not even guys who liked her looks?”
    “She was
known as a cold one . Rumor mill stuff.
But the customers liked her. She always had people backed up at her tables,
waiting to get a seat. Looked good dealing, you know.”
    Lupo stroked
his chin. He examined her face, the stunned look somehow making her seem more
alive than the typical corpse. He could see why they’d liked her.
    “Disgruntled
gamblers. She clean anybody out lately? Disgruntled coworkers?”
    Bear shook
his head. “I'm not aware of any incidents. I’ll check the logs again, but
nothing comes to mind. And she usually worked the lower stakes tables.”
    Brian
straightened and came over to where they were standing. He hulked over all of
them except Bear. “We’re being careful with that arrow,” he said. “Not removing
it until we have her in the morgue. It’d be too easy for us to mess up any
evidence left on it.”
    “It’s called
a bolt ,” DiSanto said. Brian stared
at him.
    Lupo
grinned. “He’s a stickler.”
    “Whatever.”
Brian stepped back to the body. “We’ll flip her halfway, if you wanna get a
look at her back.”
    “Let’s do
it,” Lupo said, not sure they would learn anything.
    Brian
directed his three gloved assistants, and carefully they took hold of Rosskov's
body and gently rolled her onto her left side. Lupo, Bear and DiSanto leaned
over to stare. Sticky blood had soaked her clothing. Now it looked like tar.
    DiSanto
whistled. “Shit, the fuckin’ thing went through her.”
    The bolt’s
tip, blood-flecked metal that was probably steel, protruded obscenely from
Rosskov’s coat. The fall backward had likely driven the bolt partially back forward
through her chest, but it was hard to tell. There was a slight indentation in
the sidewalk where the tip had struck, her body almost enveloping it.
    “What about
tracing the bolt?” DiSanto said. “See where it was bought?”
    “Not gonna
work,” said Bear. “Crossbows are popular with hunters. You can buy bolts in
hundreds of shops and on-line. Nothing much to distinguish a factory made one.
Now, if it was handmade…”
    “Or if it
had prints,” Lupo added. “But you can bet he handled it with gloves.”
    Brian
nodded.
    Lupo tried
to visualize the sequence, but