Shadowfires. By: Dean R. Koontz

neither as imposing, but both of them cool and smug. They stood just

inside the bedroom, one on each side of the door, like temple guards,

watching Julio and Reese with unconcealed suspicion.

Julio had never encountered Defense Security Agency men before. They

were far different from the FBI agents that he had sometimes worked

with, less like policemen than FBI men were. They wore elitism as if it

were a pungent cologne.

To Julio and Reese, Sharp said, “I know who you are, and I know a little

bit about your reputations-two hound dogs. You bite into a case and you

just never let go. Usually that’s admirable. This time, however,

you’ve got to unclench your teeth and let go. I can’t make it clear

enough. Understand me?”

“It’s basically our case, Julio said tightly. “it started in our

jurisdiction, and we caught the first call.”

Sharp frowned. “I’m telling you it’s over and you’re out. As far as

your department’s concerned, there is no case for you to work on here.

The files on Hernandez, Klienstad, and Leben have all been pulled from

your records, as if they never existed, and from now on we handle

everything. I’ve got my own forensics team driving in from L.A. right

now. We don’t need or want anything you can provide. Comprende, amigo?

Listen, Lieutenant Verdad, you’re gone. Check with your superiors if

you don’t believe me.”

“I don’t like it,” Julio said.

“You don’t have to like it,” Sharp said.

Julio drove only two blocks from Rachael Leben’s house before he had to

pull over to the curb and stop.

He threw the car into park with a violent swipe at the gearshift and

said, “Damn! Sharp’s so sold on himself he probably thinks someone

ought to bottle his piss and sell it as perfume.”

During the ten years Reese had worked with Julio, he had never seen his

partner this angry. Furious. His eyes looked hard and hot. A tic in

his right cheek made half his face twitch. The muscles in his jaws

clenched and unclenched, and the cords in his neck were taut.

He looked like he wanted to break something in half.

Reese was struck by the weird thought that if Julio had been a cartoon

character, steam would have been pouring from his ears.

Reese said, “He’s an asshole, sure, but he’s an asshole with a lot of

authority and connections.”

– “Acts like a damn storm trooper.”

“I suppose he’s got his job to do.”

“Yeah, but it’s our job he’s doing.”

“Let it go,” Reese said.

“I can’t.”

“Let it go.”

Julio shook his head. “No. This is a special case. I feel a special

obligation to that Hernandez girl. Don’t ask me to explain it. You’d

think I was getting sentimental in my old age. Anyway, if it was just

an ordinary case, just the usual homicide, I’d let it go in a minute, I

would, I really would, but this one is special.”

Reese sighed.

To Julio, nearly every case was special. He was a small man, especially

for a detective, but he was committed, damned if he wasn’t, and one way

or another he found an excuse for persevering in a case when any other

cop would have given up, when common sense said there was no point in

continuing, and when the law of diminishing returns made it perfectly

clear that the time had come to move on to something else. Sometimes he

said, “Reese, I feel a special commitment to this victim cause he was so

young, never had a chance to know life, and it isn’t fair, it eats at

me.” And somerimes he said, “Reese, this case is personal and special

to me because the victim was so old, so old and defenseless, and if we

don’t go an extra mile to protect our elderly citizens, then we’re a

very sick society, this eats at me, Reese.”

Sometimes the case was special to Julio because the victim was pretty,

and it seemed such a tragedy for any beauty to be lost to the world that

it just ate at him. But he could be equally eaten because the victim

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *