Before he Kills (A Mackenzie White Mystery—Book 1) by Blake Pierce Read Free Book Online Page B

Porter
looked like a pouting child looking for any attention he could get. She knew it
must be eating at him that this lead had come from a boy that Mackenzie had
spoken with—a boy that he had been prepared to walk away from.
    Mackenzie and Porter were given the
lead, and two other cars were assigned to fall in behind them to assist as
needed. It was the fourth time in her career that she had been tasked with such
a takedown, and the rush of adrenaline never got old. Despite the surge of
energy coursing through her, Mackenzie remained calm and collected. She walked
out of the conference room with poise and confidence, starting to get the
feeling that this was now her case, no matter how badly Porter wanted
it.
    On her way out, Nelson approached her
and took her softly by the arm.
    “White, let me talk to you for a second,
will you?”
    He led her to the side, guiding her into
the copy room before she could answer. He looked around conspiratorially,
making sure no one was within hearing distance. When he was sure they were
safe, he looked at her in a way that made her wonder if she had done something
wrong.
    “Look,” Nelson said, “Porter came to me
last night and asked to be reassigned. I flat out told him no. I also told him he’d
be stupid to drop out of this case right now. Do you know why he wanted to be
reassigned?”
    “He thinks I stepped on his toes last
night,” Mackenzie said. “But it was clear that the kids weren’t responding to
him and he wasn’t going to try hard to get through to them.”
    “Oh, you don’t have to explain it to
me,” Nelson said. “I think you did a damn good job with that oldest kid. The
kid even told some of the other guys that showed up—including the social
services guys—that he really liked you. I just wanted to let you know that
Porter is up in arms today. If he gives you any shit, let me know. But I don’t
think he will. While he’s not a big fan of yours, he all but told me that he
respects the hell out of you. But that stays between you and me. Got it?”
    “Yes, sir,” Mackenzie said, surprised at
the sudden support and encouragement.
    “All right then,” Nelson said, clapping
her lightly on the back. “Go get our guy.”
    With that, Mackenzie headed out to the
parking lot where Porter was already sitting behind the wheel of their car. He
gave her a what the hell is taking so long sort of look as she went
hurrying to the car. The moment she was in, Porter pulled out of the parking
spot before Mackenzie had even closed the door all the way.
    “I take it you got the full report on
our guy this morning?” Porter asked as he pulled out onto the highway. Two
other cars pulled out behind them, carrying Nelson and four other officers as
backup if needed.
    “I did,” Mackenzie said. “Clive Traylor,
a forty-one-year-old registered sex offender. Spent six months in prison for
assault on a woman in 2006. He currently works at a local pharmacy but he also
does some woodwork out of a small shed on his property.”
    “Ah, you must have missed the last memo
Nancy sent out,” Porter said.
    “Did I?” she asked. “What did I miss?”
    “The bastard has several wooden poles
cut out behind his shed. Intel shows that they’re just about the same size as
the one we found out in that cornfield.”
    Mackenzie scrolled through her e-mails
on her phone and saw that Nancy had sent the memo out less than ten minutes
ago.
    “Sounds like our guy, then,” she said.
    “Damn right,” Porter said. He was
speaking like a robot, like he had been programmed to say certain things. He
did not look over at her a single time. It was clear that he was pissed, but
that was okay with Mackenzie. As long as he put that anger and determination
into bringing the suspect down, she couldn’t care less.
    “I’ll go ahead and kick the elephant out
of the car,” Porter said. “It pissed me off bad when you took over last
night. But I’ll be damned if you didn’t work some kind of