Black notice by Patricia Cornwell Read Free Book Online

staring up at the ship and clearly enjoying all the attention.
    She had a seductive way of massaging her lower lumbar spine or wedging her hands in the back pockets of her uniform pants, shoulders thrown back, or absently smoothing her tie over the steep slope of her chest.
    Simmons was handsome and had a fine body, and when he slipped out a folded sheet of paper, it shook as he looked at it. She moved closer to him, and he cleared his throat.
    "Two-fifteen, Chief," he said.
    "Let me see." She leaned closer, brushing against his arm, taking her time as she looked at her itinerary and complained, "Oh, God! Not that school board idiot again!"
    Officer Simmons shifted his position, and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. He looked terrified.
    "Call him and cancel," Bray said.
    "Yes, Chief."
    "Well, I don't know. Maybe I should just reschedule."
    She took the itinerary from him, brushing against him again like a languid cat, and I was startled by the rage that flashed across Anderson's face. Marino caught up with me on my way to my car.
    "You see the way she flaunts herself around?" he asked. "It wasn't lost on me."
    "Don't think that ain't a topic of conversation. I'm telling you, that bitch's poison."
    "What's her story?"
    Marino shrugged. "Never been married, no one's good enough. Screws around with powerful, married types, supposedly. She's all abopt power, Doc. The rumor is that she wants to be the next Secretary of Public Safety so every cop in the Commonwealth will have to kiss her pretty ass:'
    "It will never happen."
    "Don't be so sure. I hear she's got friends in high places, Virginia connections, which is one of the reasons we got stuck with her. She's got a plan, no doubt about that. Snakes like her always got a plan."
    I opened the ,trunk, exhausted and depressed as the earlier trauma of the day returned to me so hard it seemed to slam me against the car.
    "You aren't gonna do him tonight, are you?" Marino asked.
    "No way," I muttered. "It wouldn't be fair to him."
    Marino gave me a questioning look. I felt him watching me as I stripped off my jumpsuit and shoes and doublebagged them.
    "Marino, give me one of your cigarettes, please."
    "I can't believe you're doing that again."
    "There're about fifty million tons of tobacco in that warehouse. The smell put me in the mood:'
    "That ain't what I was smelling."
    "Tell me what's going on;' I said as he held out his lighter.
    "You just saw what's going on. I'm sure she explained it."
    "Yes, she did. And I don't understand it. She's in charge of the uniformed division, not investigations. She says no one can control you, so she's elected to take care of the problem herself. Why? When she got here, you weren't even in her division. Why should you matter to her?"
    "Maybe she thinks I'm cute."
    "That must be it," I said.
    He exhaled smoke as if he were putting out birthday candles, and looked down at his T-shirt as if he had forgotten it was there. His big, thick hands were still dusted with talc from the surgical gloves, and he at first looked lonely and defeated, then turned cynical and indifferent again.
    "You know;" he said, "I could retire if I wanted to and draw about forty grand a year pension."
    "Come over for dinner, Marino."
    "Add that to what I could get doing some security consulting or whatever, and I could live pretty good. Wouldn't have to shovel this shit no more day after day with all these little maggots crawling out from everywhere thinking they know it all."
    "I've been asked to invite you."
    "By who?" he asked suspiciously.
    "You'll find out when you get there."
    "What the hell does that mean?" he asked, scowling.
    "For God's sake, go take a shower and put on something that won't clear out the city. Then come over. Around six-thirty."
    "Well, in case you haven't noticed, Doc, I'm working. Three-to-eleven shift this week. Eleven-to-seven shift week after next. I'm the new hot-shit watch commander for the entire friggin' city, and the only hours they need