Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) by Mike Faricy Read Free Book Online Page B

folks down here probably just worried he got the right postage on the envelope. You know? What the hell, you guys dealing with an occasional assault with an icicle or something, right?” he laughed at his own joke.
    “You said you had the finger processed?”
    “The one that got mailed?”
    “Yeah, with the correct postage.”
    “Hunh? Yeah we sent it in, ain’t come back yet. Like I said, matter of priorities. With the budget cuts and all…”
    When I could get a word in edgewise I thanked him for his time. I got the same sort of response in Kansas City , it wasn’t a priority and with budget cuts…
    The guy in St. Louis spoke with a lisp, a Detective Sexton. He had the same story as the others , no results, he’d call me when the reports came back , but don’t wait by the phone.
    “Look, I’ll give you a call when they come in , but you’re probably looking at months not weeks, budget cuts and all that shit.”
    “Yeah, that’s what everyone seems to be fighting.”
    “God, it’s getting worse than dealing with the bad guys. So you work with some guy named Manning up there?”
    “Yeah,” I said, immediately getting cautious, sensing I was being pushed out onto thin ice.
    “That guy as big a jerk as he sounds like on the phone ?”
    “No, bigger.”
    “Figures, some things never change. Look, go t a few hundred irons in the fir e just a little hotter than this. I run into anything I’ll let you know, okay.”
    “Appreciate your time.”
    An afternoon wasted.

Chapter Fifteen
    I was sitting in The Spot when my phone rang. I had stopped in to check for messages and nurse a Leinenkugel befor e I went home .
    “Haskell Investigations.”
    I had to step out the side door to hear as I answered my cell , th e juke box was blaring Bob Sege r singing about Old Time Rock and Roll.
    “Detective Dev Haskell? ” the voice asked, not sounding too sure.
    “That’s me,” trying not to sound too cautious.
    “ King Quinn , Denver . We spoke earlier . This your office phone?”
    “No, my cell, I’m out at a crime scene right now.”
    “Crime scene,” he said , not sounding too convinced.
    “Did you find anything for me?”
    “No, meaning yes. Nothing turned up in a DNA ma tch, either someone’s not in the CODIS data base or, well that’s just it, they’re not in the data base.”
    “Meaning?”
    “Meaning whoever is missing that finger, they most likely aren’t or weren’t a sex offender o r convicted of a violent felony in the past umpteen years.”
    “Back to square one.”
    “Yeah, I can tell you this much, finger was from a Caucasian male. Aged between twenty-five and forty, and one other thing.”
    “What’s that?”
    “It was frozen, the finger. ”
    “Frozen?”
    “Yeah, not when we recovered it, but it had been frozen.”
    “What sense does that make? Why?”
    “ M aybe this guy has a stash of them, on ice. Whe n he needs one he grabs it out of the freezer and mails it off.”
    “Or tapes it to the door of a bus,” I added.
    “That too, ” he said.
    “Of course, that still suggests someone who has access to them, the fingers.”
    “Maybe a hospital worker, morgue, undertaker, someone along those lines.”
    “ Yeah, maybe. Detective, thanks for the effort and the call back. You come across anything else please let me know.”
    “Sure thing, Detective.” He said the last word like he wasn’t quite sure but played the party line just in case. “Give my best to all those English girls.”
    “I will.”
    “And Detective Manning.”
    “I will.”
    “Just kidding, don’t, ” he said and hung up.
    Actually, t he smart thing to do would be to call Manning in homicide, give him the information I’d just received and let him follow it up . Instead , I called the guy in St. Louis with a lisp, Sexton. He didn’t speak too kindly about Manning and I hoped to maybe use that to my advantage. I left a message.
    Next I phoned Jimmy McNaughton, just to touch base. I treaded