Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais Read Free Book Online

went through his facts with the mechanical precision of a carpenter driving nails.
    â€œByrd bought the film. Byrd put the film in the camera. Byrd, using the camera, took seven photographs that could only have been taken by someone present at the time of the murders. Byrd was at one time charged in the murder of one of the women whose death shot—a photograph taken within moments of her death—has now been found in his possession. Having taken the pictures, Byrd then placed them with his own hands in this sick fucking book. Byrd then picked up a gun with his own hands, as evidenced by fingerprints found on the gun, cartridge casings, and ammunition box recovered in his home, and blew out his own fucking brains. What we have here is called a chain of reason, Cole. I know you were hoping we wouldn’t have squat, but there it is, and it is good.”
    I suddenly wanted to see Yvonne Bennett again, and flipped to the fifth picture. Yvonne Bennett stared up at me with mannequin eyes. Brain matter and pink shards of bone were visible, along with a bright ball that had apparently been placed in the wound. I didn’t remember seeing the ball in the wound when Levy showed me the coroner’s picture.
    â€œWhat’s this round thing?”
    â€œIt’s a bubble. The M.E. says air was probably forced into an artery when he beat her, then floated out when she died. It made a blood bubble.”
    I wanted to look away, but didn’t. I stared at the bubble. It had not been present in the coroner’s picture. At some point between when the two pictures were taken, it had popped. I took a deep breath and finally looked away.
    â€œDid you read the murder book on Yvonne Bennett?”
    â€œTold you, we had teams for each vic. I worked the album.”
    â€œWe had a hard time frame in which she was killed. Byrd was in Hollywood when this woman was killed. How could he be two places at once?”
    Lindo leaned back. He seemed tired and irritated, like I was too slow to keep up.
    â€œHere’s the short version—he wasn’t because he didn’t have to be.”
    â€œThis wasn’t something I made up, Lindo. Crimmens and his partner had the same window. There wasn’t enough time for Byrd to kill her in Silver Lake, then get to Hollywood.”
    Lindo closed the book. He wasn’t going to stay much longer.
    â€œCole, think about it. You got a hard edge on one side of your window when the body was discovered. The other side, you have this dude who was the last person to see her alive, what was his name, Thompson?”
    â€œTomaso.”
    â€œI’m not saying Tomaso lied, but shit happens. People get confused. If Tomaso was off on the time, your window was wrong.”
    â€œIt wasn’t just my window. Crimmens talked to him, too.”
    â€œWe know that, man. Marx put Crimmens on the task force to cover that evening. Crimmens thinks it flies. If Tomaso was off by even twenty minutes, Byrd had time to kill her and then get to your bar.”
    â€œDid Crimmens talk to Tomaso about this?”
    â€œWhat’s the boy going to say—he was sure? I don’t know if they talked to him or not, but either way it wouldn’t matter. Physical evidence trumps eyewitness testimony every time, and we have the evidence. That’s it, Cole. I have to go.”
    â€œHang on. I still have a question.”
    He glanced at the door as if the entire sixth floor of Parker Center might walk in, but he stayed in the booth.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œWhat about the suicide?”
    â€œI don’t know anything about it. I worked on the book.”
    â€œDid someone tie Byrd with the times and locations where these women were killed?”
    â€œOther people handled the timelines. All I know is the book.”
    â€œJesus Christ, didn’t you people even talk about this? When Bastilla and Crimmens came to see me, they wouldn’t even tell me these pictures