Cut and Run 07 Touch & Geaux by Abigail Roux Read Free Book Online Page B

Zane had been given the chance to get their weapons before they’d been kidnapped. And it was merely luck that Zane still had his badge on him. He was surprised Ty hadn’t flashed his as well to help him calm people. Zane took a moment to glance around the bar for his partner. But Ty was gone.

    Nick knelt at the door to the tiny bathroom and peered through the crack left by the shoe wedged in it. He had no jurisdiction down here, but it was ingrained to try to preserve a crime scene and that’s what he’d done. He felt someone kneel beside him, and was surprised to find Zane instead of Ty there.
    Zane gave him a shrug. “I’ll have to do for your sidekick this time. Ty’s gone.”
    “What? Where’d he go?”
    “I have no idea. He was right beside me one second, then he was gone. He had to have slipped out before you said to block the exits. Fire hazard, by the way.”
    “The cops can arrest me when they get here,” Nick muttered.
    Zane snorted. “Is this a murder?”
    “I would say so, but I’m sure as hell not touching anything to find out. I’ll fake getting pegged for a murder all day, but I don’t want to do it in real life. You got a pen or something?”
    Zane dug around in his pockets and pulled out a Bic. Nick took it and nudged the door open wider. It was mostly out of habit and curiosity that he was looking at the scene, because the FBI didn’t have jurisdiction here, and the Boston Police Department sure as hell didn’t either.
    “Ligature marks,” he whispered to Zane. “Definitely a crime scene.”
    “What is that in her hand?” Zane asked. He glanced over his shoulder at the people around them trying to peer in.
    Nick waved for Kelly, and the man came over to usher people away. Nick smiled. Sidewinder had never been used to investigate crimes, but Nick had to give the boys credit for being able to handle crowd control. Except for Ty, who had bailed on them.
    With a bit more privacy to work with, Nick gently lifted the girl’s fingers with the tip of the pen. She was holding a small white bag in her palm. Its contents had spilled open: dried herbs of some sort. Probably drugs, but not the kind Nick usually saw at murder scenes. The fact that they were still there meant they weren’t anything to write home about. In her other hand was a small strip of paper. Nick was careful not to touch it as he pushed her fingers aside.
    Zane crowded closer to him, and Nick shifted to let him see. Zane reached his phone over the girl’s hand and snapped a picture. They could hear the sirens drawing near, so they both stood and backed away from the door. They helped Kelly keep people away from it until the police took over.
    “What’s the FBI and Boston PD doing here?” one of the officers asked Zane, his shoulders squaring like he was preparing for a fight.
    “Just on vacation,” Zane said with a sigh.
    “We didn’t touch a thing, just tried to lock it down until you got here,” Nick assured the man. “All we want to do is give our statements and move along.”
    The cop eyed him suspiciously, but he finally gave a nod and took down their accounts. Nick didn’t have to tell the others not to mention Ty being there. They all knew he’d spent a few years undercover in the city. Whatever his reasons for disappearing, they were probably good ones.
    It was nearly an hour after the discovery of the body before they were allowed to leave.
    “Least they could have done was thank us for helping,” Owen muttered as they trudged across the street into a crowd of curious onlookers.
    “We’re lucky they didn’t arrest Nick for poking the dead girl,” Digger said.
    “I didn’t poke her. Jesus.”
    “Looked like you poked her.”
    “Shut up.”
    Zane laughed ahead of them, and slowed to let Nick catch up. He glanced at Nick, smiling wryly. “I forget how much you and Ty have in common sometimes.”
    “Yeah, until O starts taking it up the ass, they’re not as alike as you think,” Owen mumbled