Darkness of the Soul by Kaine Andrews Read Free Book Online

will do me fine, as well. I’m sure he’s a busy man.”
    “Hold a moment, please.”
    Sheila put the call on hold, and then her finger hovered over the transfer button. Had the captain picked it up yet? She couldn’t tell. Unlike in all the crime fiction she read—another source of departmental jabs—there hadn’t been any telltale clicks or anything to announce another listener, but there never seemed to be in this place anyway.
    Quit being a goose and do something , for God’s sake. You think you’re ever going to get away from this desk if you keep pulling shit like this?
    Once again, the internal voice was 100 percent correct, and Sheila hated it for it. But she had an idea at least. Smiling with a bit of timidity, she pressed the button to transfer the call to the captain’s phone. Let the caller think it was a mistake. Let the captain sort it out. If it was nothing, no harm, no foul. If it was something, she could reap a bit of a reward for handling it carefully. Excellent.
    Captain Morrigan, for his part, had been listening to the last part of the conversation, having come in just as Parker’s name was mentioned; when his own line lit up a second later, he nodded to himself.
    “Good girl,” he said, as he reached for the switch to pass it through his answering machine, to get a record, before picking up.
    “Parker speaking.” Morrigan wasn’t happy about impersonating another officer, but he was getting the same sense of wrongness from the voice that Sheila had. If this turned out to be a mistake, he’d just relay the damn message and apologize. His thoughts were promptly derailed, and his expression shifted from one of terse expectation to shocked surprise when the caller spoke again.
    “Come now, Captain Morrigan. May I call you Ashley, instead? Never mind. You surely didn’t think such a simple trick would get past me, did you? No wonder your boys haven’t managed to get anything right lately, with someone like you as their supervisor. Such a pity. I was hoping for better, really.”
    Stan was standing in the doorway, gaping at the captain. He’d never seen the man so much as break wind, let alone allow himself a totally unguarded expression like the one he was wearing now. For his part, Morrigan was sputtering like a fish out of water, trying to figure out just what the hell had happened, but the voice was continuing on without him, holding up his end of the conversation without needing the captain to speak.
    “I know, yes, certainly. Tell the janitor I said hello, by the by, and never worry about how I know these things. Satisfy yourself with simply knowing that I do . Now, if you will be so kind, please pass my message on to Detectives Parker and Drakanis—and none of the hogwash about him no longer being with you. You and I both know darling Vincent has drug him back in, just as we both know he’s hoping to get him back permanently. A simple courier service, I know, but in this era of trouble, it is so difficult to get people to drop off notes, wouldn’t you agree?”
    There was more of that self-satisfied laughter, and Morrigan slumped into his chair. He was feeling a sudden tightness in his chest, which was making it difficult to breathe, and pain seemed to be radiating from every nerve ending in his body, working its way inward.
    “Doesn’t that feel better, Captain? Just let it go. It will make things easier, but do remember to tell my esteemed friends that I rang. And be sure to tell them that they’d best enjoy the holiday. I don’t imagine they’ll be seeing another, and what with the anniversary to celebrate and all… well. Merry Christmas, Captain. Pass it along.”
    A click, and the line went dead. The captain was falling, all sensory information shorting out; there was just enough left in him to keep his eyes open as Sheila burst in, her mouth a shocked “O” of surprise. Stan darted for the phone. He had just enough time to see the other officers and detectives