Kansas City Cover-Up by Julie Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

simply traveling the same route that she was. Stranger things had happened.
    With a little rational thought, Olivia had her emotional armor firmly back in place as she pulled into the KCPD parking garage. She locked up her SUV and headed down the stairs, joining the migration of personnel reporting in for morning duty.
    The sun in the east was warm, peeking between the tall buildings of downtown Kansas City. The newly planted dogwood trees in front of the limestone building that served as both Fourth Precinct and administrative headquarters were budding out. Her tummy was full of Grandpa Seamus’s good cooking. Her dad had tolerated her questions about Dani Reese’s murder—even though any mention of Gabe Knight still seemed to get him hot under the collar. The irksome conflicts that had messed up yesterday for her were just that—yesterday’s business. She was nothing if not resilient. Feeling stronger and smarter and more sure of herself this morning, Olivia looked forward to seeing friends and getting some solid investigative work done.
    The building’s public facade was feeling more familiar, too, with several months of construction and reinstallation and upgrades to the security system finally complete. The entryway at the top of the gray granite steps had been rebuilt after a tornado the previous summer had toppled stately pine trees and tossed a vehicle through the front doors. There were new benches out front, new shine to the steel framing the double doors, manufacturer stickers still stuck to the glass that had recently been replaced. But despite the torn-up landscaping, shattered windows and damaged antennae and satellite dishes on the roof that had been repaired or replaced, the concrete-and-steel heart of the ninety-year-old building remained intact.
    Olivia wished the officer she’d been chatting with a good day and took a detour to one of the benches. Another departmental fixture that hadn’t changed much was Max Krolikowski. Olivia grinned at the burly blond detective in the black leather blazer reclining against the back of the bench, with one foot propped up on the opposite knee and a Churchill-style cigar pinched between his lips. The uniform had changed as he’d moved from assignment to assignment, but now that the two were both working in the cold case unit, she’d learned that the former army sergeant wasn’t as antisocial and bad for the department’s public image as he’d like most people to believe.
    He muttered a curse that made her smile when he saw her approach, sat up straight and pulled the flattened tip of the cigar from his mouth. “Here it comes,” he growled.
    Olivia sat on the bench beside him. “I thought you gave up smoking.”
    Although he wasn’t any older than her brother Duff, Max had his grumpy-old-man shtick down to an art form. “Do you see a match or lighter on me?”
    “Well, I can’t imagine eating that stogie is any better for you.” She eyed the trash can beside him. “Why don’t you just throw it away?”
    “Mind your own business, Liv.” He flicked the cigar into the trash, then pulled two more wrapped smokes from his chest pocket to show her how ornery he could be. “I’m not one of your brothers. You don’t have to take care of me.”
    Uh-huh. That’s why there was a stain from breakfast, or maybe even last night’s dinner, peeking from behind the badge hanging at the front of his shirt.
    Olivia checked her watch and stood. “You know I only nag because I care about you.”
    “Bite me.”
    Olivia laughed. “Come on. Roll call is about to start. Then we have our briefing with Lieutenant Rafferty-Taylor. I’ve got a six-year-old murder case I want to take another look at.”
    He tucked the cigars inside the front of his jacket and dropped his work-booted foot to the pavement. “Sounds like reason enough to start my day.”
    A shadow fell over Olivia and she shivered. But that rush of anticipation at the idea of butting heads with Gabriel