Karma Patrol by Kate Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

and a spare tie in the bottom drawer of his desk. This was the first time he’d pulled an all-nighter with her and hadn’t bothered to shave or change when morning rolled around. He wasn’t surprised when her next question was spoken with a tinge of concern.
    “Why don’t you go crash for a couple of hours?”
    “I’m fine,” he repeated, shaking his head. “I was just thinking.”
    He couldn’t tell her what he’d been thinking about. If anyone ever found out that grim, no-nonsense Luke Jackson had gotten sidetracked during a major investigation because he was fantasizing about a cute reporter he’d met at a crime scene, he would become the laughingstock of the entire precinct.
    “You’re working on the shooting itself, right?” she asked, and he nodded.
    “Anything to avoid dealing with the politicians,” he replied, grateful for his reputation. Being the department hard-ass made him the last person Captain Hawkes would ever pick to interact with either the Serbian Embassy or Senator Evans’ camp.
    “Want to walk me through what you have so far?” she proposed. “Maybe it’ll help you work out whatever you’re stuck on.”
    He wasn’t sure it would be helpful, but at least it would be a distraction from the memory of the blonde journalist.
    “Here,” he said, pointing to the computer monitor as he started a replay of the scenario he’d set up with the help of one of the tech guys. “The blue figure is Jared Evans, the green is Emil Stankovic, and the yellow is Rachel Smith. Using ballistics data from the bullets recovered from the scene and all three bodies, the reconstruction puts the shooter on top of this apartment building across the street.”
    Kalindi studied the screen. “Do we know how he got up there?”
    “The building has an internal stairwell and an external fire escape; he could’ve used either one. Uniforms are canvassing the apartments in the building to see if anyone saw anything, but we both know the likelihood of anyone volunteering as a witness is slim.”
    “Any security cameras in the area that might have caught him?” she asked.
    “None of the nearby buildings have video coverage. The crime scene unit came up empty on the roof, too.” He sighed, leaning back in his chair and letting his gaze travel across the room as he took in the frantic efforts of his colleagues to find a connection between the victims. “I hope we find a motive somewhere in this mess.”
    “You do?”
    “Best-case scenario, the shooter was a professional hired to kill either the senator or the Serbian national. Worst-case scenario…”
    He trailed off, and Kalindi’s clouded expression told him she’d followed his train of thought.
    “Worst-case scenario, he’s a spree killer who’s doing this to cause chaos,” she finished for him.
    Luke nodded. “If he’s a hitman and he finished the job he was hired to do, then it’s over. If he’s killing for the fun of it, he’s not going to stop until we catch him.”

    After a relatively fruitful morning spent tracking down and repairing some of the karmic paths that had been disrupted when Jared Evans was killed, Jade made her way up Restaurant Row to Shannon’s favorite sushi place. Shannon had beaten her there and was already halfway through an order of
gyoza
by the time Jade sat down across from her.
    “Thanks for waiting on me to order,” Jade said with a wry smile, reaching across the table to snag one of Shannon’s dumplings as the other woman grinned at her.
    “Thanks for noticing your soulmate
when you met him,” Shannon fired back, swatting at Jade’s fingers with her chopsticks. Unfortunately for Shannon, Jade had a younger sister and was well practiced in the art of stealing food off an unwilling participant’s plate. Shannon ended up short two more dumplings before she got smart and moved the plate out of Jade’s reach.
    “How was I supposed to know which one he was?” Jade asked reasonably. “It wasn’t like he was