Nailed by Joseph Flynn Read Free Book Online

else?”
    “Maybe forty years ago you’d have had a chance of finding a hunter or outdoorsman in the department. Nowadays, leisure time activities for our personnel run more to mountain biking and snowboarding, depending on the season. Weightlifting and tanning are year ‘round.”
    “Anything to catch the eye of a passing producer, huh?” Ron asked.
    The sergeant just grinned.
    Ron said, “Okay. We have to report the incident to the state fish and game people, anyway. Tell them the mayor and I would appreciate it if they could send out one of their best people right away.”
    Sergeant Stanley saluted and left the chief at the doorway to the parking structure.
    Clay Steadman was going to love this, Ron thought as he got into his Explorer. A mountain lion attack on top of a crucifixion. He tried not to wonder how things could get worse. Then he snorted to himself as he nosed the patrol unit onto the street.
    One way he could have made things worse would have been to voice the idea that had immediately occurred to him back at his office. A mountain lion attack? Call Tall Elk back from vacation. Who could track a wild animal better than an Indian? Except he remembered Donald Tall Elk was only half Native American and would probably do better tracking a stock fraud than a mountain lion.
    Oh, what grief Oliver would have given Ron had he opened his mouth.
    A little more than four years ago, a lawyer Ron had hired to defend him in a wrongful death suit had described then-Lieutenant Ketchum of the LAPD as a “recovering bigot.”
    The label had shocked Ron the first time he’d heard it. Then he came to realize the characterization had a grain or two of truth to it. Possibly several grains of truth. And at moments like this, he wondered just how far his recovery had progressed. But he didn’t have time for introspection right now.
    He had to talk to the woman who was 1-0 versus a mountain lion.
     

Chapter 6
     
    Mary Kaye Mallory lay on a gurney in a curtained-off corner of the Community Hospital emergency room, clad in a hospital gown from which the sterile dressings on her legs protruded. Her ginger-colored hair stood on end as if from fright, and she had a large gauze pad taped to each of her elbows. But she hadn’t withdrawn behind a wall of shock. Her green eyes gleamed, and she was speaking to the ER physician with animation in her voice when Ron stepped into the enclosure.
    A smile lit her face when Ron first entered, and then slipped back into an grin of self-satisfaction, the corners of her mouth turning up just enough to be noticed.
    “Ms. Mallory, I’m Chief Ketchum, Goldstrike PD,” Ron said with a nod of greeting. “Sorry if I’m not who you were expecting.”
    “I just thought someone might come see me before I left,” she answered. “But I’m not sure if he even heard what happened.”
    “If there’s someone you’d like me to contact …”
    The thing was, Mary Kaye wasn’t sure if she wanted Brad or Carter to rush to her side. And how would they even know what had happened to her? And why would she want either of them to see her looking the way she did? Then it occurred to her that maybe a brush with death was something of an aphrodisiac. But she wasn’t about to say so.
    “No thank you, Chief. I’m sure you have better things to do.”
    The ever-efficient Sergeant Stanley had radioed Ron on his way to the hospital and gave him a brief sketch of Mary Kaye Mallory’s background. A millionaire businesswoman, she could have played the prima donna. But she looked like the kid sister who early on always wanted to play ball with the guys, and later on you warned your no-account buddies to stay away from if they knew what was good for them.
    Ron liked her immediately.
    “If you feel up to it, Ms. Mallory, I have a few questions.”
    The ER doc smiled and told Ron, “Oh, she’s up to it, and it’s a helluva story.” Then he excused himself.
    “I got that sonofabitch good,” Mary Kaye said