Night Shield by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online Page A

to do, she closed the door in his face.
    Hell of a face, she thought as she stumbled toward the bedroom. Face that dangerous ought to be registered as a weapon. A woman who trusted a face like that got exactly what she deserved.
    And probably enjoyed every minute of it.
    Ally stripped off her jacket, whimpering a little as she pried off her shoes. She set her alarm, then fell facedown and fully clothed on the bed. And was instantly asleep.
    *  *  *
    Four and a half hours later, she was finishing up her morning meeting in the conference room at her station house. And her fourth cup of coffee.
    “We’ll canvass the neighborhood,” Ally said. “We could get lucky. In that kind of development, people tend to look out for each other. Some sort of vehicle was necessary to get the perpetrators to the Chamberses’ and to transport at least some of the stolen goods. The sports car they boosted wouldn’t hold that much. We have a full description of the car, and the APB’s out on it.”
    Lieutenant Kiniki nodded. He was a toughly built man in his mid-forties who enjoyed the way command sat on his shoulders. “The Starfire’s a new pool for them. I want two men over there to check out the setup. Soft clothes,” he added, indicating he wanted his detectives to dress casually rather than in suit jackets. “Let’s keep it low-key.”
    “Hickman and Carson are canvassing pawnshops, pressuring known fences.” Ally glanced toward her two associates.
    “Nothing there.” Hickman lifted his hands. “Lydia and I’ve got a couple of good sources, and we’ve put the heat on. Nobody knows anything. My take is that whoever’s running this has an outside channel.”
    “Keep the heat on,” Kiniki ordered. “What about the insurance angle?”
    “It doesn’t play out,” Ally told him. “We’ve got seven hits and five different insurance companies. We’re still trying to find a connection, but so far that’s a dead end. We’ve got no common links between the victims that carry through,” she went on. “Out of the eleven we’ve got four different banks, three different brokerage houses, eleven different doctors, eleven different places of employment.”
    She rubbed the ache at the back of her neck and went down her list. “Two of the women go to thesame hair salon—different operators, different schedules. They use different cleaning services, different mechanics. Now, two of the targets used the same caterer in the last six months, and we’re running that. But it doesn’t look like a hook. The only common link so far is a night on the town.”
    “Give me the rundown on Blackhawk’s,” Kiniki ordered.
    “The place does a hell of a business,” Ally began. “Pulls in a big crowd, and the crowd varies, though it’s heavy on the upwardly mobile. Couples, singles on the prowl, groups. He’s got good security.”
    Absently Ally rubbed her eyes, then remembered herself and lowered them. “He’s got cameras, and I’m working on getting the security tapes. Sloan is the floater. He works the public areas, has access to everything. There are six tables in the bar area and thirty-two in the club. People push them together if they get friendly. There’s a coat check but not everybody bothers with it. I couldn’t count the number of handbags left on tables when the dancing started.”
    “People mill,” Lydia added. “Especially the younger customers. It’s a regular meeting ground for them, and they tend to table hop. Lots of sex vibes.” She gave Hickman a bland look when he chortled. “It’s a sexy place. People get careless when their blood’s hot. There’s a ripple when Blackhawk comes through.”
    “A ripple?” Hickman repeated. “Is that a technical term?”
    “The women watch him. They don’t watch their bags.”
    “That’s accurate.” Ally walked over to the board where the list of victims and stolen items were posted. “Every hit involved a woman. There are no single men on the list. The