Perilous by E. H. Reinhard Read Free Book Online Page A

he was in the wind.
    Hank walked into my office and sat across from me. “Timmons sent out two cars to look over the airport lots.”
    “Good.”
    “Did he get on his flight?”
    I shook my head. “The officer from up in Atlanta did find what could be blood in the rental car. I’m waiting on him to call back for confirmation.”
    “If he’s running, it’s going to the feds.”
    “I know.”
    “Do you want me to just take Butch tonight?”
    “Yeah, if you want to. I didn’t even think of it, but it makes sense. It will save us a trip in the morning.”
    “Karen will be excited if he’s already there when she gets home. She’s the reason we asked to watch him in the first place.”
    I furrowed my eyebrows. “I thought Karen hated cats.”
    “She does. She hates dogs too. I don’t know—she has been on some kind of maternal kick since your pregnancy news with Callie. I guess she thinks us watching your cat while you’re gone will determine if we can deal with having a baby or not.”
    “That totally makes sense.” The sarcasm in my voice was thick.
    He shrugged. “I know, but I guess it’s a woman thing. Karen and I will have to take care of something other than ourselves for a few days. If we can remember to feed Butch and not lose him, we should be ready for children.” Hank smiled.
    “Please don’t starve or lose my cat.”
    “He’ll be fine. So what kind of steaks do you—”
    My desk phone rang. I held up my hand as a gesture for Hank to wait. I picked up the phone. “Lieutenant Kane.”
    “Lieutenant, it’s Officer Pace out here in Atlanta. It’s definitely blood. Our forensics guys are going through the rest of the car now.”
    “Good. Who is the lead for the forensics unit there?”
    “Allen Manten.”
    I wrote the name down. “Can I speak with him?”
    “One second.”
    I heard talking in the background before a man came on.
    “This is Allen.”
    “Lieutenant Carl Kane from Tampa Homicide. What exactly have you found?”
    “Well, the substance on the driver’s-side carpet is blood, without a doubt. We just got done pulling fingerprints from the trim piece in front of the gauge cluster and also pulled prints from behind it. We got a wrecker coming to take the car to our lab for further testing.”
    “I’m going to have the lead from our forensics unit call you in a little bit. We’ll have to coordinate on this evidence,” I said.
    “Yeah, that’s fine. I should have the prints ready within an hour or two.”
    “Perfect.”
    I got Allen’s contact information and hung up.
    Hank’s eyes were locked on me. “Well?”
    “There’s blood present in the car, and they pulled prints from behind the plastic of the gauge cluster.”
    “Awesome.”
    “Go talk to the cap and see if that’s enough to issue a warrant on Riaola. I need to call Rick.”
    “Will do.”
    Hank walked next door to talk to Bostok. I dialed Rick and gave him the contact information for the forensic unit in Atlanta. He confirmed that he would call them right away and get back to me. I hung up.
    Jenny from the front desk knocked on my open office door. “Lieutenant Kane?”
    “Yeah, Jenny.”
    “You have a guest.”
    “Guest?”
    “He says he had an appointment with you at noon—a Charles Riaola.”
    I snapped my head back in disbelief.
    “Not expecting him?” she asked.
    “No. Um, I’ll be there in just a second. Get an officer to keep an eye on him until I get up there.”
    “Okay.” She turned and walked back toward the front.
    I couldn’t believe it. This guy was guilty, and guilty people didn’t walk into police stations to meet with homicide lieutenants. Normally. My mind immediately went back to Bob Cross trying to outsmart us by coming in. I stood and walked to the captain’s office. Hank was sitting across from him at his desk.
    “Did you just hear that?” I asked.
    They both shrugged. “Hear what?” Bostok asked.
    “Charles Riaola is at the front desk for his twelve o’clock