Rhymes With Prey by Jeffery Deaver Read Free Book Online

wall—”
    â€œThey are,” Lincoln said.
    â€œThen we’re dealing with a lot more than four dead. Even if we don’t have what we need for a search warrant, we need to go in there anyway.”
    Lily shook her head. “We need a warrant.”
    Lucas turned to Lincoln. “Help me out here.”
    Lincoln said, “We took samples from the poured concrete steps outside the building, for which we didn’t need a search warrant, and we found that the concrete matched the flecks of concrete in the victims’ backs. We also found flecks of bronze which are chemically identical to the bronze found in the victims’ backs.”
    â€œBut—” Amelia said.
    Lincoln raised his hand. “Quiet.”
    â€œThat’s certainly enough for a warrant,” Lily said. “At least, if I go to the right judge, and I will. If you’ll write out the specs for the application, I can have it in an hour.”
    â€œI’ll do that,” Lincoln said. And to Lucas: “If you’ll go back to the building with a couple of collection pads, get those samples for me. Backdate them to this morning. There may not be any bronze, but we’ve got a fair collection of it now. Take a few flecks with you. You know. Just in case.”
    They all looked round at each other, then Lucas said, “At least a dozen trophies.”
    â€œAfter you make the collection, just wait there,” Lily said. “I won’t be long behind you.”
    â€œI’ll go with Lucas,” Amelia said. “If we need to block the back of the building, or he needs backup while we’re there.”
    â€œYou might want to bring an entry team,” Lucas said to Lily.
    â€œEntry team? I’m bringing everybody. I’ll make a courtesy call to the FBI, they’ll want to have an observer.”
    â€œI’ll be there,” Lincoln said. “I don’t want your entry team trashing my evidence.”
    They took Amelia’s car, a maroon 1970 Ford Torino Cobra, heir to the Fairlane, kicking out nifty 405 horsepower, with 447 pounds of torque. They made the twenty-minute trip in twelve minutes. Eight minutes out, she looked at Lucas and said, “You’re not holding on to anything.”
    â€œYou know what you’re doing,” he said. “You’re almost as good as I am.”
    She snorted: “What do you drive?”
    â€œA 911.”
    â€œI always heard”—she paused in her comment to chop the nose off a town car as she took a left turn—“that 911 drivers—”
    â€œHave small penises. I know. Every time I meet somebody who can’t afford a 911, I get the ‘small penis’ line. So I ask them how large a sample they’ve looked at.”
    She grinned as she said, “I’ll tell you what, though: in a fair run, I’d eat your 911 alive.”
    â€œI don’t like the word ‘fair,’ ” Lucas replied. “ ‘Fair’ always means, ‘to my advantage.’ If it’s not to my advantage, it’s ‘unfair.’ If you guys ever get to Minneapolis, bring your car. I’ve got a runjust across the border, in Wisconsin. Narrow blacktop, blind hills, twenty miles long, maybe two hundred braking curves.”
    â€œThat’s not fair,” she said, but she grinned again, and threw the Cobra down an alley, the walls whipping by, two feet away on each side, six inches from Lucas’s window when she dodged a trash can. Lucas yawned and said, “Wake me up when we get there.”
    He tilted back in his seat and then said, “By the way, I’m one of the best action shooters around.”
    Amelia dropped off Lucas, who was dressed in jeans, a polo shirt, and running shoes, at Verlaine’s apartment. He was carrying a backpack loaned to him by Amelia. There were four men on the long block, two on each side, each one by himself.
    Amelia was headed around the