Steele Resolve (The Detective Jasmine Steele Series Book 1) by Kimberly Amato Read Free Book Online Page A

hair, his chest was severely damaged during a struggle. It stands to reason the assailant removed the breasts as well, but covered it up by slicing up the chest viciously.” He walks me over to the body and pulls back a sheet. From the breast area down are any number of slices and rips to tender flesh. None of them are as deep as the slices underneath the breasts, but this man suffered.
    “So, we can make an assumption that these are all connected, but without a signature or a method to their madness, we only have theories. I need something solid.”
    “There’s also some bruising here,” he points to an area above the slices by the neck. “The other victims didn’t have that.”
    “Okay, so that’s something to file in my curious memory banks.”
    “You know the more I look at the victims, the more they all look like Hadley.”
    “I don’t think blonde, blue eyes and tits are hard to find in New York. Don’t personalize it Victor.”
    “Point taken.”
    “Any ideas on a common denominator?”
    “Other than similar patterns in the cause of death, nothing yet.”
    “That’s got to be our priority.”
    Victor is always so obvious when he’s thinking something else but isn’t sharing. It’s like being a Met fan sitting in the middle of Yankee stadium. He walks over to his desk and begins organizing the files sitting there. He full well knows I’m still standing here, but like a big brother he sits and waits for me to open the door. I thought only women worked passive aggressively, but my brother, father and Victor use it perfectly.
    “I know you’re waiting for me to ask. What’s on your mind?”
    “Nothing.” He tosses one file onto a larger pile as if he doesn’t want to tell me. “There’s something going on in that brain of yours, Victor.”
    “You’re not going to want to hear it.”
    I don’t know whose worse, my ex-girlfriend or best friends who always think they know what’s best for me. Not only that but they also refuse to tell me anything because they don’t think I can handle it. I might have been through the ringer in the last few years, but the fact that I haven’t put my gun in my mouth shows I can handle a lot.
    Victor sits on the edge of his desk watching me. I know he’s waiting for me to ask again, but I’m not playing the game this time. Maybe it’s because I’m emotionally drained, but my gut tells me it’s because I really don’t want to hear it. I’ve got a file to read and a profile to create, so I’m going to walk away from this situation. I turn and head to the door.
    “Since you asked.”
    Taking a deep breath I turn to face the music. I wish it was actually music. Maybe Madonna can dance across the morgue, the dead bodies pop up and vogue. Smiling at myself, maybe Jim Morrison can sing a duet with Janis while Hendrix plays on guitar. That would make taking this lecture worth it.
    “I asked for this soon to be lecture?”
    “Your facial expressions begged me to speak,” he smiles at me as his tone drips with sarcasm.
    “Ah yes, the back of my head spoke volumes,” I counter.
    “More than you know trust me the scalp tells all,” Victor points to the head of a dead body on a slab. “You need to hear this, like it or not.”
    “Remind me to get a different, less vocal haircut and color,” I laugh at him.
    He reaches around his desk and pulls open a drawer. Slipping his hand back inside, he pulls two small glasses out and places them on the edge of an occupied slab. Without missing a beat, he reaches back into the drawer and pulls out a bottle of brandy. I watch him as he fills my glass to the top, matching his.
    “When are you going to say something?” I grab the glass and take a small sip, smoothly burns all the way down.
    “Where’s Chase?” He leans back on his desk, brandy in hand.
    “With Frankie,” I take another sip, knowing this conversation might warrant another full glass.
    “At your place?”
    “No, they’re at my mother’s,” I