Storm Prey by John Sandford Read Free Book Online

Now they're asking, 'Your hospital gets held up? Your hospital ? What's going on up there?'"
    "Hard to believe it's a doctor," Weather said.
    "Why? I've known a couple psycho doctors," Lucas said.
    Marcy nodded: "Don't even get us started on nurses." She stood up and said to Weather, "Let's get you going on that drawing. I'd like to get it on the noon news."
    As they were walking down the hall, Marcy added, "I want you guys to take it a little easy until we've got them locked up."
    "Why's that?" Lucas asked.
    Marcy said, "Well, Weather saw them--so they probably saw her."
    Lucas stopped in his tracks: "I never thought of that." He looked at Weather. "I'm so dumb. That never occurred to me."

    HONEY BEE had once been a professional hairdresser, so she offered Joe Mack a choice of styles: greaser, punk, industrial, skater, Mohawk, or military sidewall.
    "We don't want a rearrangement. We want something so different that nobody'd dream that some long-haired guy might have been him," Lyle Mack said. "Cut it all off. Right down to the scalp."
    "Ah, man ..."
    But she did it, using a couple of plastic attachments on a barber's clipper, and took his hair down to a quarter-inch, Joe Mack sitting on a toilet with a towel around his neck. That done, she lathered him up and, using a straight razor, gave him the most sensuous shave of his life, not only because he was scared of the razor, which added a certain frisson to the proceeding, but because either her left or right tit was massaging his either left or right ear, depending.
    "You think Mikey meant to kill that man?" Honey Bee asked.
    "No way," Joe Mack said. "He's just ... dumb."
    Honey Bee nodded. Mikey was dumb. And violent. Unlike Joe Mack, who was just dumb. Mikey might not have meant to kill the old man, but he probably enjoyed it. Give him a month or two, and he'd be bragging it around, just like Shooter and the black dude in California.
    When she was done with Joe Mack, he washed off his face and looked at himself in the mirror. Christ: he looked like a German butcher, big, red, wind-burned nose sticking out of a dead-white face.
    "What do you think?" Honey Bee asked.
    "Ah, man ... Not your fault, though." He rubbed his head. "Bums me out."
    She went to the back door, peered through it. Lyle Mack was in the back, moving stuff around. She turned back to Joe Mack, hooked the front of his jeans. "You could come upstairs, later, if that'd make you feel better."
    Joe Mack's eyes cut toward the door. Lyle would be really upset if he found out that Joe was screwing his girlfriend. Maybe.
    "He's way in the back," she said.
    "Yeah, but still ..."
    "I don't mean right this minute."
    "Well ..." He stepped close to her, slipped his hand up under her skirt to her underpants. She wore white cotton underpants, and for some reason, that really wound his clock. "That'd help, Honey Bee. I mean, I'd really appreciate it. I'm feeling kinda low."

    THEY BACKED away from each other when they heard Lyle Mack coming back. Lyle pushed through the swing door, took in Joe and said, "Whoa."
    Joe Mack rubbed his head again and said, "I look like I just got out of the joint. I look like they been sprayin' me down for head lice."
    "Better'n taking a fall on the old guy," Lyle Mack said. "You know, you look about ten years younger."
    "Yeah?"
    Lyle Mack turned to Honey Bee and said, "I need you to run out to Home Depot and get some stuff. I got a list."
    "I gotta get the wieners started," she said.
    "I'll get the wieners. I want you out of here," Lyle Mack said. "Like, now. Don't come back for an hour."
    She looked at him for a minute, then said, "More trouble."
    "I don't want you to know about nothing, 'cause then you can't get hurt," Lyle Mack said. He followed her around, being nice, gave her a squeeze--she was in a huff--and got her out the door and on the way.
    When she was gone, Joe Mack asked, "What was that all about?"
    "Cappy's coming over," Lyle Mack said.

    CAPRICE MARLON GARNER dreamed of flying