The Bloody Mary Diet: The Detective Adele Series Book 1 by Caroline Stuchlik Read Free Book Online

enough to shake my hand and that gives me all I need.  He is an asshole but he is not our guy.  He does not feel anything close to guilt.  Just bitterness and a healthy dose of self loathing but nothing to indicate serial killer. Not by a long shot.  I smile and walk away just because I don’t feel like being polite to Dr. Yucky.
    And now there is one.   Lawrence McNeal, PhD. Biology. He is in the large corner office, how very prestigious.  I walk to the end of the hall and find his office dark and the door locked.  It is just after 4pm.  As I turn away I see a woman walking into the office next to him. She seems friendly enough and I brave a question.
    “I am sorry to bother you but do you have any idea when Dr. McNeal might be in his office?”
    She looks at the closed door to the dark room and shrugs.  “Your guess is as good as mine but I wouldn’t wait.  He is not teaching this semester and he is not here on a regular basis. I saw him yesterday so today is out of the question. He never bothers with two days in a row.  Tenure is a bitch.  If you really need to reach him he lives just across from campus.”
    I thank her and hurry off.  Back down the stairs and right before I go back out into the cold wet I look up Dr. McNeal’s home address on my phone.  She was right.  It is across the street.  As in I walk out the door and I am looking at it. I am also looking at the fashion tragedy that I passed earlier.  Still standing in exactly the same place.  I don’t think she has moved so much as a finger since I went inside thirty minutes ago. I am staring at her and she lowers her head and looks at me above the dark glasses.  Her retina’s look milky white even from here. Her eyes look just like the ones in the coroner’s photos. Fuck.
    In addition to being a fashion tragedy she is completely not there.  Not even a little.  She raises her head and smiles at me.  Or what I assume she means to be a smile. It seems very forced and shows way too many teeth.  I walk past her and give her plenty of room.  She doesn’t even turn her head to watch me.  When I look back she is still standing there looking at the building.  The second floor corner office if I am not mista ken and I am not. I have my guy.
    I just have to prove it.
    I cross the street to Dr. McNeal’s house and it is for sale.  It looks abandoned.  The yard is overgrown and there are at least fifteen newspapers in the yard.  It probably hasn’t been painted for twenty years. A realtor’s lock box hangs on the front door handle.  Good luck with that.
    I walk around to the side and the gate is standing open. I don’t even think about it I just walk though and into the back yard.  The overwhelming feeling of dread hits me as soon as I pass the gate.  Something is wrong here.  Very, very wrong.  Everything in this yard is dead.  Even the evergreens.  But it is more than that, the whole place reeks of evil.  I can’t stay here much longer.
    As I am turning to leave the panic is building in my chest and I am starting to feel sick and at just the right moment my cell phone rings. Holly shit!!! I have got to turn that down and figure out how to change my ring tone. “Crazy Frog” was a bad choice. I grab it as I walk out and it is Trevor.  He is waiting out front.  I ask him how he found me and he says that he looked through the auto redial on my phone and the science building was the first one. He is looking towards campus when I walk out and the girl is still there. Only now she is starting to cross the street straight for me.  She stops about a foot away and says, “Smart little witch.”
    I think she would have said more but then the smell hits me and I step back. Right into Trevor. She is rancid. He is glaring at her and she seems to crumble under his stare. She shuffles away talking to herself and does not look back. Holly shit.  I think we just met vic 5.
    Trevo r opens the door and I get in. He says we are going on