The Depth of Darkness (Mitch Tanner #1) by L.T. Ryan Read Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    “I think so.”
    “We better go.”
    She scooped up both of their backpacks. It
was better for Beans not to run with any extra weight. Together,
they raced through the main entrance. Principal Bennett stood
outside the office. His perfect brown hair was perfectly brushed
back and his beard perfectly manicured. He shook his head, the hair
bounced and then settled back down, and he held out his hand in a
stop gesture.
    “Please,” Debby said. “Beans… I mean, Bernard
had a bad fall. He tripped on the pavement, then he had an asthma
attack, and no one would stop and help us. So that’s why we’re
late.”
    Principal Bennett cocked his head to the side
and leaned forward. His eyes traveled up and down and back up
Bean’s short frame. “Mr. Holland, it looks like you should head
over to the nurses’ office.” He angled his head in the other
direction a couple times. “Ms. Walker, hurry on to class now. If
your teacher has an issue with you being tardy, you tell her that
you were talking with me, and I’ll be happy to take the matter up
with her.”
    This was why Debby liked Principal Bennett.
He treated her like an adult, not a kid. He didn’t use little kid
words with her. He showed her respect.
    “Yes, sir,” they answered in chorus.
    So Beans headed left and Debby turned right.
She hurried to class. The halls were empty. Her footsteps bounced
off the walls that surrounded her. She thought she heard her name.
When she looked over her shoulder, Beans and Principal Bennett were
gone. But a man she did not recognize stood outside of an open
closet. He leaned on a broom or mop handle and watched her. She’d
heard the phrase “a chill went down my spine” spoken before. She
never knew what it meant. Until that moment.
    Room one-twenty-two couldn’t come fast
enough. She ran, holding the straps of her backpack tight. She
hoped the door would be unlocked when she arrived. If not, she was
prepared to scream as loud as she could. That turned out to be
unnecessary, though. The handle turned with no resistance. She
burst through the open doorway, and slammed the door shut behind
her.
    “Ms. Walker,” the teacher said.
    “Sorry, Ms. Suarez. I was speaking with
Principal Bennett. He said if you need to discuss my tardiness,
take it up with him.”
    “That’ll be okay, Debby. Go ahead and take
your seat.”
    She did. And she watched the window in the
middle of the door. And when the guy passed by, he stopped and made
eye contact with her. And that chill went down her spine again.

Chapter 9
    By the time we reached the house, Ella had
left for school and Mom had changed into her clothes. She insisted
that Sam come inside for a few minutes and catch her up on his
life. They hadn’t talked in about six months. Sam held back, which
was good, otherwise we’d have been there a long time. Mom had a
follow up question for every answer he gave. It got to the point
that I texted another detective and asked him to call in pretending
to be Huff just to get us out of there.
    It worked.
    We took off in Sam’s Camaro and went straight
to the station. We could pick up my police issued Chevy later that
day. The Homicide Detectives’ room wasn’t much to look at. Two sets
of four desks butted together to form two big squares. Some called
the room the Block. An old timer named Anderson who was on his way
out when I was on my way in referred to it as the Square.
    “ The only person you can trust in this
city is the guy sitting across from you, Tanner. And once he moves
on, forget about him. He won’t have your back anymore.”
    I’ll never forget his advice.
    I simply called it the office. It didn’t need
a nickname. Wasn’t like we were on some network TV show.
    Sam’s desk was across from mine. That’s how
we did it. Partner across from partner to promote discussion
amongst each other. That’d never been a problem for Sam and me.
Even when we were pissed at each other, we found a way to talk. The
benefit of being