The Devil's Bounty by Sean Black Read Free Book Online Page A

black box the size of a pack of cigarettes. He went back into the car, pulled out his Maglite and shone it into the dark recess. Using his Gerber, he levered the box out of position, and turned it over in his hand.
    It was a Real-Time Asset GPS tracking device. They were commercially available and retailed at around five hundred bucks. He knew the price because he had recommended this very gizmo a while back to a trucking company: they had been concerned about a couple of their drivers, who were losing a lot of cargo.
    Lock guessed the device had been placed inside his car while he had been inside the house, talking to Miriam Mendez. He had suspected something was going down when he had come back out to find the pool boy replaced by the older Hispanic man. The change of personnel had jarred, and anything that jarred was worth checking out.
    He looked around the parking lot. He thought about planting the device on one of the cars with out-of-state plates, but dismissed the idea. If someone was prepared to send gang members out to kill a teenage rape victim, who was to say they wouldn’t cap a couple of hapless vacationers from Oregon? For now, the tracking device could stay put. If they wanted to know where he was, they could – for now.
    Back in his room, he put Miriam Mendez’s blank pages into Marcie Braun’s case file and texted Ty for a situation report.
    A few seconds later his cell phone chirped.
    ‘How is she?’ Lock asked.
    ‘She’s conscious but they kicked me out of the room,’ Ty said. ‘Don’t worry, I’m sitting right outside.’
    ‘You had a chance to speak to her yet?’
    ‘I tried but she wants to see you.’
    Lock glanced out of the window to the Greyhound bus terminal. ‘I have a couple of people still to talk to. The cops been back yet?’
    ‘Doctor’s holding them off. He wants her to rest some more before she talks to them.’
    ‘He tell you anything?’
    ‘Sorry, brother, I tried to ask him about her condition but I can’t fake being a relative, if you know what I mean.’
    ‘Speaking of which, any of her family show up yet?’
    ‘Her mom’s on the way. Should be here any minute,’ said Ty.
    ‘Okay, talk to her for me.’
    ‘You got it. Oh, and, Ryan, I do have one piece of news but you ain’t gonna like it.’
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘That kid you caught with the knife?’
    ‘Yeah?’ Lock asked, although he already had a pretty good idea what was coming.
    ‘She got bailed.’
    ‘She could have pulled the trigger, for all they know.’
    ‘Oh, it gets better. Want to take a wild guess at who she had representing her when she was arraigned?’
    ‘Johnnie Cochran?’
    ‘Where you been? Johnnie died back in ’oh-five, brother.’
    ‘Must have missed the obituary. So, who did she have in court?’
    ‘Junior attorney from Tony Medina’s office.’
    ‘You get their name?’
    ‘Working on it. I’ll email it.’
    Lock could add another person to the list of people he’d like to speak to. While he couldn’t imagine getting anything out of a shyster like Medina, a new attorney in his office might give something away about who was paying the legal bill for a teenage gang-banger. Of course, it could be that the gang was paying, and that she and Charlie Mendez sharing a law firm was acoincidence. But as far as Lock was concerned coincidences were up there with the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Believing in them might make you feel good, but that was about it.
    ‘So when you heading back?’ Ty asked.
    ‘Got one more call to make up here first.’
    ‘Okay, brother, but, hey?’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘Be safe.’

Fourteen
    HER NOSE BISECTED by a sliver of brass safety chain, Joe Brady’s widow, Sarah, stared at Lock through the gap between front door and frame. It was a little more than three months since her husband had been butchered in Mexico. Lock knew from bitter recent experience that the first three months after the loss of a loved one were some of the toughest.
    Your heart