The Dolomite Solution by Trevor Scott Read Free Book Online Page A

alley.”
    Jake couldn’t help smiling at this man who thought he owned the place. “I was here. That’s true. But I didn’t shoot anyone. I want to know why you hit me with that pipe.”
    The man looked genuinely confused. “I didn’t hit you.”
    â€œYou didn’t follow me down the alley?”
    He shook his head.
    Jake pondered this. It made more sense that he couldn’t have let this monster come up behind him. The only other explanation would be someone coming from the shadows in the other direction, the way he had just come down the alley. Considering how he had felt last night, he could have given away that angle. “Did you see anyone else with me in the alley?” Jake asked the man.
    â€œJust the polizei after I called them. I stayed inside like you said. I thought you were with polizei until I saw the mean one in charge yelling and screaming at his uniformed men. That was before they had carried you off. I watched from the dark window up there.” He pointed his thick finger toward the spot Jake had first seen the man following his two shots.
    Jake thanked the man for the info, took one last look at the scene, and then wandered back down the alley toward his car. He had to find out why someone wanted to set him up. And why the man from his past was killed in the process.
    â—
    Quinn tapped his fingers to Metallica screeching across the speakers as he watched Jake Adams cross the street and get into the old BMW. He smiled in a crooked way, like he wasn’t used to it unless someone had slipped on ice and damn near broken his back. He knew Jake would go back to the scene of the murder. He had counted on it. Adams may not have been the most predictable lot, but he was damn sure a curious bastard. Quinn was also counting on that.
    By now Jake Adams had the car started and pulled away from the curb.
    Quinn watched him until he turned down another road out of sight, and then dialed a number on his cell phone and waited for someone to pick up.
    â€œHe went back to the alley like I thought he would,” Quinn said in German, fighting with the heavy metal music.
    He waited a moment, listening carefully.
    â€œI understand,” he yelled. “But you understand that I will have a little fun in the process. Jake Adams is mine all the way. I have a feeling he’s still working for the government. Besides...he’s got it coming. I take it you’re already at the cafe? Good. I’ll be there in five minutes. Some things can’t go over cell phones.”
    â—
    Otto Bergen sat nervously at a table for four in a small Innsbruck cafe. He gazed out at the fresh snow that a man in coveralls was shoveling into the street. Bergen, dressed in an expensive gray business suit, was fifty-two and looking every bit his age with bags under his eyes, silver streaking all the wrong places, and stubby, wrinkled smokers fingers. He lit a cigarette from a gold lighter, inhaling deeply before letting out the smoke. Then he took a sip of strong coffee.
    He checked his watch. Quinn should be here by now. They had set the meeting the day before, and he had gotten a call from him on his cell phone ten minutes ago saying he’d be here in five. Deep down, he wished the man would simply go away.
    Bergen was the president of Tirol Genetics, the fastest growing biotechnology company in Austria. Some would say in all of Europe. Stock for the company had split three times in two years, and was a preferred pick for nearly every stock broker and mutual fund manager in America and Europe. All of this good fortune had made Bergen a wealthy man, beyond even his own expectations. And all of his company’s praise, or at least most of it, was due to two things. His researchers had recently found a DNA link to heart disease, and the scientists had been nominated for a Nobel Prize, based on their current genetic research in that same area. His company was prepared to join forces