Top Ten by Ryne Douglas Pearson Read Free Book Online Page B

Mrs. Bryce, I’m very, very sorry. You’ll take care, right?”
    Judy nodded. “Oh. Wait. Did you bring a new bulletin for us?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “When the person from your office called and said you’d be stopping by, I thought maybe you’d be bringing a new most wanted bulletin.”
    Ariel looked over to the bulletin board. A faded spot where something had been posted showed like a sore on the nearly covered cork board.
    “Bob said he asked if you could.”
    Ariel was still staring at the bare spot.
    “Miss?”
    She turned quickly back to Judy Bryce. “Yes? No. No, I didn’t bring one. I’m...” Why would that be missing? “...sorry.”
    “Could you put in a request, or whatever, so we could get one?” Judy Bryce asked.
    Spot of blood on it, maybe, Ariel thought. Kept as evidence? Thrown away?
    “Miss?”
    She was seeing what was before her again, not the stored image of that bare spot off to the left. “I’ll request one, for you. You try and have a good day, Mrs. Bryce.”
    “I won’t,” Judy Bryce told her.
    *   *   *
    The Bureau Taurus was parked on the street half a block down Roseland Road from the Pembry Post Office. Ariel Grace sat in the passenger seat with the door open and one leg hanging out as she took the cell phone from its holder. She began to dial, then pressed the end button, shaking her head. She was calling the Atlanta field office, less the area code. Likely she would have gotten some pizza place or a confused old woman who’d curse her for not being more careful. She paused, flipped through the case notes that she’d opened atop the dash, and found something with Jaworski’s number on it. She dialed and waited through three rings.
    “Jaworski.”
    “Agent Grace, sir.”
    “What do you want, Grace?” It was five past two, but he sounded as though he’d been waked from a dead sleep.
    “There are cameras at the post office,” she said. The immediate reply she got was silence.
    “If you’re calling to tell me that there are cameras, Agent Grace, I have to tell you I’m disappointed in you.”
    Tired and testy, she thought, then remembered his appointment. The doctor had come and gone, she suspected, but left her boss with a reminder of their time together. She wondered if there was a spare wastebasket close by his desk like the one her mother had kept near the bed.
    “No, sir, I know you know about the cameras. I’m wondering about the tapes.” She could sense his head shaking during the brief pause before he spoke.
    “I’ve seen them. There’s nothing useable on them.”
    “They didn’t get it?”
    “They got it all, but they didn’t get anything clear of him. Unless you call dark clothing, dark baseball-style cap, and turned up collar, all things we knew already. We had surveillance pictures of him before, Agent Grace, or didn’t you read what I gave you?”
    It wasn’t him talking. Ariel knew that better than most, though she would have given the world not to. “At the stables, sir, yes. But I’m not thinking about seeing him. I want to see what happened in there.”
    “I have, Grace. There’s nothing useful. Trust me.”
    He was being a wall. She doubted he knew that he was. But still she had to get through. “I would really appreciate it, sir, if you’d let me see the tapes. I know it may be disturbing, but if I’m going to be part of your team then I need to be able to access the evidence.”
    “The tapes are in Washington, Grace,” Jaworski told her. He sounded as if he simply wanted her to go away. “The lab has them. They’re going to try for an enhancement. They won’t get it.”
    “Can I see the raw tapes, sir?”
    “They’re in D.C., I just told you.”
    Easy push. Easy push. Just like what the doctors would be doing and telling him. One more, Mr. Jaworski. One more round might just do it. Might just get this sucker.
    “The lab makes copies of the raw tapes, sir. They could send copies of those copies.”
    A breath hissed over