"slaughter, karin - Indelible" - читать интересную книгу автора (Slaughter Karin)

Sara vowed she would go to church next Sunday lust to thank the woman, Maria's voice was only slightly less condescending than Maggie's when she told Sara, УI'll go check-see if Chief Tolliver is available.Ф

УThank you,Ф Sara answered, promptly changing her mind about church.

УWell, uh Brad began, brushing off his hat again. УWhy don't we go on back now?Ф He opened one of the swinging doors in the counter to allow the children through, telling Sara, УMa'am,Ф giving her a polite nod before following them.

Sara walked over to the photographs on the wall, looking at all the familiar faces. Except for her time at college and working at Grady Hospital in Atlanta, Sara had always lived in Grant County. Most of the men on the wall had played poker with her father at one time or another. The rest of them had been deacons at the church when Sara was a child or had policed football games back when she was a teenager and was desperately infatuated with Steve Mann, the captain of the Chess Club. Before Sara moved away to Atlanta, Mac Anders had caught Sara and Steve making out behind the House of Chilidogs.

A few weeks later, his squad car rolled six times during a high-speed chase and Mac was dead.

Sara shuddered, a superstitious fear creeping along her skin like the legs of a spider. She moved on to the next picture, which showed the force when Jeffrey first took over the job as police chief. He had just come from Birmingham and everyone had been skeptical about the outsider, especially when he hired Lena Adams, Grant County's first fen-iale cop. Sara studied Lena in the group photograph. Her chin was tilted up in defiance and there was a glint of challenge in her eye. There were more than a dozen women patrolling now, but Lena would always be the first. The pressure must have been enormous, though Sara had never thought of Lena as a role model. As a matter of fact, there were several things about the other woman's personality that Sara found abhorrent.

УHe said come on back.Ф Marla stood at the swinging doors. УIt's sad, isn't it?Ф she asked, indicating the picture of Mac Anders.

УI was at school when it happened.Ф

УI won't even tell you what they did to that animal that chased him off the road.Ф There was a note of approval in Maria's voice.

Sara knew the suspect had been beaten so severely he'd lost an eye.

Ben Walker, the police chief at the time, was a very different cop from Jeffrey.

Maria held open the doors for her. УHe's back in interrogation doing some paperwork.Ф

УThank you,Ф Sara said, taking one more look at Mac before walking through, The station house had been built in the mid-1930's when the cities of Heartsdale, Madison, and Avondale had consolidated their police and fire service into the county. The building had been a feed store co-op, but the city bought it cheap when the last of the local farms went bust. All the character had been drained from the building during the renovation, and not much had been done to help the decor in the decades that followed. The squad room was nothing more than a long rectangle, with Jeffrey's office on one side and the bathroom on the other. Dark fake paneling still reeked of nicotine from before the county's antismoking policy. The drop ceiling looked dingy no matter how many times the inserts were replaced. The tile floor was made of asbestos and Sara always held her breath when she walked over the cracked portion by the bathroom. Even without the tile, she would have held her breath near the bathroom. Nowhere was it more evident that the Grant County police force was still predominantly male than in the squad room's unisex bathroom.

She muscled open the heavy fire door that separated the squad room from the rest of the building. A newer section had been built onto the back of the station fifteen years ago when the mayor had realized they could make some money holding prisoners for nearby overburdened counties. A thirty-cell jail block, a conference room, and the interrogation room had seemed luxurious at the time, but age had done its work and despite a recent fresh coat of paint, the newer areas looked Уjust as worn-down as the old ones.

Sara's heels clicked across the floor as she walked down the long hallway, then stopped outside the interrogation room to straighten her dress and buy herself some time. She had not been this nervous around her ex-husband in a long while, and she hoped it did not show as she entered the room.

Jeffrey sat at a long table, stacks of papers spread over the surface as he took notes on a legal pad. His coat was off, his sleeves rolled up.

He did not glance up when she came in, but he must have been watching, because when Sara started to close the door, he said, УDon't.Ф

She put her briefcase on the table and waited for him to look up.

He didn't, and she was torn between throwing her briefcase at his head and throwing herself at his feet. While these two conflicting emotions had been par for the course throughout the nearly fifteen years they had known each other, it was usually Jeffrey prostrating himself in front of Sara, not the other way around. After four years of divorce, they had finally fallen back into a relationship. Three months ago, he had asked her to marry him again, and his ego could not abide her reaction, no matter how many times she explained her reasons.

They had not seen each other outside of work since, and Sara was running out of ideas.

Withholding an exasperated sigh, she said, УJeffrey?Ф

УJust leave the report there,Ф he said, nodding toward an empty corner on the table as he underlined something on the legal pad.

УI thought you might want to go over it.Ф

УWas there anything unusual?Ф he asked, picking up another stack of papers, still not looking at her.

УI found a map in her lower bowel that leads to buried treasure.Ф