01 Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly

Author:Michael Connelly [Connelly, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

22

Pierce came out of a murky dream about free-falling while blindfolded and not knowing how far it was he was falling. When he finally hit the ground he opened his eyes and Detective Renner was there with a lopsided smile on his face.

‘You.’

‘Yeah, me again. How are you feeling, Mr. Pierce?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘Looked like a bad dream you were having. You were thrashing around there quite a bit.’

‘Maybe I was dreaming about you.’

‘Who are the Wickershams?’

‘What?’

‘You said the name in your sleep. Wickershams.’

‘They’re monkeys. From the jungle. The non-believers.’

‘I don’t get it.’

‘I know. So never mind. Why are you here? What do you want? It happened — whatever happened — in Santa Monica and I already talked to them. I don’t remember what happened. I have a concussion, you know.’

Renner nodded.

‘Oh, I know all about your injuries. The nurse told me the plastic surgeon put a hundred and sixty microstitches across your nose and around that eye yesterday morning. Anyway, I’m here on Los Angeles police business. Though it’s looking more and more like maybe L.A. and Santa Monica should get together on this one.’

Pierce raised his hand and gently touched the bridge of his nose. There was no gauze. He could feel the zipper of stitches and the puffiness. He tried to remember things. The last thing he could clearly recall was the plastic surgeon hovering over him with a bright light. After that he had been in and out, floating through the darkness.

‘What time is it?’

‘Three-fifteen.’

There was bright light coming through the window shades. He knew it wasn’t the middle of the night. He also realized he was in a private room.

‘It’s Monday? No, it’s Tuesday?’

‘That’s what it said in the paper today, if you believe what you read in the paper.’

Pierce felt physically strong — he had probably been asleep for more than fifteen straight hours — but was disturbed by the lingering feeling of the dream. And by Renner’s presence.

‘What do you want?’

‘Well, first of all, let me get something out of the way. I’m going to read you your rights real quick here. That way you’re protected and so am I.’

The detective pulled the mobile food tray over the bed and placed a microrecorder down on it.

‘What do you mean, you’re protected? What do you need protection from? That’s bullshit, Renner.’

‘Not at all. I need to do it to protect the integrity of my investigation. Now I’m going to record everything from here on out.’

He pressed a button on the recorder and a red light came on. He announced his name, the time and date and the location of the interview. He identified Pierce and read him his constitutionally guaranteed rights from a little card he took from his wallet.

‘Now, do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?’

‘Heard them enough growing up.’

Renner raised an eyebrow.

‘In the movies and on TV,’ Pierce added.

‘Please answer the question and hold off on being clever if you can.’

‘Yes, I understand my rights.’

‘Good. Now is it all

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.