Ashes to Ashes (sam 1) by Tami Hoag

Author:Tami Hoag
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Suspense
ISBN: 9780553898477
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 1996-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

THEY MADE THE rounds of the places on Lake Street where the nocturnal creatures passed the hours between dusk and dawn. Pool halls, bars, and all-night diners. A homeless shelter full of women with children. A Laundromat where a wino with a thick halo of filthy gray hair sat in one of the plastic bucket chairs and stared out the windows until the slightly more fortunate night clerk chased him back onto the street.

No one had seen Angie. Half of them barely glanced at the photograph. Kate refused to think about the lack of results. She hadn't expected results, she had expected to pass time. She couldn't decide which had to be more like penance: spending the night pounding the pavement in this rotten part of town or sitting home drinking gin until she couldn't see the bloodstains in her head anymore.

“I need a drink,” she said as they walked into a place called Eight Ball's. The interior was obscured by a fog bank of cigarette smoke. The sharp clack of billiard balls colliding was underscored by Jonny Lang's blues wailing from the juke—“Lie to Me.”

“You missed last call a while ago, gorgeous,” the bartender said. He was the size of a minivan with a shaved head and a woolly Fu-Manchu mustache. “Name's Tiny Marvin. How 'bout something strong and black like me?”

Quinn flashed his ID and a no-nonsense G-man look.

“Damnation. It's Scully and Mulder,” Tiny Marvin said, unimpressed, as he pulled a coffeepot off its warmer.

Kate planted her butt on a barstool. “Coffee's fine, thanks.”

There were maybe a dozen serious players at the pool tables. A pair of hookers served as ornamentation, looking bored and impatient at the downtime. One caught an eyeful of Quinn and nudged the other, but neither made a move to get closer.

Tiny Marvin squinted at Quinn. “Hey, man, didn't I see you on TV? For real?”

“We're looking for a girl,” Quinn said.

Kate slid the Polaroid across the bar, expecting Marvin to give it as little attention as every other bartender had. He picked it up with fingers as short and thick as Vienna sausages and squinted harder.

“Yeah, she been in here.”

Kate sat up straighter. “Tonight?”

“Naw, Sunday night, around ten-thirty, eleven. Came in to warm up, she said. Jailbait. I chased her skinny white ass outta here. I mean, consenting adults is one thing, man—you know what I mean? That child's trouble. I don't want no part of that shit.”

“Did she leave with anybody?” Quinn asked.

“Not from here she didn't. She went back on the street and walked up and down for a while. Then I start feeling bad—like, what if she was my niece or something, and I found out some hard-ass threw her out on the street? Man, I'd bust his hard ass. So I go to tell her she can have a cup of coffee if she wants, but she's got a ride and they're going down the road.”

“What kind of car?” Kate asked.

“Some kind of truck.”

Her heart started to beat a little harder, and she looked to Quinn, but his attention was still on Tiny Marvin.

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