Homicide for the Holidays by Dianna Catt & Marianne Halbert

Author:Dianna Catt & Marianne Halbert [Catt, Dianna & Halbert, Marianne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781681571294
Publisher: Blue River Press
Published: 2018-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Killer Christmas

By Janet Williams

An out-of-key Jingle Bells ringtone jolted me out of a deep sleep and I flailed as I grabbed my phone from the nightstand. “Jake” flashed on the screen in my darkened room.

“What the hell, Jake,” I sputtered.

“Oh Annie, is it really you?” The voice was ragged and frantic, not sounding at all like my cool, always-in-command partner.

“Jake? What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked, anxiety rising as I struggled to sit upright.

“You’ve got to come down to the coroner’s office now and see this.”

“See what? What’s going on?”

“Just come. Doc and I will meet you here.” He clicked off, leaving me to stare at my phone for a long moment, trying to understand what just happened.

Jake and I had solved a string of murders, making the department and the chief look good. Really good. Our reward was two weeks off at Christmas. Didn’t we at least deserve to get through the holiday before the next big case? I checked the phone. It wasn’t even 4 a.m.

I threw on the jeans that lay crumpled on the floor and the sweater I had tossed over a chair after I got in from last night’s Christmas party. Ah, party. That’s why my head throbbed and my stomach churned. One too many glasses of holiday cheer.

After popping a couple of aspirin and brushing my teeth, I tied my straggly hair into a ponytail and left. I lived in downtown Indianapolis just a few blocks from the public safety building so I walked, hoping the brisk night air would help clear my head.

I used my ID to get through the electronic front door and made my way to the basement, home to the morgue. I pushed my way through the glass doors to see Jake in an animated discussion with Tracy Bottinger. Or Doc Tracy as we affectionately called her.

Jake’s eyes lit up as they caught mine and he rushed to me, wrapping me in a tight embrace. He pressed my face so tightly into his flabby chest that I could barely breathe but I could still catch the faint scent of cigarettes on his leather jacket. Smoking again.

“Thank God, thank God, thank God,” he gasped.

With one limp hand I patted him on the back and with the other I pulled myself from his hold.

“Jake, what’s wrong?” He was deathly pale and his eyes were puffy and red.

“See, I told you it couldn’t possibly be her,” he said, grabbing my arm and dragging me toward Doc like I was a mannequin.

“I can see that,” Doc said, a puzzled expression on her face.

I jerked my arm away from Jake. “You high or something?”

He sighed, looking from Doc and then back to me.

“You got to see this for yourself,” he said. Jake waited a second for Doc to nod her OK—this was her space, after all—and then ushered me through the thick metal doors.

I sprinted to keep up with Jake, who was a good five inches taller than me, as he loped down the corridor.

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