Roughed Up (Up to Trouble) by Edwards Hank

Author:Edwards, Hank [Edwards, Hank]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: LGBT, Suspense
Publisher: Loose Id LLC
Published: 2013-05-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

After filing a missing persons report with a detective named Dominik Arnott, Pearce was given a ride back to the hotel. He walked the beach and prowled through the hotel bar, looking for Mark or someone acting suspicious. All he saw, however, were drunk, happy, relaxed vacationers and the tired but alert servers who waited on them.

It was late when Pearce finally returned to the room. There was no sign that Mark had been back, and Pearce changed into black jeans and a black T-shirt. If he was going to snoop around at night, he didn’t want any ID on him. He took some of the cash out of his wallet and then put the wallet in the safe with Mark’s.

He stood by the window a moment, wishing he had his gun with him. He knew that anything could have happened to Mark—an accident along the road, robbery, or that he ran the scooter out of gas—but Pearce was more than certain Mark had gone back to the bar, and that was where he would start. With that decided, he left the room and headed for the cabstand.

He had the cabdriver drop him off down the block from the bar and walked back. It was late now, at least midnight, so the Flying Fish Eatery was closed, but the Bridgetown Bar was in full swing. Music and laughter and conversation poured through the screen door, and on the porch, two couples stood close together, making out.

Pearce made his way around the far side of the Flying Fish Eatery to the alley in the back and then moved as quietly as possible over the gravel to the back of the Bridgetown Bar. The door to the kitchen of the bar stood open to let in the cool night air, and the smell of hot grease and fried fish made his stomach rumble. He hadn’t eaten dinner, and his hunger was starting to catch up with him.

An apron of light spilled through the screen door leading into the kitchen, and Pearce moved slowly around the illuminated area, keeping his head down and scanning back and forth. He’d done this so many times for cases back home, walking the grid of a crime scene, looking for any possible evidence—bullet casings, footprints, cigarette butts. He didn’t know what, if anything, he expected to find, but he had to start somewhere.

The light from the doorway faded into darkness as it stretched toward a rusted Dumpster. As Pearce approached it, the stench of rotting food hit him like a slap in the face, and he winced. He knew he should check inside the Dumpster but hesitated. There was just enough shadow across the top of it to make him think the interior would be even darker. And he had forgotten to bring a flashlight.

Still, he had to at least lift the lid to find out what he could see inside. If Mark was in there—hurt or, well, worse—he wouldn’t forgive himself for not looking. So

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.