The NightShade Forensic Files: Echo and Ember (Book 4) by A.J. Scudiere

Author:A.J. Scudiere [Scudiere, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781937996451
Publisher: Griffyn Ink
Published: 2017-10-24T05:00:00+00:00

ELERI WOKE to her phone ringing after just barely two and half hours of sleep. She was supposed to be afforded four. So she ignored it.

Her phone rang again. Either someone was dead or someone was dumb. Her hand slapped out at the nightstand that was always right beside the bed in these hotels. She’d slept more nights away than in any of her own beds in . . . well, since her Senior Agent in Charge Westerfield had called her at the mental hospital over a year ago and told her she was getting out, that he had a case for her.

The face of the phone was too bright to register in the near total darkness in the hotel room. The Bureau favored certain chains for lodging for their soundproofing and blackout curtains. Eleri thought about the fact that this was the first one they’d managed, since this killer seemed to favor victims in small towns. Eleri counted them lucky if there was an hourly motel nearby.

As her eyes adjusted, the horrid noise came again. The ringtone she’d once thought was sweet was going to have to be changed lest she throw the phone across the room. The blurry letters came into focus as her brain did and she scrambled to work her thumb while at the same time coming fully awake.

“Hey, baby. Good morning.” Avery’s voice came through the line, sweet despite his stupidity.

“It is neither good nor morning. Why are you calling so late?” She stuttered and corrected herself. “So early?”

“It’s seven a.m. on the west coast. Unless you’re in Hawaii, it’s morning.”

“What?” She barely got the word out before she looked at the phone again and saw that he was right. “Shit.”

“Sounds like I woke you. I’m sorry. I really thought you’d be up.”

“No, it’s okay. Normal people would be awake.” She was sitting up now, but not fully alert. This was the life she’d agreed to. Hell, it was the life she’d chased down and handcuffed and read it its Miranda Rights.

“Did you see the game last night?”

“No.” Her heart turned. She’d promised to watch. If she could. Shockingly, she hadn’t been able to. “I’m sorry. Dead body.”

It was all she could tell him and even that was probably too much.

“You get that many live bodies in your line of work?” He chuckled.

“Sure, but good point, we don’t call them ‘bodies.’” She changed the subject. “Did you win?”

“Yes.”

“That’s fantastic!” She was truly excited for them. They were in the playoffs. A first for the relatively new team.

This time it was him changing the subject. “You said normal people would be up by now. But you’re not normal, are you?”

“What?” Maybe she wasn’t as awake as she felt like she was. Her brain turned it over until it made sense. “No. I’m an agent, we work all hours and nothing is overtime. I’m sleeping because I was on site until four a.m. uncovering a body. I don’t know how to be normal.”

She was satisfied with her answer, but her senses were pinging her.

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