The Outsider by Chris Culver

Author:Chris Culver [Culver, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9781455526000
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2013-05-28T14:00:00+00:00

12

It was a few minutes after noon by the time he made it outside, and his eyelids were starting to droop. On most days, a walk outside would have revived him, but after his evening the night before, he wanted something a bit stronger. He walked to a coffee shop near Monument Circle and ordered four shots of espresso and enough steamed milk to fill the largest to-go cup they had. The resulting drink wasn’t quite as strong as Hannah’s coffee, but it was a close approximation. Ash took the drink outside and sat at a cast-iron table on the sidewalk to think.

Bells from a nearby church rang, and well-dressed people milled about on the sidewalk. Christ’s Church Cathedral must have just let out. Ash smiled at the churchgoers who acknowledged his presence but he ignored the rest, letting his mind wander. Every thought he had kept drifting back to one conclusion: Northeastern police officers murdered Carl Gillespie and Cassandra Johnson because they discovered something about the Thomas Rahal trial.

The theory fit the evidence, and yet it didn’t make sense. Thomas Rahal shot and killed a Northeastern police officer in front of half a dozen witnesses. The arresting officers found a literal smoking gun in his hand. There was nothing for Gillespie or Cassandra to find. Ash sat thinking long enough for his coffee to grow cold and bitter. He choked it down before standing and heading toward his office. Susan Mercer wouldn’t like it, but they needed to talk. On a normal Sunday, she’d be at home. This close to trial, she’d be preparing for her case. She might even sleep in the office that night. Ash took the elevator to her floor and walked to her office. Her door was open, but Ash knocked on the frame anyway.

“It’s open.”

As soon as he opened the door, Susan dropped the papers she had been holding and leaned back in her chair. She crossed her arms.

“You look terrible. Why does your face look like that?”

“My father was a pious but ugly man. It’s not my fault.” Susan raised an eyebrow. Ash’s mom had done the same thing when he was a kid and made up a story in order to avoid getting in trouble. He considered telling her the truth but dismissed the idea. If he told her he had been beaten up by men he suspected were cops, she’d turn over the entire case to Internal Affairs. He wasn’t ready for that yet, not until he found out what was going on. “I fell down the stairs. What do you want me to say?”

Susan picked up her papers, shaking her head. “You hung up on me the last time we spoke on the phone.”

“Must have been a bad connection,” said Ash, speaking quickly. “Did you hear that we pulled Carl Gillespie’s body out of a canal last night?”

Susan nodded.

“Did you also hear someone broke into John Meyers’s office and stole Gillespie’s files?”

Susan laced her fingers in front of her and shifted in her seat.

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