Birds of Prey: A Novel of Suspense by J. A. Jance

Author:J. A. Jance [Jance, J. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780380974078
Amazon: 038097407X
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: 2001-02-20T05:00:00+00:00

14

AFTER SOMETHING LIKE THAT happens, people go into a form of shock. They talk in hushed tones. They compare what they saw or thought they saw and try to make sense of what has happened. Marc Alley went back to his own car. Lucy was protected by my grandmother and the Wakefield “girls.” Lars, standing alone out on the observation platform, was the one I worried about.

“I should have caught him,” he said. “When I was younger it was nothing to grab a two-hundred-pound halibut and heave him into a boat single-handed. If I could have caught his arm instead of his coat . . .” He sighed.

“You did what you could,” I told him. “And the thing is, if you had caught his arm, there’s a good chance he would have pulled you off the train right along with him.”

“I almost wish he had,” Lars said hopelessly.

I wanted to console him, wanted to make him feel better. “You know more than anybody what he and Lucy were going through. Don’t you think he’s better off?”

Lars closed his eyes and shook his head. “That’s not for you or me to say, Beau,” he said. That comment was the nearest thing to a rebuke I ever had from Lars Jenssen, and I knew I deserved it.

“You’re right,” I said. “Sorry.”

We stayed on a siding at the top of White Pass long enough for the Search and Rescue helicopter to arrive, then the train headed back down the mountain. Two hours later and only halfway back to Skagway, the train pulled over and stopped. Moments later a pair of Alaska state troopers came aboard.

Detectives Sonny Liebowitz and Jake Ripley were an unlikely-looking and-sounding pair of partners. Sonny was short and wide and sounded as if he had just stepped off the El in downtown Chicago. Jake, on the other hand, was tall and scrawny. He looked like an American Indian, but he spoke with a distinctly Southern drawl. It might have been interesting to have an opportunity to chew the fat with them and find out just how it was that both of them had ended up in Alaska, but by then it was almost three and my mostly geriatric fellow passengers were growing restless and cranky.

These were folks accustomed to three square meals a day plus occasional snacks. By three o’clock in the afternoon, even those who had partaken of Beverly’s picnic-style “forenoon coffee” were famished and more than ready to be back on board the Starfire Breeze. They weren’t at all happy with the prospect of further delays. I heard grumbling as soon as Detectives Liebowitz and Ripley announced that no one would be allowed to disembark until after they had completed their interviews. As a fellow detective, I applauded any plan that included interviewing all the passengers on board the train, since Mike Conyers’ killer was bound to be among them. As primary caretaker of a covey of aging passengers who had missed lunch and were in danger of

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.