From Inside the House by WD Jackson-Smart

Author:WD Jackson-Smart [Jackson-Smart, WD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books

It was severely painful déjà-vu, but this time it wasn’t just Daniel and Charlie who felt the burn from the dressing-down. Everyone sat shell-shocked even after Hobbs had left the task force room in a rage. All that was missing was cartoon steam coming from his ears and nostrils. Daniel knew it wasn’t their fault that the policeman at the hospital had made such a stupid mistake, but Hobbs had been right: this was their case, and they needed to be on top of it.

The newspaper sat in the middle of the table. A picture of Ayane Matsuda asleep in her hospital bed filled the front page. It was all over the news and social media. Nothing made the public more interested in a serial killer case than photos of a beaten, but breathing, survivor.

Daniel knew he should say something to defuse some of the tension, but he wasn’t sure what. Amelia and Ross looked dumbfounded and Martia just seemed uncomfortable.

The heavy quiet seemed to stretch on forever until finally Charlie stood up, grabbed the paper and dropped it in the bin in the corner. ‘I can’t say we entirely deserved that, and there’s not much we can do about it now, but he’s right. We need to make some headway on this – and fast. I know everyone is working hard, but we need to crack this.’ Charlie had his hands on his hips and looked confident and encouraging.

He’d done what Daniel had not. A flash of something like jealousy streaked through Daniel before he admitted that Charlie displayed a quality that Daniel was not sure he himself possessed. Authority. He knew he had the respect of his colleagues but even now, when he’d been in his job almost a year and had worked on a number of homicides, he still felt pangs of insecurity.

The sergeants and profiler nodded, looking slightly less on edge.

‘Don’t worry, guys,’ Daniel said. ‘This wasn’t our fault. We just need to keep on working to crack the case.’ He hoped his words sounded as confident as Charlie’s.

‘I’m going to head off, if that’s okay,’ Martia said, standing and retrieving her jacket from the back of her chair. ‘I’ll pull together an update on the profiles based on what forensics threw up. Amelia, email me the narrowed-down list of Mancini associates and I’ll see if they fit who we’re looking for from a psychological perspective.’

‘Sure thing,’ Amelia said, jotting a note.

‘Thanks, Martia.’ Daniel smiled at her as she left the meeting room, no doubt relieved that she was escaping to the outside world. Daniel wished he could too. A week off, even a weekend off, would be welcome. He needed to slough off the pressure he was feeling. But he knew that now wasn’t the right time. They were hunting two serial killers, and Daniel putting his feet up and cracking open the wonderfully aged whisky his dad had given him for his birthday was not going to result in any arrests.

‘Okay, guys, walk us through what you’ve found.

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.