The Thieves of Heaven by Richard Doetsch

Author:Richard Doetsch
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: 小说, Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9780440242888
Publisher: Dell
Published: 2001-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

“Nobody ever said anything about freezing to death,” Jane Arlidge grumbled as she briskly rubbed her hands together for warmth. No one told her she would need a sweater in late June. You’d think when they issued her her uniform blues last week they would have at least given her a sweater.

“Fifty-two degrees, fifty-two ice-cube, snowflake degrees.” The, perky young police officer sat before a host of monitors—there must have been thirty in all. Each one meticulously labeled with a vellum floor plan overlaying each screen, a little green blip moving about. A name, ID number, and status line appeared at the bottom of each. Jane Arlidge came to the police force straight from the academy, choosing to dive right into her career, unlike the other graduates who headed off for a week of celebration before their crime-fighting careers began.

She sat in a large windowless room. Along the back wall rose an array of computer mainframes. Wires ran haphazardly about the floor while the terminal lights blipped green, blue, and red. Only one desk approaching any level of comfort was available, its high-backed leather chair—occupied by Jane, now feeling frozen solid—vastly superior to the cold metal stools at the computer workstations. The computer room of the Byram Hills Police Station was not only cold in appearance but just plain cold. Fifty-two-degrees cold as prescribed by the mainframe manufacturer and the police IT department. The lucky rookie who drew monitoring duty inevitably ended up with a hell of a head cold that would last right through the dog days of summer.

The monitors Jane stared at were each assigned to a felon awaiting a court date, a prison cell, or the end of a sentence. Those granted house arrest with the sexy ankle bracelet were the lowest of the low-risk. These were the ones who knew remorse, who knew contrition; the chance of their running was slim to none. Hell, the bracelet really wasn’t necessary; it was just a constant reminder that they were being watched. Jane knew this and so her diligence wasn’t acute. The rookie had brought a couple of books as her predecessor recommended—he’d forgotten to mention to bring lots of sweaters—but was ignoring them in favor of today’s crossword puzzle.

She nearly fell backward in her chair when the alarm went off. A shrill cutting tone from monitor twenty-seven. Its little green blip had vanished. “No, no, no, no, no, no. Shit!” Reaching for the phone, she knocked her books and the newspaper to the floor, but before she could even dial, the blip came back as if it was there all along.

She dialed anyway.

The phone rang. “Hello?”

“Mr. St. Pierre?” she asked frantically, a quiver in her voice.

“Yes?”

Jane’s brain was still reeling from the adrenaline rush. Was it some computer glitch? Had she made a mistake on her first day? “BHPD Tracking and Monitoring. We seemed to have had a momentary loss of transmission.”

“Sorry. I went downstairs to get my mail.”

She exhaled in relief. “Probably lost transmission in the elevator,” she reasoned.

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