In the Blink of An Eye by Jerry Baggett (ebook reader for surface pro TXT) 📕

girl, mooning over the high school quarterback. I can give you everything you ever wanted. All he’ll do is love you and leave you for the next woman he meets.”

Chapter 11

“Margie!” Hunt called. He passed the stolen auto report across to his associate. “Find out if this dirtbag’s still in custody. The report’s already three days old. The bastard has a lengthy record going back nine years, mostly small-time drug sales. Why’s he stealing cars? He owns a late model Honda. Also, find out where the arrest was made?”

“That cheap motel at the corner of Beach and Tyler, Seal Beach,” Dan yelled, from the desk outside. “The stolen car detail spotted the car around midnight, several days ago, and waited for the suspect to return. We believe it was used to transport a body. The lab crew found blood in the trunk, not a whole lot, but enough to warrant sending samples out for testing.”

“Good, let’s see what we can make of it. Get the results to me as soon as the report’s available. This guy will get out on bond in short order. Someone always puts up the cash for bail and we lose them. We’ll use the blood smear as leverage and squeeze this bastard. He planned on using that car again or it would have been abandoned.” Hunt stroked his chin a second or two and turned back to Margie. “You and Dan get over to the lock-up where this guy’s being held and tighten the screws on him before he gets into the wind. I have a meeting with the sheriff’s drug unit on the island. Call me if it looks like you can get something out of him.”

An hour later Hunt answered his phone. “Talk to me Margie, what’s happening?”

“Some good news and some bad news, Chief. The suspect bailed out earlier this morning with his lawyer present. The good news is, we got the report. The blood matches that of the young woman’s body found on the Catalina Island beach. Also, good news; traces of fentanyl matched that coming in from China. It was found in the carpet where the body was lying. We have a couple of addresses for the suspect. Should we run them down and pick him up again?”

“Damn right, before he disappears. We’ve got him between a rock and a hard place now. You’d better hurry. His address is on the island.”

“The sheriff’s gonna want in on this, don’t ya think?”

“Yeah, have them send a couple of guys with you.”

The small rental house was almost hidden behind an overgrown hedge. “He’s not answering the door,” Margie said. “Have the guys standing by in the rear check that door to see if it’s locked before we do a hard entrance.”

Dan said, “I’ll run around back, check it, and call you. I have a feeling about this.”

“If it’s open, don’t enter until I get there,” she said. “I agree with you on this one, Dan.”

A deputy sheriff pushed the door open wide and two more deputies stepped inside with their weapons drawn.

Margie repeated her call. “DEA, we’re coming in.”

The deputy kicked his way through scattered trash; fast food cartons, beer cans and cigarette butts, the same kind of stuff in the front living room, and on through to the small bedroom, where High-Pockets Brown lay stretched out on a stained hide-a-bed. The kind that drops out of the wall. His scarred arm reached out to an empty room. A cigarette, dangled from his deeply cracked lips, still burning. There was an empty syringe pinched between smoke-yellowed fingers.

Dan said, “A buck will get you ten that old High-Pockets added a little too much fentanyl to his heroin.”

Margie said, “Check his ears for blood. It’s too pat for an accidental OD from a professional user like this guy. He’s been on heroin for years, and knows what he’s doing.”

Dan pulled on rubber gloves and moved the head enough to see beneath the left ear. “Oh yeah, blood’s leaking out one ear. It’s soaking into the mattress beneath his head. My guess is he was dead before the icepick went in. Someone else cut his heroin for him.”

“Yeah, with a touch of fentanyl,” Margie said.

Chapter 12

Her day started off horrible and never got any better. Samantha finished off the paperwork associated with the day’s patient load and left the clinic without saying anything to Steven. Their day had never ended that way before. The two had always ended each day spending time together, fanning the dim spark that kept their relationship alive.

He’d been waiting for her in his office, ahead of normal patient hours that morning. She felt ambushed. He’d quickly locked the door and attempted to plan her life, along with his, the way he envisioned the future. She had known he was well-off for a small-town medical doctor but almost fell over when he started going over his investments and real estate holdings. Even an island home in the Caribbean. She supposed he thought that would make a difference. She lost her temper when he accused her of being unfaithful and sleeping with the naval officer. From that point on, their contact, the rest of the day, had been strictly professional. She’d never seen that side of Steven, the petty side. She’d always considered him a brilliant professional, with only a few ego problems.

She and Steven sometimes met for happy hour at Fran’s Over the Water. Tonight, she planned on cooling her jets at King Neptune’s Bar and Seafood restaurant, where she often mingled with her local friends. She usually stayed longer there, without Steven. Occasionally, she had a beer and a burger for her dinner. Still, she rarely made it in time for the half-price drinks. Tonight, she hoped an extra glass of wine would take some of the sting out of her day.

Her conscious mind