Dead Drop by Jack Patterson (reading cloud ebooks txt) 📕

obviously rattled the hive, and he had no doubt the queen bee would be after him soon.

***

EDDIE RAMSEY PULLED into the Seattle FC parking lot when his phone rang. It was his editor, Buckman.

“Boss, I don’t have much time. What do you need?” he said as he answered.

“I swear, Ramsey, I’m gonna string you up when you get back to the office.”

“Wha-what did I do?”

“I just got a call from Sid Westin’s widow. I can’t believe you’d threaten her like that.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow your roll, boss. I don’t know what—”

“Save it. I can’t believe you went to her house without talking to me first about it.”

“But I—”

“I’m putting Cal back on the story. Get back to the office right now.”

Ramsey ended the call and slammed his fist on the steering wheel. He seethed for a few minutes as he stared vacantly at the practice field in front of him.

Josh Moore tapped the window, snapping him out of his stupor. He motioned for Ramsey to roll down the window. Ramsey obliged.

“You gonna sit there all day or come inside and get to work?”

Ramsey sighed. “I swear if I see Cal Murphy again—”

“What’d Cal do to you this time?”

“I’m not sure, but it got me taken off this story.”

Moore chuckled. “Well, he is a resourceful guy.”

“You might find this funny, but I don’t.”

“Humor is always subjective.”

“I’m gonna go give Cal a piece of my mind. Do you know where I might find him?”

Moore glanced at his watch. “It’s almost noon, so you’ll probably find him at King’s Hardware off Ballard. It’s his favorite lunchtime spot.”

Ramsey didn’t crack his door open, instead firing up the engine and zooming out of the parking lot.

***

CAL LEANED BACK as the bartender at King’s slid a plate in front of him. The After School Special burger lay open faced while steam arose off the pile of fries. He oscillated between King’s pulled pork sandwich and this giant mass of artery-blocking pub grub. Despite his intense love for barbecue, he once deviated at King’s after one of the patrons offered to pay for his meal if he ordered the After School Special burger but didn’t like it. Cal crinkled his nose at the thought of bacon and peanut butter on a burger—that is, until he tried it.

He placed the bun on top and mashed it down, forcing juice to drip down the sides. After taking hold of the monstrous burger, he glanced at it once more and smiled before raising it toward his mouth.

But the burger never made it there.

Cal jolted forward and nearly dropped his food as he suffered a shove from behind. Carefully setting down the burger, he spun around in his seat in time to catch the brunt of a right cross to his chin. He fell off his seat and staggered toward the ground. He put his hand down and caught himself in time to look up and see another punch headed his way.

Cal jumped upright and stepped back. He put both his hands out in an attempt to calm down his assailant.

“Eddie? What’s gotten into you? I’m sure this is all just a big misunderstanding,” he said as he stared at his seething colleague.

“Misunderstanding? Is that what you call impersonating me?”

“Hey, now. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Cut the bullshit, Cal. I figured out what you did. You weren’t man enough to stand up to Buckman, so you sabotaged me to get back on the story.”

“I’m afraid you’ve got it all wrong.”

Ramsey lunged at Cal and acted as if he was going to take a swing at him before deciding otherwise. “Do I, Cal? Please tell me what I’ve got wrong.”

“I wasn’t trying to sabotage you, Ramsey. I just knew she would’ve never talked to me if I would’ve told her who I really was.”

“I hope it was worth it.”

Cal shrugged. “Perhaps. Time will tell.”

Ramsey’s eyes narrowed. “I oughta—”

“Oughta what, Ramsey? Admit to Buckman that you were the one who trashed him online last month on TheSportsReporters.com website? Tell him that it was you who called him a ‘misogynistic drunk?’”

Mouth agape, Ramsey stared at Cal.

“What? You don’t think the entire staff knows who the ‘Emerald City King’ is?”

“This is low, Cal—even for you.”

“I never intended to get you in trouble.”

“So what are you gonna do about it now?”

“I’m gonna get to the bottom of this—and apologize to Buckman later.”

“How about just tell Buckman the truth now?”

Cal sighed. “I will, if you will—a joint meeting with Buckman. I’ll tell him that I impersonated you, if you tell him that it was you who trashed him online. I know that’s one mystery he’s been dying to solve.”

Ramsey’s shoulders slumped as he looked downward. “Forget it. But you better watch yourself.”

Cal nodded and slipped back onto his seat at the bar. “Let me buy you lunch, Ramsey. And I promise to clear this all up after I finish covering this story.”

Ramsey sat down next to him. “Forget lunch. I’ll just take a drink.”

Cal motioned for the bartender to come over and asked him to put Ramsey’s drinks on his bill.

“So what’d you learn from Sid Westin’s widow?” Ramsey asked after he started nursing his scotch on the rocks.

“I don’t know what she was up to, but she definitely wasn’t an angel.”

“Sounds like someone else I know.”

“Sounds like everyone I know.”

Ramsey took another long pull on his glass. “Are you always this cynical?”

“I’m not cynical—just real. People rarely surprise me any more. And least of all, grieving widows who were just served divorce papers.”

Ramsey put down his drink hard on the bar. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. And that’s not all. Whatever she was into, it wasn’t any good. And I suspect Sid found out about it.”

“You think he threatened to rat her out and she had him killed?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me, but there are more yarns in this story to pull on first.”

CHAPTER 19

KITTRELL WHISTLED AS HE ENTERED the precinct. He felt fresh and strode into the office with a