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

sense of purpose. After enduring weeks of ridicule—both in the press and in the office—he was ready to put it in the past by catching the gang that robbed the Puget Sound Bank. No longer would he and Quinn watch a room fall silent when they walked into it and suffer disappointing looks. They were going to be respected again and retain their position as the city’s best detective duo.

“My, aren’t we chipper this morning?” mumbled Charlotte Lawton as Kittrell walked by the reception desk. Lawton didn’t look up as she pecked away on her keyboard. Standing as the first wave of defense against any person walking into the precinct, she had developed an uncanny ability to identify every personnel in the department—sometimes without even a glance—and deliver a snarky comment on demand. Behind her back, she was simply known as “The Watchman.”

“It’s Friday, Charlotte. Shouldn’t we all be chipper?”

“Not if your suspect hung himself in custody last night,” she muttered as she continued to type.

“Wha-what on earth are you talking about?” Kittrell said as he dashed over to her desk. He leaned forward, trying to draw her full attention. “Please tell me that you’re playing a cruel joke on me.”

She finally took her fingers off the keyboard and looked up at him. “I wish I were, honey.”

He glanced behind her toward the endless rows of desks and cubicles. He locked eyes with Quinn from across the room. Quinn saw him and shook his head.

Kittrell let out a string of expletives as he stormed back toward Quinn.

“What happened last night?” Kittrell demanded.

Quinn broke into a coughing fit before he spoke. “Apparently, our good buddy Wayne Geller hung himself in his cell with his bed sheet.” He handed Kittrell a report.

Kittrell opened the report and started to peruse it. “Why wasn’t he placed on suicide watch?”

“Did you think he was a threat to kill himself after speaking with him yesterday?”

Kittrell shook his head.

“Neither did I.”

“Has anyone told Chief yet?”

Quinn forced a smile. “I thought I’d save that honor for you.” He started coughing again.

“Aren’t you a gem?” Kittrell snarled. Then he paused. “You okay?”

Quinn pounded his chest a couple of times. “I’m fine. Just the start of something.”

“Pneumonia?”

“Let’s hope not.”

In silence, the two detectives walked down the hall toward Chief Roman’s office. Kittrell tried to rehearse in his head the best way to break the news to the chief. He debated for a moment before deciding on a direct delivery.

Kittrell knocked lightly on the door that was slightly cracked.

“Come in,” Roman said.

Kittrell gently pushed it open.

Roman wore a wide grin on his face and took a sip of his coffee. He set it down on his desk and looked at the two detectives. “What happened to you two? You both look like your dog just died.”

“Close enough. Our suspect, Wayne Geller, hung himself in his cell last night,” Kittrell said as he tossed the file folder on Roman’s desk.

“How come this is the first I’m hearing of this?” he said as he started to flip through the report.

“Probably because nobody wanted to ruin your Friday,” Quinn quipped.

“It’s sufficiently ruined now,” Roman growled. “So what are we gonna do about this mess now? Our one link to the robbery is now dead.”

Kittrell shrugged. “I guess we’ll circle back with forensics and see if they’ve got anything else that could help us identify some of the other members of this crew.”

Roman slammed his fists down on the desk and started cursing. “And just after I assured the city council members that we had this all under control. Why is this world always trying to screw me over?” He looked up at the detectives. “Are we sure Geller wasn’t helped, if you know what I mean?”

“We’ll look at the report and talk to the officers who discovered him and let you know what we find.”

“Check the surveillance footage,” Roman said. “This just seems strange to me.”

“Us too, Chief,” Quinn said.

Kittrell put his knuckles down on Roman’s desk and leaned forward. “Don’t worry, Chief. This isn’t going to turn into another Arnold Grayson situation. We’ll find these guys.”

Roman took another sip of his coffee. “You better. My patience is running thin.”

CHAPTER 20

CAL LOOKED AT HIS PHONE and saw Kelly’s name pop up on the screen. He’d have to be honest with her about what had happened—and he braced for her reaction.

“You did what?!” she said. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Buckman pulled me off the case. What was I supposed to do?” he protested.

“Figure out another way—a way that didn’t involve sabotaging another reporter’s livelihood.”

“I’ll tell Buckman just as soon as I’m done covering the story.”

“And how’d you get Ramsey to go along with that?”

“Maybe I have something on him.”

“Cal! Come on now. You’re better than this. You need to fight your battles the right way.”

“I know something’s going on here, Kelly. And I know that Ramsey would never figure it out. He’s lazy.”

“What about the Seattle PD?”

“I don’t have much confidence that they’ll figure this out, either. Look, I know it seems like I’m crossing the line with some of the things I’m doing, but it’s all to find out why Sid Westin was murdered.”

“And what if he wasn’t? What if it was all just part of a robbery gone bad? What then?”

Cal sighed. “If it was only that easy. When you know, you know.”

“I’m disappointed in you, Cal. I thought you were better than this.”

“If I’m bending the rules, it’s only so the person who took Westin’s life suffers just consequences.”

“But confronting his widow and pretending to be someone else?”

“Okay, look, I’m sure I could’ve gone about it another way. But as each day goes by and his killers walk free, it makes it that much more difficult to track him down. I can’t let that happen.”

“You just better be glad I’m not there to straighten you out.”

“You’re doing just fine from where you are.”

“About that, Cal. I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to the national