Read Online Ask Not For Whom The Panther Prowls by Astor James Monroe - Free Book Online

you're a detective
aren't you?”
    “ Yes.”
    He held out
a small airgun dart, the kind you can buy by the thousand online,
if your local Walmart doesn't stock them.
    “ What's
this?”
    “ It hit
mommy, there was a car, a blue car. It came from that, then it
drove off.”
    I put the dart into a small plastic bag and
handed it to Reggie. “Detective Morrison, Alvin, will be up here in
a few minutes. Make sure he gets this. Danny, will you tell him
what you told me?”
    “ Yes.”
    Reggie asked
me, “Will, what are you going to do?”
    “ I'm going
to take a look at Laura. If they'll let me I'll leave these flowers
in her room.”
    He
suggested, “Write her a note, too. If she recovers, she can read
it.”
    “ I will.
Danny will you be OK for a few minutes?”
    I sat in the
hall, watching her from a distance. It was as close as the staff
would let me come to her. The respirator chugged through the
evening, complemented by the ping of the heart monitor. Laura lay
there, motionless. There was so much I wanted to say, and now there
might not be a chance. It depended on whether her body could
degrade the toxin quickly enough to clear it before the damage was
more permanent.
     

1 2. Language Arts.
    Morrison
called me early in the morning. “Want to do it, come with us? I've
got the warrant.”
    Careful
police work following up the papers and other evidence left in Li
Chen's room had uncovered the connection between him and a
professor in the ESL department. Alvin thought it would be a good
idea if I accompanied his men on the arrest.
    “ Let's do
it. Meet you in Woodruff park?”
    “ Starbucks.”
    “ Good.”
    We met in
the Starbucks by the acute corner of Woodruff park across the
street from Aderhold building. There wasn't a lot to discuss, but a
little planning would go a long way to avoiding a complete fuck up.
The ESL department was on the 12 th floor of 34 Peachtree street. There were two fire escapes,
both locked at the bottom and a bank of elevators. Only the three
elevators on the left stopped on the 12 th floor, and if Dr. Ryan evaded us, there were only
two exits to the building. It wasn't going to be a difficult pick
up. We stationed officers on the ground floor and went
in.
    In the end it was even easier than we thought.
Morrison and I went to room 1220 and knocked on the door.
    “ Enter.”
    We opened it
and there he was. He sat calmly at his desk, and had been reading
the morning AJC.
    “ I've been
expecting you to visit me ever since Li was killed. What took you
so long to find me?”
    “ What?”
    “ Do you
think I wanted those students killed? If I committed any crimes it
was in China and India. Neither place is well known for their
worrying too much about academic honesty.”
    “ What do you
mean?”
    Morrison
stopped me. “Dr. Ryan you know that whatever you say can be used in
evidence, and that you can have a lawyer? You don't need to tell us
anything.”
    “ Yes, yes.
You've given me my Miranda warning. I don't care. I suppose Uncle
Sam could be worried about tax evasion on my hundred thou or so,
but I'll just pay what I missed with interest and the IRS won't
care.”
    “ But?” This
was not at all what I expected.
    “ Look Will,
I know that your son, Laura's son liked Jane. So did I. What did it
matter if some chink thought she was hot? I'll dance at their
wedding if it comes to it. If I'm still free invite me, or see if I
can get some leave from prison.”
    Morrison
stepped forward with his cuffs. “Dr. Ryan, I'm afraid I have to
arrest you.”
    “ If you
must. You don't need the cuffs, I'll come. It's a relief that this
is over.”
    I stopped them, “Before we go what was it about
Li?”
    “ How do you
think I arranged the virtual tunnel? I can't even reliably turn on
my PC. I was over there recruiting for GSU when we talked. He found
a channel in the dark net that was used for voice and image data.
He and his buddies in Falun Gong or some damn church or another
were using it to