Read Online A Winter Kill by Vicki Delany - Free Book Online

road. He wanted it to look like she’d been out for a walk and got picked up by some guy. Anyone going for a walk that night would have dressed very warmly, but Maureen wasn’t wearing her gloves. He tried to make it look like a rape and started taking her pants off. A car came along and frightened him off.”
    â€œNo,” I said. “He wasn’t trying to make it look like rape. More like a casual screw in the backseat of a car. One last chance to make Jason believe Maureen was a slut.”
    â€œYou’re probably right about that.” He drank his coffee and took a bite out of an apple Danish.
    â€œWhat’s so sad,” I said, “is that Brian Fitzpatrick was right all along.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œJason wanted to study for a law degree. He’d come home after class to a screaming baby. And its sixteen-year-old mother. Tired and lonely. Angry because she wasn’t having fun like other girls her age.”
    â€œWhat do you think they should have done?”
    I shook my head. “Jason and Maureen had nothing but bad choices. It’s a tragedy all around.”
    I got up and went to stand at the window. The roofs of the houses were piled with snow. Smoke rose from chimneys. The snowplow pushed its way up the street. I heard a siren getting closer. An OPP cruiser sped by. Its lights were flashing.
    I went back to the table and finished my muffin.

The following is an excerpt from Orchestrated Murder, an exciting Rapid Reads novel by Rick Blechta.
    978-1-55469-885-1   $9.95 pb
    Something is terribly wrong at Symphony Hall. Luigi Spadafini, the symphony’s star conductor, has been murdered. With the mayor and several big shots from the symphony’s board of directors demanding a speedy resolution of the crisis, Detective Lieutenant Pratt faces a seemingly endless list of suspects with good reasons to want the egotistical, philandering Spadafini dead. But surely they didn’t all kill him! Or did they?

CHAPTER ONE
    P ratt felt like pounding his head on his desk. Why couldn’t McDonnell just leave him alone today?
    He felt every one of his fifty-four years as he walked past all the empty desks to the office of the man who ran the Homicide Division. His desk was as far away from the office as he could get it.
    â€œWhat can I do for you?” Pratt asked.
    Captain McDonnell looked up from the papers on his desk. “There’s a problem at Symphony Hall. A big problem.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI’ve just had a call from upstairs. Appears someone’s murdered the damn conductor.”
    â€œLuigi Spadafini?”
    â€œYes—if he’s the conductor. I thought it would be right up your alley. You like this kind of music so much.”
    â€œThanks,” Pratt answered glumly.
    What he wanted at the moment was a good nap, not another job. The previous night he’d been wrapping up a tricky case and got exactly three hours’ sleep on a sofa in an empty office he’d found. He had the stiff neck to prove it too.
    â€œThe chief wants you to tread lightly. That’s the other reason I’m sending you. You know how to act around the symphony set.”
    â€œAnything else?”
    McDonnell shook his head. “Nope. Just hustle down there. Once the press gets hold of the news, all hell’s going to break loose.” As Pratt turned to go, his boss added, “Take Ellis with you. Show him the ropes. This promises to be a little out of the ordinary.”
    Just great. Saddled with the greenest member of the squad. Pratt didn’t even know the kid’s first name and didn’t care to. Hopefully the young pup wouldn’t screw anything up.
    As he went back to his desk, the captain called, “Good job last night, Pratt. You did us proud.”
    Pratt bit his tongue. Then why not let someone else handle this job and let him go home?
    Pratt let Ellis drive across town to the city’s