Read Online Color of Justice by Gary Hardwick - Free Book Online

the newest genius who’s come to take my job from me. It was his idea to vacuum all the dirt for analysis. This killer’s already a pain in my ass.”
    Danny saw her point. The killer was smart enough to know that the cops would try to get forensic evidence, so he threw dirt all around the room to make it impossible to do so. If anything was found that led to the killer, he’d say it came from the taint.
    â€œSo, how’d they get it?” Danny asked.
    â€œThey got shot,” said Fiona. “Looks like a small-caliber weapon, probably a .22. Then the sick fuck stopped the bleeding with this.” Fiona showed where the bodies had been taped up over the wounds.
    â€œWhy the hell would he do that?” Erik asked, looking at the corpses with growing interest.
    â€œThey stayed alive longer,” said Danny.
    â€œRight,” said Fiona. “A bullet tears through vessels and organs and causes bleeding. Body cavities fill up, and the victim drowns in his own fluids. It would take a while. And our boy was clean. No prints, not even foreign fibers as far as we can tell so far, but who the fuck can tell for sure in all this mess?”
    Fiona kept talking as Danny tuned her out. He wanted to look at the murder scene and try to get a notion of what had happened. Danny had learned a long time ago that all crime comes from simple human motivations, and could be solved only by the same kind of elementary logic. If youassumed too much complexity in a crime, you could miss the obvious motive.
    With this in mind, Danny looked at the faces of the victims. The killer had put gags on them, thick elastic bands with a plastic ball in the middle. But that was not what held his attention. On the sides of their faces, he saw a red mark where the gags had been, only it was wider than the band itself.
    â€œHow come these marks are so wide?” Danny asked, cutting off Fiona.
    â€œWhat?” she said.
    â€œThese marks on the sides of their faces, the gags made them, but why are they so damned wide?”
    â€œI’ll be,” said Fiona. “I didn’t notice that. I’d’ve caught it later, though, Mr. Smarty Pants. Maybe they tried to get them off.”
    â€œHow?” asked Erik, and pointed to their still bound hands.
    â€œJesus,” said Fiona. “Don’t be asking me questions, okay? I’m a scientist.”
    â€œMaybe he moved them,” said Danny. But why? he thought to himself.
    Danny and Erik left Fiona to her work, promising to call on her after she had some hard scientific data. They walked back down the plastic road to their boss, who was now alone. Jim saw them and waved them over.
    â€œWe don’t have a lot of time,” said Jim. “This thing’s gonna hit the front page tomorrow, and the high-society types will be calling city hall trying to find out why these two were killed and if theyshould mourn or hop a plane to Barbados. We get anything from Fiona and her people?”
    â€œNo, sir,” said Danny. “It’s a straight-up whodunit so far.”
    â€œAnd some sick shit,” Erik added. “This boy’s got to be a psycho.”
    â€œI’m with you,” said Jim, “and you can never predict what a sick fuck will do. Still we have to try to head this off as much as possible.”
    â€œVictims have any family?” asked Erik.
    â€œWe’re checking it,” said Jim. “Right now, I got a tip from the Deputy Chief that these two had some bad blood with some other high-enders just a few days ago. I need you two to check it out tomorrow.” Jim gave Danny and Erik the names and an address.
    â€œThey know we comin’?” Danny asked.
    â€œYes,” said Jim. “They’re not suspects, but try to get a lead out of them.” Jim walked off, pulling out his cell phone.
    â€œPolitical shit,” said Erik.
    â€œSociety shit,” Danny added. “Five or six kids get smoked