Read Online Dream Walker by Shannan Sinclair - Free Book Online Page A

to offer. You could never tell what fragrance would greet you on any given day. Some days the air reeked of maple syrup. The next day the town would be drenched in a perfume of dairy farm manure. Today was a dung day and Mathis was pretty sure that initiating a chat about the nice weather on a day that God’s sneeze smelled like cow shit would not elicit a very long conversation—or a dinner date.
    Who was he kidding, anyway? He was a standard-issue copper, with a regulation, collar-length haircut, a mustache trimmed to the edge of his mouth, and a body nourished on a widower’s diet of beer, barbecue and half-off Happy Hours. What was he doing considering making small talk with a hot waitress?
    “Maybe I’ll just pay her a nice compliment,” he thought to himself as she strolled toward him, bringing him his check. He looked up at her as she approached, praying his tongue wouldn’t tie on him. Just as she arrived at his table, and as he opened his mouth to say the perfect something that was going to sweep her off her feet, his cell phone rang.
    “Are you freakin’ kidding me,” he said out loud—not the compliment he was hoping for.
    Sabine laughed. “They are annoying, little fuckers, aren’t they?”
    Mathis was stunned. She just said “fuckers.” And he may have just fallen completely in love.
    The annoying, little fucker kept ringing.
    “You gonna answer that, sweetheart? Or at least silence the damn thing?”
    “Sorry,” he stammered as he flipped the little fucker open. “Mathis.”
    “Mathis?”
    “Yeah, that’s what I said.” He rolled his eyes at Sabine, knowing she’d understand.
    She smiled and placed his check on the table. “I’ll pick this up in a bit,” she silently mouthed to him, with the most perfect lips he ever laid eyes on. Then she winked and moved on to the next table.
    Sabine was the dame who inspired the saying “I hate to see you go, but love to watch you leave.” That waitress factory had created the perfect ass on that woman. And did she just wink at him?
    The person on the phone had been talking the whole time, but Mathis, being completely distracted, had not heard a word they’d said.
    “Uh...I’m sorry. My cell cut out. Who is this?”
    “Bob, it’s Jackson. I’m calling from the A.R.C.”
    Jackson was an old department buddy and the lead investigator on the Parrish case. Mathis had trained him when he had started at the department and Jackson still liked to call Mathis up to run work issues by him and get his input from time to time. Jackson was a good cop—with good instincts and the right personality. Nothing like the F’in G’s they’d been hiring lately.
    “Yeah buddy, what’s up?”
    “Absolutely nothin’. I am pretty much just babysitting over here. We ain’t gettin’ anywhere with this kid. He is still completely doofus, repeating the same “two sticks and a bucket” punch line. The doc won’t release him—and even if he did, I don’t think we have enough to book him on yet.”
    “Then it’s probably a good thing he is so fucked up right now. It gives you a reason to hold him until the evidence is solid,” Mathis said. When young perps weren’t stable enough to be taken to Juvi, they were placed at Chrysalis’ Adolescent Resource Center for a few days, until the department could get a doctor’s clearance to book them. “Were you able to locate the mother?” Mathis asked.
    “Oh yeah, we got a hold of his mother. She was out of town on business. Of course, now she’s hysterical and isn’t worth a damn as far as information goes. He also has an older sister who’s away at college, but once Mom got a hold of her, she wasn’t good for much either. Until the GSR test comes back, or we can get him to stop babbling and answer some questions, it’s just a babysitting gig.”
    “Quite a pickle,” Mathis said.
    “Seriously. There were no other signs of a disturbance. It looks like Dad was watching a movie and the kid came in with the