Read Online Final Words by Teri Thackston - Free Book Online Page A

center of the blue screen taunted him as he tried
to remember what combination of keystrokes would take him to the search option.
But memory failed him. He’d told Emma that Charlie wasn’t computer-literate but
the truth was, he was the one with the problem. During computer training
classes two years earlier, he’d been more interested in the stacked blonde
running the sessions than in learning the lessons.
    He glanced at the phone. The system administrator, Janice,
didn’t usually get into the station until nine o’clock. She was probably still
in bed. But did that matter? It had been a while but she’d never minded him
waking her before.
    Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine Janice lounging in her
king-sized bed. Instead, Emma’s face gazed up at him from those ice-blue satin
pillows in his mind, her auburn hair spilling in waves around her. The image so
startled him that his fingers twitched on the keyboard. The computer bleeped.
    “Frick,” Jason muttered and darted a glare at his partner’s
empty desk. If Charlie would just get to work and give him a hand then he
wouldn’t be thinking about big beds and blondes who turned into redheads in his
mind.
    Narrowing his eyes, he stared harder at the screen, as if
doing so would make the machine tell him the magic keystrokes. Instead, by the
time Charlie showed up five minutes later, Jason was about ready to toss the
computer out the window.
    Leaning over Jason’s shoulder, Charlie squinted at the
screen and chuckled. “The great detective.” With one finger he thumped the “Invalid
Password” message displayed on the screen. “How long have you been trying?”
    “Too long.” Jason’s jaw ached as he spoke through clenched
teeth. “If they’d let me use my birth date like I wanted—”
    “Birth dates are the first thing hackers try when they break
into computer systems. Didn’t you pay attention in the systems security class
last year? Oh, I forgot. You were too busy trying to seduce the instructor. I’ll
use mine.” Reaching around Jason, Charlie quickly typed several letters.
Seconds later a list of inquiry options appeared on the screen.
    Backing off, Charlie slid a cinnamon roll into the space
between Jason and the keyboard. “Maybe you forgot your password because you’re
busy mooning over our pretty medical examiner.”
    “I wasn’t mooning over anyone,” Jason lied, avoiding Charlie’s
gaze. “Lots of people forget their passwords.”
    As Charlie lifted another cinnamon roll out of a paper bag
on the desk, Jason could see that his partner didn’t believe him. He knew too,
that Charlie worried about him. Jason had tried not to obsess over his recent
losses. But it was tough to ignore a Fate that seemed determined to destroy
every close relationship in his life. Only his relationship with Charlie and the
man’s small family seemed immune. At least so far.
    Shaking off that disturbing thought, he grabbed the pastry. “You
got something for me besides sugar and cholesterol?”
    “I can’t give you a name but I can tell you that your hunch
was right. A man killed Ms. Campanero.”
    “Fifty-fifty chance of being right on that one.” The
cinnamon roll and his own frustration with the computer enticed Jason enough to
leave the keyboard alone for a few minutes. “But how do you know for sure?”
    Charlie reached inside his suit coat. “After much time and
effort, I found a boy in Ms. Campanero’s neighborhood who swears a man was
living with her at the time of her death.”
    Jason raised an eyebrow. “A good, unmarried Catholic girl
like Amalia?”
    “The boy thought we might be interested in the man so he
drew this.” Charlie dropped a sheet of lined school paper on the desk. Drawn in
pencil across the blue lines was a decent sketch of a man. “Take off a few
wrinkles, add a little hair and lift the mouth…”
    “And he looks like this guy.” Jason placed the drawing
beside the shoebox photo. Excitement tickled his gut. “Your