Read Online Gridlock: A Ryan Lock Novel by Sean Black - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Sean Black
Tags: thriller, Action, hollywood, serial killer, angel, stalker, bodyguard, Carrie, Ty, Raven Lane, LA, Ryan Lock
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bunch of other medical problems.’
‘Then we’d better do our job properly. I want to recce the house. You go introduce yourself.’
Ty straightened up. ‘Be my pleasure.’
Lock called him back. ‘Ty?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Don’t go making things more complicated than they already are.’
Ty gave Lock his would-I-do-that? smile and wandered off.
Lock turned back towards the house. The SID team were finishing up, loading their gear into a panel truck. Contrary to the TV shows, most of their equipment, certainly at this stage of an investigation, was decidedly low-tech: swabs, plastic bags and digital cameras. The high-tech stuff was saved for the lab.
He wanted to walk through the house while it was completely empty. Although nightfall was around nine hours away, it was very unlikely that Raven and Kevin would be taking their advice and spending the evening somewhere else, so he needed to make sure the place was locked up tight before the sun fell over the Valley.
He walked around the property from the outside, approaching it as an intruder would. The front door was properly secured with a mortise-lock and separate chain. They could use a camera out here. He added it as the second item on his list, the first being a couple of motion sensors for the lawn area at the front. If anyone stepped on to the property, he would want to know about it. With the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains close by, they would have to adjust the sensitivity and height of the sensors for the coyotes that no doubt roamed the neighbourhood after dark.
Next he walked to the windows at the left of the property – the living room windows. They had locks on them and sensors that would trigger the alarm if anyone tried to jemmy them open. There was some sagebrush off to one side. It wasn’t planted close enough together to offer any great degree of cover so he determined that it could stay where it was.
He took off down the side of the house, noting the position of every drain, every window. Any inanimate object made it on to his plan of the house. The large plastic wheel-mounted garbage cans would have to be secured and any paperwork shredded. Not only would they inevitably be trawled by the media but they were a potential treasure trove to a stalker. A misplaced credit card or bank statement could tell someone where you shopped, the gym you worked out at and the stores where you bought your clothes and groceries. A carelessly discarded phone bill offered up your family and friends, as well as business acquaintances, who you spoke to, how frequently and what times you called them. Armed with these two items you could build a fairly comprehensive picture of someone’s life relatively rapidly.
This reminded him of something else. He jotted down a separate note to ask Raven about any social networking accounts she might have. If she had a fan page on Facebook, which anyone could join, the stalker might be there already. By definition stalkers were obsessive by nature so it should be possible to run a search to see who was monitoring the fan page most frequently. He guessed that Stanner and the other officers at the Threat Management Unit would already have done this, especially given the events of the past few days, but there was no harm in double checking.
There was a door at the rear of the house that led out on to a deck, which offered up an impressive view of the Los Angeles basin. Jumping off it, he used his Maglite, one of the big heavy torches used by cops, to check the crawl space underneath. It was clear but he would get a contractor in to seal it off.
Beyond the deck a steep slope led down to the property on the street below. The front of the deck hung out over this space, and the property line was demarcated by a chain-link fence. It was climbable but it would take some effort.
Lock started down the slope, walking sideways on the edge of his heels. Halfway down, he started as a dog appeared on the other side of the fence and
‘Then we’d better do our job properly. I want to recce the house. You go introduce yourself.’
Ty straightened up. ‘Be my pleasure.’
Lock called him back. ‘Ty?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Don’t go making things more complicated than they already are.’
Ty gave Lock his would-I-do-that? smile and wandered off.
Lock turned back towards the house. The SID team were finishing up, loading their gear into a panel truck. Contrary to the TV shows, most of their equipment, certainly at this stage of an investigation, was decidedly low-tech: swabs, plastic bags and digital cameras. The high-tech stuff was saved for the lab.
He wanted to walk through the house while it was completely empty. Although nightfall was around nine hours away, it was very unlikely that Raven and Kevin would be taking their advice and spending the evening somewhere else, so he needed to make sure the place was locked up tight before the sun fell over the Valley.
He walked around the property from the outside, approaching it as an intruder would. The front door was properly secured with a mortise-lock and separate chain. They could use a camera out here. He added it as the second item on his list, the first being a couple of motion sensors for the lawn area at the front. If anyone stepped on to the property, he would want to know about it. With the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains close by, they would have to adjust the sensitivity and height of the sensors for the coyotes that no doubt roamed the neighbourhood after dark.
Next he walked to the windows at the left of the property – the living room windows. They had locks on them and sensors that would trigger the alarm if anyone tried to jemmy them open. There was some sagebrush off to one side. It wasn’t planted close enough together to offer any great degree of cover so he determined that it could stay where it was.
He took off down the side of the house, noting the position of every drain, every window. Any inanimate object made it on to his plan of the house. The large plastic wheel-mounted garbage cans would have to be secured and any paperwork shredded. Not only would they inevitably be trawled by the media but they were a potential treasure trove to a stalker. A misplaced credit card or bank statement could tell someone where you shopped, the gym you worked out at and the stores where you bought your clothes and groceries. A carelessly discarded phone bill offered up your family and friends, as well as business acquaintances, who you spoke to, how frequently and what times you called them. Armed with these two items you could build a fairly comprehensive picture of someone’s life relatively rapidly.
This reminded him of something else. He jotted down a separate note to ask Raven about any social networking accounts she might have. If she had a fan page on Facebook, which anyone could join, the stalker might be there already. By definition stalkers were obsessive by nature so it should be possible to run a search to see who was monitoring the fan page most frequently. He guessed that Stanner and the other officers at the Threat Management Unit would already have done this, especially given the events of the past few days, but there was no harm in double checking.
There was a door at the rear of the house that led out on to a deck, which offered up an impressive view of the Los Angeles basin. Jumping off it, he used his Maglite, one of the big heavy torches used by cops, to check the crawl space underneath. It was clear but he would get a contractor in to seal it off.
Beyond the deck a steep slope led down to the property on the street below. The front of the deck hung out over this space, and the property line was demarcated by a chain-link fence. It was climbable but it would take some effort.
Lock started down the slope, walking sideways on the edge of his heels. Halfway down, he started as a dog appeared on the other side of the fence and
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