Read Online Public Enemy Zero by Andrew Mayne - Free Book Online Page B

note to shut the door before he left so the dog wouldn’t wander. They’d ask Rachel if she had someone to come take care of the animal. If not, the department had a person who would handle it.
    Rios was a little surprised the dog was still there. Often in a domestic disturbance, it would follow the owner and give chase to the assailant like a good pack animal should. Of course, other times they just hid.
    He found a phone on the kitchen table and assumed it was hers. The lock screen was a photo of the dog. As he pulled the door closed, he flashed the screen at the couch with the dog hiding under it. “Some protector you are.”
     
    Rios walked back to the ambulances and handed the phone to Rachel. Simmons was talking to the detective who had interviewed the parking officer. While the woman’s injuries consisting mostly of lacerations, bruising and a probable concussion weren’t critical, the loss of blood was.
    Rachel struggled with the phone but couldn’t operate it with her bandaged hands. Rios held out his hand. “Let me do that for you.”
    She handed him the phone. “It should just be under ‘Mitch’.”
    Rios scanned through her contact list. No Mitch came up. He looked again. Nothing. “Would it be under his last name?”
    “ No. Try Dickhead.” Embarrassed, Rachel looked off to the side.
    Rios grinned. “Breakups are hard.” He scrolled through and found a phone number next to the entry for Dickhead. He noticed there were a few other obscenities in there as well. Not his business, he reminded himself.
    He wrote the number down. “What about a photo?”
    Rachel shook her head. “I deleted them all.” She thought for a moment. “He’s still on my Facebook, though. Go ahead. Do a search for Mitchell Roberts.”
    Rios clicked open the Facebook application and looked up the name. One of the benefits of social networking was how easy it made finding photos of people and intimate details they’d never tell the police face to face. He found the photo. He was not quite what he was expecting. It was a friendly, affable face. Not that it mattered. Faces can hide a lot.
    “ Do you mind if I email this to myself?”
    “ Sure.”
    He handed the phone back to Rachel. “I saw your dog back in there. He’s pretty scared. Do you have a friend who can come look after him?”
    “ What about Rick?”
    Rios hesitated. “He hurt himself chasing after Mitch and is going to the hospital with you.”
    “ OK.” Rachel leaned back and closed her eyes.
    Rios decided to leave her be for now.
     
    The ambulance carrying the parking officer drove off. Rios half expected the other parking officers to follow after in a motorcade in their carts like cops did when an officer was shot. A supervisor came over to explain the situation to the parking officers.
    Simmons finished talking to the detective who took the woman’s statement and walked over to Rios. In the background, a police photographer was taking photographs of the smashed-up car. He was trying to lean into the car without touching the glass. Rios morbidly wondered if he used the same camera to take photos of his family.
    “ This is going to be fun,” said Simmons as she neared him.
    Rios arched an eyebrow. “How so?”
    “ Like the girl, she can’t give a coherent explanation as to what happened.”
    “ That’s not surprising. She’s still in shock. What’d you expect?” Rios would have been surprised if anyone who went through that and had at least a probable concussion could remember much of anything.
    Simmons shook her head. “She talked a little. What she says is kind of mixed up. She says she was attacked, but when they asked her where, she said while she was outside the car and he was inside.”
    “ I’m sure she’ll sort things out.”
    “ Yeah, but when a defense attorney gets a hold of her first statement, it’s going to make his job a lot easier.”
    Rios looked over at the smashed-in windshield and the splattered blood. His stomach