Read Online Rusty Nails (The Dade Gibson Case Files) by Jason Brannon - Free Book Online

Jane’s head cradled lovingly in his lap, her hair wet and oily with drying perspiration. She hadn’t been dead long-fifteen minutes maybe-and he could still feel the warmth radiating off of her in waves. Yet, despite the heat, Dade shivered and tried to keep his teeth from chattering. That mark on her neck didn’t look quite so much like a bruise anymore.
     

 
    Chapter 13
     
    Sometimes, it’s good to have connections. Knowing Leon had definitely come in handy on more than one occasion. He had access to a lot of useful information given his choice of profession and was a good man to have beside you if a fight broke out. Normally, Dade hated to ask favors of his friends for fear of endangering them unnecessarily. But Leon was a different story. The burly black man lifted weights at least four times a week and was built like a Sherman tank. As resident bouncer at The Black Cat, it was a requirement. Of course, there was the small fact that he dressed in frilly feather boas and wore fingernail polish. That always seemed to be a moot point, however, when the brawling started. Leon could more than hold his own. That was one of the reasons Dade didn’t feel so bad about calling him.
    Because he wasn’t scheduled to go in to work for another couple of hours, Leon asked Dade to meet him at The Caffeine Cafe, a coffeehouse where a lot of college students hung out. Dade thought it a little odd to rendezvous there, but he didn’t question Leon’s choice of venue. Leon, after all, had willingly agreed to meet with him on short notice which pretty much meant that Dade owed him big time.
    Leon almost looked at home amidst the freaky dye-jobs, piercings, tattoos, and thrift-store wardrobes. Today, the feather boa was green. The nail polish had been selected to match. And then there was the small steel spike that ran upward through Leon’s eyebrow. Everything else he wore was polished black leather.
    “So why am I here, man?” Leon said. “What do you need now?”
    “I’ve got a woman that I need you to check out for me. I need background information, any kind of dirt you can dig up on her, where she lives, the whole nine yards.”
    “I thought you wanted something really demanding from me,” Leon said with a smile. “This is all second-rate investigation work. The sort of thing a really good detective could find out on his own. What‘s the name?”
    “Louise Hartwell,” Dade said, spitting the words out like he would a bitter wedge of lemon. “She hired me to find the missing bones of her husband. And if that’s not strange enough, Liz and I have already watched her blow an angel away with a snub-nosed revolver.”
    “An angel?”
    “With wings, talons, feathers, the whole nine yards. Yep, he was most definitely an angel.”
    “And the husband. Who is he?”
    “Richard Edgemore,” Dade replied.
    Leon chewed on the information like he would a tough piece of meat. “You’ve been here for a couple of weeks and already, you’re running with the bad crowd.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Dade asked.
    “There are lots of stories in this town about Richard Edgemore. He’s sort of become a cult figure to some. Had quite a lot of involvement with angels. I’m not surprised that his name still comes up when there’s a mention of one. He was a pusher. Supposedly, he dealt in some sort of exotic drug that chased away guilt. The angels that were rebelling against God bought the stuff as quick as Edgemore could get his hands on it. Made them feel better about their sins and their rebellion. Or at least that was the story on the street.”
    “That explains what she told me about him being a chemist,” Dade said, making the connection.
    Leon laughed. “A chemist, huh? Well, I guess that’s one word for what he did.”
    Dade flagged the waitress and motioned for her to bring him another cappuccino. “What about Louise Hartwell? What do you know about her?”
    “That one’s more tricky. The name doesn’t