Read Online Skeleton Justice by Michael Baden, Linda Kenney Baden - Free Book Online Page A

gut. The bodyguard staggered, and Sam used that unbalanced moment to hook his foot around his opponent’s ankles. The huge kid crashed down so quickly, he had no chance to put out his hands to break his fall. He landed flat on his prominent nose, which cracked with an audible snap. A blossom of red unfurled—dripping from his white polo shirt onto the floor next to his shoulder.
    His bodyguard’s collapse had come so suddenly that Boo was just beginning to rise from his chair when Sam pivoted and upended the heavy table, pinning the young man momentarily. The goon still lay on the floor, stunned that the blood pooling around him was his own.
    “Broken nose makes a hell of a mess, doesn’t it?” Sam reached down and compressed the carotid arteries on both sides of the goon’s neck. Within eight seconds, he had passed out.
    Sam returned his attention to Boo, who was now standing, warily keeping the table between them. When Boo spoke, his voice emerged incongruously high-pitched for a man with a steroid-thickened eighteen-inch-round neck. “You killed him. Why did you have to kill him?”
    “Nah, that’s just the Mr. Spock trick from Star Trek . Except I do it correctly—both sides of the neck. I could have killed him, but I chose not to.” Sam straightened his shirt, which had come partially untucked in all the commotion. “Choice is a good thing, wouldn’t you agree, Boo?”
    Boo said nothing, his eyes darting from the main entrance to the kitchen door, neither of which promised any help or easy escape.
    “Now you have a choice,” Sam continued. “You can sit and have a little talk with me, or you can join your friend there.”
    Boo sat.
    “Good. Deanie said you were a smart guy, and I see she was right.” Sam remained standing and smiled down at his companion.
    “Who are you?” Boo asked.
    “Uh, uh, uh—I’m the one asking the questions here. Tell me about the other night at Club Epoch.”
    Boo’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a cop. Why don’t you just arrest me, then?”
    “You insult me, Boo.” Sam extended one long, skinny foot. “You ever see a cop in Bruno Magli loafers and a Hugo Boss blazer?”
    Boo, a brand-sensitive thug, looked even more puzzled and uneasy. “Why you wanna know about Club Epoch?”
    “Because a friend of mine is taking the fall for that bomb. I want to know who set him up.”
    “It wasn’t me. I swear to God I didn’t know what was going to go down. When that mailbox blew, I nearly shit myself.”
    “Boo, I’m losing respect for your intelligence. That’s not even close to being a convincing lie.”
    Boo sat forward in his chair. “No, man, seriously—I didn’t know about the bomb. All I was supposed to do was get this rich kid into Club E, buy him some drinks, then invite him to go to this after-hours club. We were on our way there when the whole mailbox thing went down.”
    “Boo, you’re forgetting one little detail. It was one of your friends who put the bomb under the box. A guy named Zeke, or Freak or something. Maybe you have a reason for wanting to get rid of a federal judge.”
    “No, Freak wasn’t one of our guys. He showed up at the club. Was hangin’ around, talkin’ to the boys. Knew a lot about music. When we all left, he came, too. I coulda run him off, but what did it matter? I was just supposed to take the kid to the after-hours place. If he wanted to come along, so what?”
    “Did you see him put the bomb under the mailbox?”
    Boo shook his head. “We were walking in a big group. I was in the lead with Paco. Suddenly, someone shouted ‘Run’ and everyone raced past us, so we started running, too. When the bomb blew, we were at the corner and we stopped to look back. Right away, the police showed up and started askin’ questions. That’s when I noticed Freak wasn’t with us anymore.”
    “Did you tell the cops about him?”
    Boo nodded. “They didn’t seem all that interested. They talked to the Korean guy in the market, came