Read Online Snow Blind by P.J. Tracy - Free Book Online

head. “We got what we could, but nothing that really jumps out. Wife went down like a redwood when we told her. She was pretty messed up. How about Toby Myerson’s family?”
    Tinker leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and saw Toby Myerson’s mother again, braced crookedly in her wheelchair, one side of her wrinkled face sagging from the stroke that took half her body and most of her speech, but left awareness and emotion and a pair of eyes that said more than Tinker wanted to hear. “No family except the mother. Toby took care of her. Don’t know what’s going to happen to her now.”
    He started sliding neatly labeled file folders across the desk, some fatter than others. “Reports are starting to trickle in, but it’s going to be an avalanche soon. Must have been hundreds of people out there today; plus we’ve got to go through all the film and stills the media took; then there’s the door-to-door on all the houses around the park, and you know how that goes. As soon as people find out there was a murder, we’re going to hear about a million parked cars that, now that they think of it, looked kind of suspicious…” He blew a frustrated sigh out of puffed cheeks that drooped a little lower every year he was on the job. “The book on this one is going to weigh a ton.”
    Magozzi nodded. “You have Espinoza on it?”
    â€œYeah. We’re copying him on everything, he’s plugging it into the Monkeewrench software, but there’s still a lot of stuff that needs eyes on.”
    â€œAlways is.”
    Johnny McLaren finally hung up the phone and rolled bloodshot eyes in their direction. Rumor had it the flame-haired detective started every weekend with a Friday-night toot that lasted forty-eight hours, and looking at him on a Saturday made Magozzi believe it. “I got a little. Could be good, could be bad. Toby Myerson and Tommy Deaton were together last night. Both of them were cross-country ski fanatics; couldn’t wait to get off last night so they could hit the trails.”
    Gino nodded. “Yeah, that’s what Deaton’s wife told us. You know, I took one look at that first snowman and thought whacko serial killer posing his trophy. Then we found the second one, and I’m thinking, holy shit, it’s like serial-killer winter Olympics. Then we find out they were both ours, and it started to look like some asshole with a hard-on for cops. Now that we know those guys were together, we might have to look for a personal angle. Like maybe only one of them was the target, and the other just happened to get in the way.”
    Tinker liked that. “So maybe it didn’t have anything to do with them being cops.”
    â€œThat would be the dream scenario.”
    â€œI like that angle a lot better than some serial killer just plugging people at random, or cops in particular,” Magozzi said.
    â€œDon’t we all. Doesn’t mean it’s the way it went down.”
    They all looked up at the heavy click of Gloria’s heels on the floor and saw her fill the aisle between the desks with pink. “I’m going to catch a bite before the Chief gets back. You’re getting those reports pulled together for him, right?”
    Skinny, red-haired McLaren looked at her and grinned, forgetting for a second that there were dead cops and a bad case and a late night ahead. “You gotta tell me how you get that skirt to stick out so far.”
    Gloria ignored him. “Switchboard’s screening till I get back, but Evelyn’s on tonight, so cut her some slack. Last time she hung up on the city council chair and put through some idiot who said the CIA was planning the overthrow of the government in his living room. Chief damn near had her canned.”
    â€œCan’t really blame the woman,” Gino said. “Chair of the city council or a paranoid idiot. Kind of a toss-up, if you ask