Read Online Three Minutes to Midnight by A. J Tata - Free Book Online

THROCKMORTONS’ BACKYARD, WATCHING the adjoining home’s lights peek through the wooded acreage like searching beacons. The air was calm and unusually cool. The September sun had set, and the cloudless night allowed the day’s heat to diminish upward.
    A movement to his right caught his attention, and he saw the tousled hair of a young boy attempting to hide behind a tree trunk. He was sneaking quick looks at Mahegan, as if unaware that Mahegan could see him. Mahegan casually walked to the fence separating the backyard from the side yard as the boy discreetly slid behind the tree, rotating around its trunk to remain hidden. Mahegan drifted slightly toward the tree when he knew it was impossible for the boy to see him. Quickly, Mahegan had a hand on his shoulder, and the young boy yelped, unaware that Mahegan had closed the gap.
    â€œYou live here?” Mahegan asked. As he went to drag the boy from his hiding place, Mahegan noticed he was squatting there. The boy was actually nearly six feet tall, gangly, and had a constellation of acne on his face that was so severe, it deserved a nomenclature from Greek mythology.
    â€œNo . . . no, sir.” He had the scared look of a teenager who was used to being perceived as trustworthy and loyal but who had been caught doing something terribly bad. His eyes darted back and forth, as if he was calculating the fence’s scalability.
    â€œName?”
    He did not reply. Mahegan tightened his grip on his shoulder. “Nathan.”
    Mahegan waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. “So, it’s like Cher or Bono? Just one word?”
    â€œNathan Daniels,” he said with an edge of defiance, as if the name should mean something to Mahegan. As Mahegan processed Nathan Daniels’s name with those of Griffyn and Throckmorton, he began to wonder if he was dealing with Pilgrims just off the Mayflower . Fancy names. “Big money names,” his mother used to call them.
    â€œWhat brings you up this way, Nathan Daniels? Out for a stroll?”
    â€œI don’t have to answer any of your questions,” he said.
    Mahegan pulled out his badge for effect. “Actually you do. You’ve entered a crime scene . . . or perhaps you were here all along?”
    â€œNo tape in the backyard. I came across the fence.” He pointed with his chin at the slatted wooden fence, which stood eight feet high. Mahegan noticed three horizontal support beams that made for perfect steps. He scanned the backyard, a forested football field of land.
    â€œJust trespassing, then?”
    â€œJust . . . curious. Not trespassing.” Then he added, “My dad’s a lawyer. I know how this works.”
    â€œOkay. I’ll let you call him when we get to the station, then. I’m sure he’ll be happy to get out of bed and come pick you up when we’re done with you around midnight.”
    â€œYou can’t just take me in!”
    Mahegan flipped him against the tree and pulled his arm behind his back, as if he was going to cuff him. He pressed the boy’s face up against the bark of the pine, which was oozing a bit of sap. “You are violating a crime scene and could be a witness or a suspect in a murder investigation.”
    â€œMurder?”
    â€œYes, Nathan, murder.” Mahegan let up on him a bit and said, “Now would you like to talk, or do we need to go to the station?”
    Nathan was silent for a moment, then said, “I’ll talk, but damn, bro, you need to chill.”
    Mahegan noticed when Daniels turned around that he was wearing an Aerosmith T-shirt and blue denim pants. He also saw the light from a smartphone pulsing in his pocket. He had placed it on silent and now was receiving a call.
    â€œNeed to get that?” Mahegan asked.
    â€œJust my mom probably. Let’s do this.”
    â€œIt’s easy. Tell me what you know.”
    He fidgeted for a second, kicked at a few rocks, and looked up at