Read Online Under Cover of Darkness by James Grippando - Free Book Online Page A

She did a double-take at the catchy headline, then picked up the paper and gave it a q uick read.
    "A serial killer slaying in pairs? Where did this come from?"
    Andie cringed as she replied. "It's a theory."
    "Who's theory?"
    "Mine," she said, shrinking.
    "What's it doing in the newspaper?"
    "The local police leaked it."
    She glowered. "I'd better read this," she said as she snapped open the newspaper.
    "I think so, too," Andie said.
    Victoria walked as she read. Andie followed behind, toting her bags. Andie said not a word all the way to the car, just trying to gauge Victoria's reaction to the article. Victoria opened the passenger door and got in. Andie tossed the bags in the backseat, got behind the wheel, and drove out of the garage.
    Victoria folded the newspaper and laid it on the dashboard.
    Andie was bracing herself for a shakedown, but Victoria simply popped open her briefcase and buried her nose in a notepad as Andie maneuvered out of the airport. For ten minutes, Andie endured the silent treatment. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. "Excuse me, but aren't you going to say anything?"
    Victoria glanced up from her notes. "I'm not going to chew you out, Andie. What's done is done. But if you're looking for me to say everything's okay, it's not."
    "I wasn't trying to upstage you or impress you. I wasn't trying to impress anyone. It was just a theory."
    "And I'm not saying your theory is necessarily a bad one. The real damage is that once any theory hits the press and gets ingrained in the heads of the local police, it's hard to get them to come off it. Makes my job a lot harder than it needs to be."
    "But I wasn't the one who leaked it. It was a detective named Kessler."
    "That's no excuse. It's your job as coordinator to gain the respect of the locals. If you have their respect, nine times out of ten they'll listen to you if you ask them to keep something out of the press."
    Andie felt a pang in her gut, realizing she'd never expressly asked Kessler to keep the theory out of the papers. "You're right. For that I apologize."
    Again, there was only silence.
    Andie said, "I don't mean to be pushy, but it would make me feel a lot better if you were to say something. Like 'Apology accepted.'"
    Andie kept her eyes on the road, waiting for a reply. Finally, she glanced over and caught Victoria's eye. It wasn't the disapproving glare Andie had expected. Quite the opposite. It was as if Victoria had warmed to her fight.
    "Apology accepted," Victoria said. "And don't worry about it. Happens to all of us."
    Andie was only half-relieved. "Somehow I don't think anything like this ever happened to you."
    "Actually, it did."
    "Serious?"
    "Long time ago. My first year in Quantico. We had a geographically transient serial killer. The only lead was an anonymous newspaper informant who had an uncanny ability to predict each murder, time, place, victim. My unit chief was convinced the informant was himself the killer. I wasn't. I went over his head, straight to the assistant director of the Criminal Division. Laid my reputation on the line."
    "How did your unit chief feel about that?"
    "About the way you'd expect. He was madder than hell." "How did you smooth things out?"
    "Sometimes, things have a way of smoothing themselves out."
    "How do you mean?"
    "It's simple, really. Now that your theory is printed i n b lack and white all over Seattle, you just have to hope for one thing."
    "What?"
    "That you're right." , Andie started to smile, then realized that Victoria wasn't kidding. She cranked up the heater and merged into rush hour on the crowded interstate.

    Chapter Nine.
    Gus went back to work after Morgan left, but he couldn't focus on the documents spread across the leather desktop. At eleven A . M . he and three of his department heads were scheduled to pitch their services to a Japanese manufacturer seeking Seattle counsel. "Beauty pageants" lawyers call them, where every major law firm in the city trots out its finest lawyers