The Night Detectives
Page 22
Sobs took her over and Sharon lightly stroked her hair until she could speak again.
“Tim was getting out, going to hide with his parents.” Her voice rose. “It wasn’t my fault!”
The baby started crying, and Lindsey expertly rocked him into happy little murmurs.
Sharon told her nobody was blaming her. We just wanted to understand what had happened.
“It happened so fast. Tim told me to take the baby and go down to the car, you know, it was in the covered spaces in back? So I did. He said he was going to pack up a suitcase and come right behind me. Only…”
We waited beneath the sound of the air conditioning and the baby gurgling contentedly.
I spoke for the first time. “What happened next, Addison?”
“They came for him!” She looked at me with a red face, puffy eyes. “Two men. They called out at the door that they were cops, and then they barged in. I heard Tim yell. Something broke inside.”
She shivered. Sharon coaxed her to continue.
“Tim yelled, ‘Go!’ I knew he meant me. I didn’t want to leave him. And then David started crying and one of the cops looked out the window.”
It was still jarring to hear the baby’s name.
She said, “I ducked behind a wall and I got lucky. Right then, a garbage truck turned into the alley and stopped right there. It was making a racket and I went behind it and ran for my car. I was parked a block away and I’ve never run so fast. I was afraid to look back, but they weren’t chasing me. Thank god for that trash truck. I left the city and I drove to the desert. I thought we’d be safe here. Then I saw the television, the explosion at the apartment and Tim dead. They called it terrorism. I didn’t know who to call or how I could explain what happened, why I just ran…” Her voice trailed into a pitiful whisper: “How did you find me?”
Nobody answered.
“The next day, I was going to call the FBI, but I got a call. He said he was a San Diego detective but he didn’t sound right. He wanted to know where I was. I freaked. I told him I was in Oklahoma…”
I thought: Good old Detective Jones.
Peralta showed her photos of Edward Dowd and Andrew Zisman. “Are these the men you saw going into Tim’s apartment?”
“Yes!”
“They’re not police. And they’ll never bother you again.”
I realized that Dowd never had the baby. He thought we did. The baby was gone when he got to Tim’s apartment. Dowd’s elaborate air show, dropping the baby doll and the blood, had indeed been a threat. But he had never been in a position to carry it out.
She sniffled loudly. “The baby was my priority. I had to keep him safe. I didn’t have the phone number for Tim’s parents. You’ve got to believe me.”
“We do,” Sharon said. “It’s going to be all right.”
And it would, I supposed. Peralta pulled out his cell phone and slipped outside. I watched my wife cradle the baby with such natural love and wondered what might have been, wondered how she could ever doubt she would make a good mother.
40
The next morning, Mike and Sharon drove us to the ornate Santa Fe railroad station in downtown San Diego. He was healing quickly from the beating he had received in Paradise Valley. He made sure that I knew he had been ambushed and fought through two Taser shocks before he passed out and they got his gun. Beyond that, I was certain that we would never discuss it. I already knew that no bad guys would ever get his firearms without a hell of a fight.
Lindsey and I had tickets to Los Angeles, where we would catch the Coast Starlight to Seattle. We had a sleeping compartment reserved. I carried a bag full of books.
“You two have fun in the cool weather,” Sharon said. After she hugged us, Peralta shook my hand and I saw the gratitude in his eyes. Nothing more needed to be said. Then he slipped his hand into Sharon’s and, if even for a moment, everything seemed right with the world.
“When you get back,” he said, “we’ve got work to do.”
I had no doubt. I offered my arm, and Lindsey stepped up into the train car. I followed her and we found seats. From inside, we watched our friends wave one more time as the locomotive whistle sounded and we started to move.
I turned to Lindsey.
“Have you ever had sex on a train?”
“Not yet, Dave.”
That night, as the train rolled through northern California, I made love with my wife and slept without dreams.
We hope you enjoyed this book.
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Paying My Debts
My editor Barbara Peters saw the possibilities in this series from the start. I owe her for encouraging me to keep it going, and especially for the skills, intellect, and inspiration that make her America’s top editor of mysteries. She styles herself the Evil Editor, but I have only received the good. The Poisoned Pen Press is a treasure, and I am particularly grateful to Rob Rosenwald, Jessica Tribble, Nan Beams, Annette Rogers and Suzan Baroni.
Cal Lash, retired Phoenix Police detective and a private investigator, once again was exceptionally helpful and patient with my questions. Maricopa County Deputy County Attorney David R. Foster likewise provided valuable assistance.
Even before I finished my previous book, Powers of Arrest, A Cincinnati Casebook, readers wanted to know when the next David Mapstone Mystery would be coming. So I owe you all my biggest debt, whether you started the series at its outset in 2001 or recently got hooked. It’s humbling to see how many people are moved by the lives of these characters, including the biggest of all, Phoenix. Thank you.
About this Book
The desert city of Phoenix, Arizona, has its secrets and its not about to give them up easily. Ex-cop Mike Peralta and ex-cold case expert David Mapstone have formed a detective agency to unearth them. And it’s started badly...
Moments after hiring them, their first client is gunned down. And the deaths don’t stop there. Someone is killing their clients, killing everyone connected with their cases, and is now coming for them. Why? The answer will lead Mapstone and Peralta into the world of human trafficking, corrupt politics, and the white supremacist movement.
Reviews
“A great read!”
Michael Connelly
“A strong new voice in contemporary hard-boiled fiction.”
Washington Post
“Talton has created a richly complex character in Mapstone... a well-crafted, nuanced series.”
Booklist
“A haunting noir story vividly rendered by Talton’s white-hot prose... original... impressively unyielding.”
New York Journal of Books
“Talton crisply evokes Phoenix’s New West ambience and keeps readers guessing with unexpected plot twists.”
Publishers Weekly
About this Series
PHOENIX COLD CASES
David Mapstone: ex-cop, ex-history professor.
As a cop, Mapstone learned never to trust anyone. As a historian, he learned that the past is never past and everything is connected.
Now he’s digging into Phoenix, Arizona’s secrets. Buried secrets that the city is not about to give up easily.
Just as well he’s armed with a .357 magnum Colt Python
1. Concrete Desert
A young woman’s body is found dumped in the desert in circumstances identical to those of an infamous 40-year-old unsolved murder.
Concrete Desert is available here.
2. Cactus Heart
Mapstone unearths the skeletons of a pair of four-year-old twins, the victims in a notorious Depression-era kidnapping case. But what should be a matter of tying up loose ends quickly becomes something more sinister, more personal… and more deadly.
Cactus Heart is available here.
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3. Camelback Falls
When Sheriff Peralta is shot by a sniper, Mapstone must confront his own past and the deadly consequences of a small-town shoot-out in 1979 that left Peralta and Mapstone standing over four dead bodies.
Camelback Falls is available here.
4. Dry Heat
Half a century after the unsolved murder of an FBI agent, the victim’s missing badge is found on the body of a dead transient. The trail leads Mapstone into the Arizonan desert, and eventually to San Francisco, as he slowly uncovers the bloody secrets surrounding the FBI badge.
Dry Heat is available here.
5. Arizona Dreams
Mapstone receives a letter confessing to a forty-year-old murder and providing directions to the body. But things are never what they seem in Phoenix. There’s a body right where the letter said it would be – but it’s only weeks old, not years...
Arizona Dreams is available here.
6. South Phoenix Rules
Phoenix, Arizona in August. It’s 114 degrees in the shade but it’s going to get even hotter for cold case investigator David Mapstone when he starts investigating a drug cartel execution.
South Phoenix Rules is available here.
7. The Night Detectives
Mapstone and Peralta are Phoenix’s newest private detective agency. But someone is killing their clients, killing everyone connected with their cases, and is now coming for them. Why?
The Night Detectives is available here.
About the Author
JON TALTON is a fourth-generation Arizonan who grew up in the same Phoenix neighbourhood that David Mapstone calls home. A journalist of more than twenty years, he now lives in Washington state where he is the economics columnist for the Seattle Times and writes the Rogue Columnist blog.
A Letter from the Publisher
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HeadofZeusBooks
The story starts here.
First published in the UK in 2013 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Jon Talton, 2013
The moral right of Jon Talton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781781851739
Head of Zeus Ltd
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Contents
Cover
Welcome Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Paying My Debts
About this Book
Reviews
About this Series
About the Author
An Invitation from the Publisher
Copyright