Blood Hunt Read Online Free Page A

back in his chair. “Why don’t we see if the APB and your street contacts locate him first? Two stakeouts use a lot of men.” He did not say it, but Garreth heard, nonetheless: We can’t spend that much manpower on one small-time crook .
    Garreth nodded, sighing inwardly — all were not equal in the eyes of the law — and went back to his typewriter.
    An hour later he and Harry checked out for the night.
     
    8
     
    Garreth always liked going home with Harry. The house had the same atmosphere Marti gave their apartment, a sense of sanctuary. The job ended at the door. Inside, he and Harry became ordinary men. Where Marti had urged him to talk, however, Lien bled away tensions with diversion and serenity. A judicious scattering of Oriental objects among the house’s contemporary furnishings reflected the culture of her Taiwanese childhood and Harry’s Japanese grandparents. The paintings on the walls, mostly Lien’s and including examples of her commercial artwork, reflected Oriental tradition and moods.
    Lien stared at them in disbelief. “Home before dark? How did you do it?”
    Harry lowered his voice to a conspiratorial tone. “We went over the wall. If someone calls, you haven’t seen us.” He kissed her with a great show of passion. “What’s for supper? I’m starved.”
    “ Not lately.” She patted his stomach fondly. “Both of you sit down; I’ll bring tea.”
    Strong and laced with rum...an example of what Garreth considered a happy blend of West and East. Between sips of tea, he pulled off his shoes and tie. One by one his nerves loosened. These days, he reflected, Harry’s house felt more like home than his own apartment did.
    During dinner Lien monopolized the conversation, heading off shop talk with anecdotes from her own day. She brushed by the frustrations of finishing drawings for a fashion spread in Sunday’s Chronicle to talk about the art appreciation classes she taught at various grade schools in the afternoons. Garreth listened bemused. Her kids came from a different world than he saw everyday. Free of drugs, well fed and cared for, bright-eyed with promise. Sometimes he wondered if she deliberately told only cheerful stories. Not that he objected; he liked hearing about a pleasant world populated by happy, friendly people.
    Not that he regretted becoming a cop, either. Just...sometimes he wondered what he might be doing now, what kind of world he would live in, if he had finished college...if he had been good enough to win a football scholarship like his older brother Shane, if he and Judith had not married so young, if she had not gotten pregnant his sophomore year and had to stop working, leaving them with no money to continue school.
    Or would things have been any different? He always wanted to be like his father. He loved visiting the station and sometimes riding along in his father’s patrol car, learning how to handle a nightstick, going to the firing range. While Shane had been starring in backyard scrimmages and Little League football, Garreth played cops and robbers. Police work seemed a natural choice when he had to go to work.
    After dinner, helping Lien with the dishes, he asked, “Do you believe people really have free choice, or are they pushed in inevitable directions by social conditioning?”
    She smiled at him. “Of course they have choices. Background may limit or influence, but the choices are still there.”
    He considered that. “Consulting I Ching isn’t a contradiction of that?”
    “ Certainly not. If anything, the Sage supports the idea that people have control over their futures. He merely advises of the possibilities.” She looked up in concern. “What’s the matter? Are the dreadful broody what-ifs chewing at you?”
    He smiled at her understanding. “Sort of.”
    Maybe what really chewed on him was Mossman, who had lost all choice. He worked at keeping emotional distance from murder victims without becoming indifferent to the crime. Otherwise,