Blood Passage Read Online Free Page A

Knoxville and I’ve lived in Memphis for a while now and never had any trouble with the police. But that was definitely a wake-up call. It reminded me of how much intolerance there is out there and how powerless we are when the police decide they want to make our lives hell.”
    “ The guy sounds like a pretty big asshole to me,” Hank said.
    “ Well, yeah.”
    Hank stared until Josh made eye contact with him. “Lot of assholes out there.”
    “ Yeah, I guess so.”
    The taxi arrived and they got in. The hospital was located in Granger Park and Josh’s hotel was at the north end of the city in Bering Heights, so the taxi ride was going to be somewhat long. The city of Glendale was divided into districts in a hub-and-spoke configuration with the river dividing it diagonally from northeast to southwest. The ocean was five miles downstream from the city limits. Midtown was the hub and Bering Heights, Granger Park and Springhill were the spokes on the west side of the river, with the heavily industrialized districts of Strathton and Wilmingford on the east side. Glendale’s international seaport was located in Wilmingford. The districts of South Shore East and South Shore West straddled the river at the south end of the city. Bering Heights, in the north, contained a college and an international airport that serviced the national headquarters of a number of large corporations. Granger Park, where Hank had been born and raised, housed the upper class on large estates on the edge of the municipality and morphed into suburban sprawl farther south. Springhill, having once been a separate municipality that amalgamated with Glendale forty years ago, was a mixture of residential, commercial and municipal properties that included State University and the stadium of a Class A baseball team currently affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
    As the taxi ground its way north through heavy traffic Hank asked Josh a few questions about his studies. Josh explained that he liked to work with children. As an undergraduate he took courses in early childhood education and worked part-time in the day care center on campus. In his senior year he attended lectures delivered by Dr. Walsh and learned about the research being conducted by the Division of Supplementary Studies into reports by children of past life memories, but he shifted first into child psychiatry before seeking admission into the Division.
    Hank noticed that as Josh talked about himself and his career interests his body language became less tight and self-protective, and his face showed more expression.
    At the hotel he badged the clerk, explaining that Josh had been mugged downtown and had lost his room keycard along with his wallet. The clerk expressed his concern but explained that there would be a nominal charge to replace the keycard which would be added to the final bill. Josh nodded and the clerk produced a duplicate. They went up to Josh’s room on the eighth floor, where Josh found his laptop, Personal Digital Assistant and other belongings undisturbed. Breathing a sigh of relief, he slipped his PDA into his pocket and thanked Hank for the taxi ride.
    “ I’ll arrange for replacement travelers checks and pay you back for the cab fare,” he said.
    “ No, don’t bother,” Hank said. “Come on, let’s go downstairs and I’ll buy you lunch in the restaurant. I want to hear more about this case you’re researching.”
    “ All right,” Josh said, gratefully. “I guess I am a little hungry.”
    They rode the elevator back down to the main floor and went into the restaurant just off the front lobby. They were seated at a table along a wall of tinted windows that gave them a clear view of the lobby and elevators without being seen by anyone in the lobby while they ate. Josh ordered a chicken Caesar salad and unsweetened iced tea while Hank asked for a club sandwich with extra mayo and a large Coke.
    Josh glanced at the time on his PDA and took another of the