Dead Don't Lie Read Online Free Page B

lifted his head. “Detectives.”
    “Sampson.” Evelyn nodded. “What’s going on tonight?”
    His brows pinched together. “Sorry, Detective. Haven’t heard a thing.”
    She frowned. “Okay. Thanks.”
    A sick sense of dread twisted her stomach. She and Ryan rode to the third floor in silence. This was their night off. Being called in, especially after working the Langdon case nonstop, only meant one thing: trouble.
    A soft chime announced their arrival. Captain Kessler sat on the desk closest to them—Evelyn’s desk—his face stormy.
    “It’s about time,” he said. He pushed his tall, lanky frame off the corner of her desk and glared at them.
Has he been waiting for us?
Evelyn cast a quizzical look toward Ryan. He shrugged.
    “Come on.” Kessler marched down the hall to his office door.
    They passed through the bull pen to follow him. It was small, cramped almost. A dozen or so ancient metal desks butted up against one another. Each pair of detectives faced their partner. Ryan’s desk proudly featured his family’s framed smiling faces. Evelyn’s was mostly empty. No personal knickknacks, save the oversize black coffee mug she’d picked up at the market and one photo of Evelyn with Kate and the kids.
    Normally bustling with loud—sometimes bordering on obnoxious—activity, the open space was vacant, quiet. She glanced at the assignment board. The detectives were all out. All of them.
    Evelyn started to shake off her jacket.
    “Don’t even bother, Davis,” Kessler called to her.
    She shrugged back into the empty sleeve. Her brows lifted in surprise at the captain’s agitated jitteriness. With a lift of his broad shoulders, Ryan turned and headed toward Kessler’s office. Evelyn followed.
    “I’m sending you over to Mercer Island.”
    Evelyn and Ryan exchanged guarded looks.
Not good. Not good at all.
    “That’s Sanderson’s precinct.” Ryan leaned against the door frame, weary of the coming storm.
    Despite her best attempts, anytime Evelyn and Sanderson were in the same vicinity, sparks flew—and not the good kind. Sanderson had made his disdain for her obvious on several occasions. Ever since he’d screwed up the close on the one—and
only
—case they’d been forced to work on together, his dislike had boiled over to sheer black hatred. Evelyn groaned inwardly.
    She’d put up with a lot of bullshit being a woman on the force. But his chauvinistic, Neanderthal behavior was the worst. He was cocky, quick to leap to broad conclusions and straight-up sexist. There wasn’t a woman in the entire SPD who could stand to work with him. And to think she’d just been about to spend a relaxing evening with Kate and the kids.
    “Yes.” Kessler gave Ryan a hard look. “Is that a problem, O’Neil?”
    Ryan raised his hands. “Nope. Not for us, sir.”
    “The chief...”
    “Excuse me, sir.” Evelyn threw a shielded glance at Ryan. “The chief?”
    Chief Diaz had been responsible for bringing her to the Seattle Police Department. He, Captain Kessler and Ryan were the only officers privy to her complete, sealed file. Though she knew the chief had watched over her—and her career—like a concerned older brother, once her move had been completed, she’d set out to prove herself,
by
herself. And prove herself she did. Her promotions, as the youngest woman to make detective, had been of her own merit. Still, she wasn’t deaf to the murmurs that the chief favored her.
    Having him involved tonight spelled disaster. She took a deep breath and shifted her weight. Kessler’s blue eyes were dark with concern.
    She didn’t need any more trouble from Sanderson. Her working relationship with him had gone from bad to worse when she had made detective before him. He’d protested just loud enough and made a not-so-subtle hint about her connection with the chief. It was a load of shit. But still...try as she might to ignore his egotistical arrogance and remain calm and professional, he always found a