Library of the Dead Read Online Free Page A

Benjamin, Ronald, and I have discussed this."
    Will marveled at the news. "Mueller? He's younger than you are! Fricking marathon runner. How the hell did he have a stroke?"
    "He had a hole in his heart no one picked up before," she said. "A small blood clot from his leg floated through and went up to his brain. That's what I was told. Pretty scary how that could happen."
    Will loathed Mueller. Smug, wiry shithead. Everything by the book. Totally insufferable, the SOB still made snarky comments to his face about his blow-up--insulated, the bastard supposed, by his leper status. Hope he walks and talks like a retard for the rest of his life, was the first notion that came to mind. "Christ, that's too bad," he said instead.
    "We need you to take the Doomsday case."
    It took almost supernatural strength to prevent himself from telling her to screw herself.
    It should have been his case from the start. In fact it was nothing short of outrageous that it hadn't been offered to him the day it hit the office. Here he was, one of the most accomplished serial killing experts in the Bureau's recent history, passed over for a marquee case right in his jurisdiction. It was a measure of how damaged his career was, he supposed. At the time, the snub stung like hell, but he'd gotten over it quickly enough and come to believe he had dodged a bullet.
    He was on the homestretch. Retirement was like a glistening watery mirage in the desert, just out of reach. He was done with ambition and striving, he was done with office politics, he was done with murders and death. He was tired and lonely and stuck in a city he disliked. He wanted to go home. With a pension.
    He chewed on the bad piece of news. Doomsday had rapidly become the office's highest profile case, the kind that demanded an intensity he hadn't brought to the table in years. Long days and blown weekends weren't the issue. Thanks to Jennifer, he had all the time in the world. The problem was in the mirror, because--as he would tell anyone who asked--he simply no longer gave a damn. You needed raging ambition to solve a serial killing case, and that flame had long ago sputtered and died. Luck was important too, but in his experience, you succeeded by busting your hump and creating the environment for luck to do its capricious thing.
    Beyond that, Mueller's partner was a young Special Agent, only three years out of Quantico, who was so imbued with devout ambition and agency rectitude that he likened her to a religious fanatic. He had observed her hustling around the twenty-third floor, speed-walking through the corridors, profoundly humorless and sanctimonious, taking herself so seriously it made him ill.
    He leaned forward, almost ashen. "Look, Susan," he began, his voice rising, "this is not a good idea. That ship has sailed. You should have asked me to do the case a few weeks ago, but you know what? It was the right call. At this point, it's not good for me, it's not good for Nancy, it's not good for the office, the Bureau, the taxpayers, the victims, and the goddamned future victims! You know it and I know it!"
    She got up to shut the door then sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. The rasp of her panty hose rubbing against itself momentarily distracted him from his rant. "Yes, I'll keep my voice down," he volunteered, "but most of all, it's terrible for you. You're in the chute. You've got Major Thefts and Violent Crimes, the branch with the second-highest visibility in New York! This Doomsday asshole gets caught on your watch, you move up. You're a woman, you're ethnic, a few years you're an assistant director at Quantico, maybe a Supervisory Special Agent in D.C. The sky's the limit. Don't fuck it up by involving me, that's my friendly advice."
    She gave him a stare to freeze mud. "I certainly appreciate this reverse mentoring, Will, but I don't think I want to rely on career advice from a man who is sliding down the org chart. Believe me, I don't love this idea, but we've gone