Read Circle of Influence (A Zoe Chambers Mystery) for Free Online

warm again. Earl blasted the heater inside the ambulance’s cab during the long, treacherous drive from the game lands to the morgue in Brunswick. While the heat managed to penetrate her parka, it failed to chase the chill from her bones. She clamped her gloved hands under her armpits, but her fingers still ached from the cold.
    They wasted no time delivering their charge to the attendant and filling out the paperwork. As soon as Ted’s body was wheeled into the cooler, Zoe bolted for the door.
    In all her years as a paramedic, and more recently as deputy coroner, the worst thing was arriving on scene to discover she knew the patient. Or victim. But she’d never before dealt with the death of a close friend.
    Poor Rose. And the kids.
    “You okay?” Earl asked as he steered out of the parking lot.
    “What do you think?” Zoe snapped.
    “Sorry. Stupid question.”
    She stared out the front window at the fat snowflakes, like a swarm of insects flying into their headlights.
    Had Pete talked to Rose yet? When they’d parted company at the game lands, he had left Seth and Nate Williamson, one of his part-time officers who’d arrived with the tow truck, to secure the crime scene until County arrived. Pete had been on his way to talk to Joe Mendez. But after that, he’d have to notify Ted’s family. His next of kin.
    Zoe’s cell phone rang, and she tugged off her gloves to answer it.
    “Where are you?” Pete’s voice asked.
    “On our way back from the morgue. Have you seen Rose?”
    “I’m heading there next.”
    There was a moment of silence on the line, and Zoe feared they’d been disconnected.
    But then he continued. “I thought you’d like to be there when I talked to her.”
    The word “Yes” came off her tongue before she had a chance to think. “But—I’m still on duty for another five hours or so.”
    Earl never took his eyes off the snow-covered road. “Do what you need to do,” he said. “All things considered, no one’ll say anything about you taking the rest of the night off.”
    If her partner wasn’t married with three kids, she’d have kissed him right then and there. “We’re a good ten, maybe twelve miles from Dillard,” she told Pete, “and we’re making lousy time on these roads.”
    “I’ll meet you next to the old Convenient Mart. Take your time.”
    Forty-five minutes later, Earl eased into the unplowed parking lot of what had been Dillard’s only grocery store. Snow clung to the Real Estate For Sale sign concealing the details of the available retail space. Pete’s SUV sat next to the building.
    Zoe thanked her partner as she stepped out of the ambulance. He waved and pulled out, the tire chains biting into the snow and ice.
    “How about we stop at the house first,” Pete said as Zoe settled into the passenger seat. “Then you can stay with Rose and the kids while I go break the news to Sylvia. I’ll bring her over afterwards.”
    “Sylvia doesn’t know yet?”
    “That’s one reason I kept all communications off the air. She’s manning the radio back at the station.”
    “Oh.” Learning your son was dead over a police radio transmission would be horrific. Not that there was any good way of receiving news like that.
    Pete wheeled the SUV out of the parking lot and coasted down the snow-covered hill, easing around the sharp bend at the bottom. Ted and Rose Bassi’s house sat at the end of a narrow side street.  The porch light was on, but otherwise the house was dark.
    “I’m surprised,” Zoe said. “You’d think Rose would be waiting up.” She pictured her friend wearing a hole in the kitchen floor, pacing, wondering where her husband was. A deeper chill ran up her spine. “Something isn’t right.”
    “She probably just fell asleep waiting for Ted to come home.”
    Zoe studied Pete’s face, searching for a sign that he really believed what he said and wasn’t just trying to keep her calm. But he’d been a cop too long to give away his true