Read Copp On Ice, A Joe Copp Thriller (Joe Copp Private Eye Series) for Free Online Page A

wife who cannot tolerate public humiliation."
           "But then you have Delilah," I suggested.
           He frowned, and she glared, and I apologized. "Sorry. That's out of line. Even in a murder case."
           "Who was murdered?"
           I shot a quick glance at Turner, then said to Murray,"You didn't hear?"
           He looked her way too. She told him, in a very small voice, "I hadn't gotten to that."
           I told her, "It's the news of the night. Why hadn't you. gotten to it?"
           She said, "I'm not on duty right now, Chief, and I am not even in your jurisdiction right now. So why don't you save the interrogation until later?"
           "That's not what I'd call it, Turner. What kind of cop are you? What kind of woman? You hightail it to Craggy Lane before there's time to get tags on the victims' toes, then shoot a dog and dash down here for Smalltalk with your ex-boss—and that's why you hadn't gotten to it? Come on, give it a break! You're not on duty? The hell you're not on duty!"
           "What's this all about?" Murray asked worriedly.
           "I made a jerk out of myself this afternoon," Turner told him in a voice trembling with suppressed rage. "Manning and Peterson set me up to help them discourage a certain private detective from nosing around the problems in Brighton. A few hours later I'm called in with the rest of the department to meet our new chief, and it's the same certain private detective we rousted. I tried to explain it but apparently he is a very unforgiving man and now he's trying to roust me back."
    I said, "That's bullshit and you know it's bullshit. I'm not here to play games or footsies with you or anyone, and I didn't tail you tonight to embarrass or harass you. Has it occurred to you. Detective Turner, that the same shooter who found Manning and Peterson could be laying his sights on you too?"
    She responded to that only with the eyes, and they seemed a bit squelched—maybe by fear or anxiety, maybe by something else.
    Murray cried, "What are you saying? Manning and Peterson have been .. . ?"
    "Yeah," I said soberly, "yeah, they have been. Who's next on the list? What the hell is going down here, Chief?"
    It was like he hadn't heard me. "Oh my God," he groaned.
    I asked, "Were the four of you involved in something?"
    He responded to that one, raised his hand slightly above the head and made a sign in the air. A big, mean-looking Mexican was at my side instantly. Murray instructed him, "Show the gentleman where the door is, Billy."
    I pushed Billy away and allowed him to see the immediate future in my eyes. "I know where it's at," I told him.
    "Show the gentleman," from Murray.
    Turner stirred and came to my defense. "I'll show him,"
    she said quickly. She had to brush past me to get out of the booth.
           Murray growled, "It's okay, Lila. Sit down." She said, "No, I'll..."
           We walked out arm in arm, and she whispered to me as we cleared the door, "Well, now that was really dumb!" Maybe so, but it was only the beginning of dumb.
     

 
    CHAPTER SIX
     
    Right up to the last moment , there, I'd been developing a good feeling about Tim Murray. Now I wasn't so sure, and I wanted to talk to Detective Turner about that but she was not overly receptive to my conversation or to my presence in her off-duty life. "Let's find some quiet place to talk," I suggested as we walked through the parking lot outside The Dee-light Zone.
           "I've got day shift tomorrow," she said pointedly. "Maybe you can function without sleep but everyone else can't."
           "You've been doing okay so far," I reminded her, glancing at my watch. "Night's shot already anyway. Why did Murray throw me out?"
           "Same reason as me, probably," she replied with a tired grimace. "I'm throwing you out too. It's a rule I have. Chief. I don't fraternize with the brass off-duty."
           "You were fraternizing with