Read DeathWeb (Fox Meridian Book 3) for Free Online Page B

‘That was more or less my doing and he agreed not to fight the case so hard if I would investigate the death of his granddaughter. Patricia Anne Randall was this killer’s first victim. Kidnapped from Central Park on a run. Her naked, battered body was found in the old Hell’s Kitchen area three days later. When Kit was running the basic background stuff, acquaintances and such, she dug up two more very similar murders so I had her keep looking.’
    ‘Your PA is very capable,’ Deveraux said, smiling again.
    ‘She is,’ Fox replied, taking a data stick with the Palladium logo on it from her pocket and placing it on the desk. ‘Everything she collected.’
    ‘I may try to hire her away from you.’ He picked up the stick. ‘You would like to be kept apprised of any results, I assume?’
    Fox nodded. ‘I’m not NAPA so there’s no extradition or anything for them to worry over. If they can nail this guy, they can maybe charge him with additional crimes. If they could see their way to letting me have the case files…’
    ‘I’ll see what I can do. I’ll push your impressive record and suggest you may spot something they have not. I’ll see if I can get the data from South Africa as well, share it all around. It is, after all, what the UNTPP is meant to be here for.’
    Fox smiled at him again. ‘I’m really glad someone in this place remembers that. Oh, and you can’t have Kit. She’s my gorgeous assistant.’
    ~~~
    ‘Thank you, Fox,’ Kit said as Fox went down in the elevator.
    ‘What for?’
    ‘Describing me as your “gorgeous assistant.”’
    ‘Huh. My pleasure.’
    ‘Of course, I am yours and would not think of getting another job.’
    Fox nodded. ‘Of course. Then again, you could be reprogrammed to say the same thing to a new owner.’
    ‘That… is true. Would you give me away to Captain Deveraux?’
    ‘Hell no! You’re my gorgeous assistant. I think it’s kind of wrong that I could do that anyway. And Terri would, in all likelihood, perform brain surgery on me with a rusty spoon.’
    ‘Quite an image, but I suspect that that is medically unsound. An internet search does not show any instances where brain surgery with a rusty spoon resulted in death, but I still think it’s not recommended.’
    ‘Ha ha.’ The elevator stopped and Fox walked out, heading across the broad lobby to a nearby slideway. ‘Should get there in time for the next chat, right?’
    ‘Inspector Cant is expecting us in twenty minutes,’ Kit replied. ‘I’m not sure he will offer us coffee, however.’
    Fox stepped onto the slideway and moved over to lean on the rail. The moving sidewalk was a direct connection between the precinct building and New York Tower, but it did not see a lot of traffic. The shrinking business of government administration did not produce high traffic to and from the local NAPA facility.
    ‘I expect him to be grumpy and useless, probably growling and threatening. I agree there is unlikely to be coffee.’
    ‘Given your feelings,’ Kit said, appearing on the track in front of Fox, ‘why are you even bothering to interview him?’
    ‘He was just Detective Cant then and he was not a bad detective. Good closure rate. I bet it burned to find a serial and then have him vanish. I’m hoping it burned enough that he’ll want the guy caught even now.’
    Cant did not look especially pleased to see Fox, and he did not offer her coffee. However, she had had time to stop off and get a plastic cup of the stuff, or what passed for it in precinct 19’s HQ, on the way up. Cant sat behind his desk, in an office almost identical to the one Fox had had, and did not get up when she was shown through by one of the junior detectives. Cant was a big man, intimidating, Fox imagined, to some. Six-one or thereabouts, a lot of solid muscle which was mostly natural. He was a blonde, but one with something of a slabby face, his nose showing signs of a break he had never had fixed, his eyes a dull grey. If