Read Eater of Lives(SPECTR #4) for Free Online Page B

it take our
only chance away from us. We won’t. I won’t .
    “ But—”
    No.
    Consideration. “As you wish. We are
strong. Perhaps strong enough to fight, should it come to it. But
better to be quick and clever, to escape it in the first
place.”
    Yes . On that they agreed—she didn’t
want to be anywhere near the monster they’d sensed. Come
Saturday, we’ll be booking our ticket. Anywhere we want to go. But
we have to get through Friday first.
    Fear receded, giving way to glorious
numbness, as if someone held an ice cube against her emotions.
    “ Agreed.”
    Almost crying in relief, Valerie hurried back
toward her apartment.

Chapter 5
     
    “Here.” John put a big cup of soup and a mug
of coffee in front of the homeless man from the alley. He refused
to give any name besides “Ray,” and as he didn’t have any
identification on him, John figured it would do. Sure, they could
run his prints, but in the long term it didn’t matter.
    Ray eyed him suspiciously. They sat in one of
the interrogation rooms, along with Sean and Kelly Rand, the
empath. “This some kind of ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine? I know how
this goes. I seen it all on TV.”
    “Well, we aren’t cops, and we’re all good,”
John said with a reassuring smile. Sean rolled his eyes. “We just
have a few questions about your jacket here.”
    The item in question lay on the table in
between them, already tagged and admitted into the evidence chain.
Ray slurped his soup and looked at it forlornly. “Y’all are going
to keep it, ain’t you?”
    “I’m afraid so.” John had brought the spare
coat he kept in his office against unexpectedly cold days in the
spring. He handed it across the table. “You can have this one
instead, if you’d like. It only seems fair.”
    Ray took the coat and inspected it. “I liked
the other one better. Flashier.”
    “Take it back, John,” Sean suggested with a
scowl.
    Ray glared at him. “He gave it to me,
asshole.”
    “He didn’t have to. Show a little
gratitude.”
    “Dude is stealing my fucking coat, and I’m
supposed to be grateful?”
    “This coat belonged to a woman suspected of
killing and cannibalizing at least two men, while under the
influence of an NHE,” John said, cutting him off. He pointed at a
dark stain on the silver fabric. “This looks like blood. If it
matches one of the victims…”
    Ray paled. “Shit. Keep the fucking thing. I
don’t know nothing about it.”
    “I believe you. Just tell us how the coat
came into your possession.”
    “Found it.”
    “Where?” Sean asked sharply.
    “I’m thinking, okay? Give me a goddamn minute
here.” Ray wrapped his arms around himself and shuddered. “I found
it kind of stuffed in between a couple of bags of garbage by a
dumpster. Somewhere off East Bay St. I don’t remember more, okay?
Not like I figured I’d get hauled in for it.”
    Damn. Not much to go on. “How long ago?”
    Ray shrugged. “I dunno. One, maybe two weeks
ago?”
    John glanced at Rand, who gave him a small
nod. Ray had told the truth, which meant they probably weren’t
going to get anything more out of him.
    “Finish your soup,” John said, rising to his
feet. “Then you’re free to go.”
    “There a reward, maybe?” Ray asked
hopefully.
    “Sorry.”
    “Cheap-ass mother fuckers.”
    “What a waste of time,” Sean said, as soon as
they were out of the interrogation room.
    “It didn’t live up to my hopes,” John
admitted. “But we had to try. I’ll take a few pictures of the coat
for the file, then turn it into evidence and let forensics take a
whack at the blood stain.”
    Caleb waited in John’s office, his heavy
boots propped on the desk. Forsyth had left to answer emails and
make phone calls, without saying whether or not he’d be coming back
before the end of the day.
    “Boots off the desk,” John said automatically
as he walked in.
    “Wolves raised me. In a barn,” Caleb said,
but he did as asked. His gaze tracked the silver