Read In Death 15 - Purity in Death for Free Online Page B

married I see little lovebirds circling over your head."
    It mortified, right down to her toes. "Roarke's not the only one who can knock you unconscious."
    "I really like the look of you." He grinned when her eyes narrowed. "Just looking," he assured her. "No touching. Learned my lesson there. You can trust me to keep it clean, personally and professionally. That good enough for you?"
    "If it wasn't, I wouldn't have called you."
    "Check. I'll be in touch." He opened the door, glanced back. He really did like the look of her - lean and tough and sexy. "Thanks for the coffee."
    Alone, she shook her head. She could hear the noise level drop into silence from the bullpen as Webster walked through it. He'd chosen a very hard road, she thought. A badge who policed other badges was regarded with suspicion, derision, and fear.
    A slippery line to walk. She supposed, all in all, she liked him well enough to hope he kept his balance.
    She checked her wrist unit, judged how much longer Trueheart would be in Testing. More than enough time, she thought, for her to browbeat Morris for results on Cogburn.
    ***
    They were stacked and racked and packed in the morgue. Rarely in eleven years on the job had Eve seen so many corpses in one place at one time.
    A trio of the bagged and tagged were laid out on gurneys and shoved against the wall outside of one of the autopsy suites.
    Take a number, she thought. Too late to be protected, but you'll be served eventually.
    As Eve strode down the bright white corridor of the dead, Peabody hustled beside her.
    "Man, this place is always a little spooky, but this is beyond. You know how you half expect one of these bags to sit up and grab at you?"
    "No. Wait out here. If one of them makes a run for it, give me a call."
    "I don't think that's particularly funny." And watching the still black bags warily, Peabody took her post at the door.
    Inside Morris was busy at work, a laser scalpel mid-way through the Y cut on one of the six bodies splayed out on tables.
    He wore goggles over his pleasant face, a plastic hood over his long, dark braided hair, and a clear protective coat over a natty navy blue suit.
    "What's the point in having voice mail if you don't talk to it?" Eve demanded.
    "A lot of unexpected company dropped in this morning, due to an airtram collision. Didn't you catch the report? Bodies dropping out of the sky like flying monkeys."
    "If they could fly they wouldn't be bagged and tagged. How many?"
    "Twelve dead, six injured. Some jerk in an airmini rammed it. Tram pilot managed to hold the controls most of the way down, but people panicked. Add to that the knife fight at a club that took both participants and one bystander, the Jane Doe female found stuffed in a recycler, and your everyday bashings, bludgeonings, and brutalities and we've got ourselves a full house."
    "I've got a police termination with some questions. Rookie uniform stuns crazy guy, crazy guy dies. No sign of stunner contact on vic. Stunner confiscated from officer was set on low."
    "Then it didn't kill him."
    "He's dead as the rest of your guests."
    Morris completed his Y cut. "Only way a noncontact zap with a uniform stunner would take out a man, crazy or not, would be if said potential crazy man had a respiratory or neurological condition of such seriousness that the electronic jolt acerbated it and led to termination."
    It was exactly what she'd wanted to hear. "If that's the case, it's not actually a termination by maximum force."
    "Technically, no. However-"
    "Technically will do. Be a pal, Morris, take a look at him. It's Trueheart."
    Morris looked up and shoved the goggles up. "The kid with the peach fuzz on his face that looks like a screen ad for toothpaste?"
    "That's the one. He's in Testing. IAB's next. And something doesn't hang about the way this went down. He could use a break."
    "Let me look him up."
    "He's over there. Number four in line." She jerked a thumb.
    "Let me pull the report up."
    "I can-"
    "Let me