The Chessman

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Book: Read The Chessman for Free Online
Authors: Jeffrey B. Burton
the entrance. The cleaning crew from Queenstown had been confused about that sign as well as how it had gotten there. The sign, which looked like something you could pick up at a dollar store, was not one of theirs. Their records did not indicate that any facility at the rest area was not in working condition. The crew went inside, immediately noticing a set of legs extending beneath the stall. They might have thought something else was happening if not for the blood…and the smell. Evidently death was the ultimate laxative. Queenstown PD took the call, but when the chess piece went over the wire, a handful of FBI special agents, led back then by Cady, swarmed to the death site.
    The chess piece linked Alain Zalentine’s murder directly to the Sanfield case. The related murders had crossed state lines, or, more accurately, crossed from the District of Columbia into Maryland, as D. C. was not part of any U.S. state. As such, the crimes entered FBI jurisdiction and Cady found himself building a task force on the fly in order to work closely with state and local authorities because, contrary to popular belief and Hollywood depictions, the bureau did not swoop in and take over cases from the powers that be.
    Queenstown PD had already contacted Beverly Hills PD. A squad car with a grief counselor was en route to the Zalentine mansion to notify Alain’s parents. Queenstown had also networked with the Cambridge, Maryland Police Department. They had so far been unable to contact Brother Adrien via his home or cell phone, numbers which had immediately been provided by Verizon-Maryland. Cambridge was sending a squad over to the Dorchester Towers, where the Zalentine twins each owned a luxury condo, to see if they could rustle up the missing Zalentine sibling.
    Unlike the hustle and bustle of an identically named city in Massachusetts, Cambridge, Maryland was laid back, quiet and tranquil…or it had been. The Cambridge DA had been alerted. The victim, an heir to Zalentine Diamonds, would make this a high-profile case, and every move taken would have to be done per protocol—by the proverbial book—for it to be solid in court. Agent Cady immediately realized why they were taking these precautions. Brother Adrien was off the radar and the detectives were considering the potential of this being a Bubba Bump, as most murders are committed by someone the victim knew, very likely a family member. Adrien, for the time being, was a prime suspect—think Paris Hilton as a psycho killer. If that proved to be the case, a courtroom media circus would most certainly be on the horizon. A celebrity killing on the docket in the Queenstown courthouse. Cady could see the promo:
Cain and Abel Slaying Rocks Sleepy Berg
, news at eleven. Yes, the district attorneys in both Queenstown and Cambridge were going to be involved every step of the way.
    But first they had to find Brother Adrien.
    Referring to them as luxury condos was the understatement of the year. Alain and Adrien owned the top floor of the Dorchester Towers, off Washington Street, near the city center. Both had sizable three-bedroom condos, but the rest of the floor was dedicated to a gymnasium that would make high-end fitness clubs flip cartwheels in envy, a movie theater that could seat one hundred people, and a game room the size of Fort Knox, containing everything from classic pinball machines to Donkey Kong and Pac-Man to multiple Game-box, PlayStation, and Wii setups. Yet another section contained a fully-stocked bar in the model of Disney World meets Disco. Cady had walked the floor to get a sense of how Alain lived. All in all, it was a sixteen-year-old male’s wet dream.
    Alain, in better days, had been wiry—thin but muscular—six-even, with a model’s head of blond hair parted to the right. Ditto identical twin Adrien, Cady noted from pictures lining the hallway walls of Alain’s condo. Except Adrien’s hair was parted on the left, which made for an interesting face-on

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