3rd Degree Read Online Free

expecting to hear the Chief; her voice surprised me. “Don't get cranky. It was the only way I could get through.”
    “Not exactly a good time,” I said. “I thought you were that asshole Tracchio, about to nail me to the wall.”
    “Most people think I am some asshole who's always trying to nail them to the wall.”
    “This one signs my checks,” I said, taking a semi relaxed breath for the first time all day.
    Cindy Thomas was part of my inner circle, along with Claire and Jill. She also happened to work for the Chronicle and was one of the top crime reporters in the city.
    “Jesus, Linds, I just heard. I'm in an all-day yoga clinic. In the middle of a `downward dog' when my phone rings. What, I sneak out for a couple of hours and you decide now's the time to be a hero? You all right?”
    “Other than my lungs feeling like they've been lit with lighter fluid... No, I'm okay,” I said. “There's not much I can tell you on this now.”
    “I'm not calling about the crime scene, Lindsay. I was call-ing about you.”
    “I'm okay,” I said again. I didn't know if I was telling the truth. I noticed that my hands were still trembling. And my mouth tasted the bitter smoke of the blast.
    “You want me to meet you?”
    “You wouldn't get within two blocks. Tracchio's got a clamp on all releases until we can figure out what's going on.”
    “Is that a challenge?” Cindy snickered.
    That made me laugh. When I first met her, Cindy had sneaked her way into a Grand Hyatt penthouse suite, the most guarded murder scene in memory. Her whole career sprang from that scoop.
    “No, it's not a challenge, Cindy. But I'm okay. I swear.”
    “Okay, so if all this tender concern is being wasted, what about the crime scene? We are talking a crime scene, aren't we, Lindsay?”
    “If you mean, did the backyard grill flare up at nine on a Sunday morning? Yeah, I guess you could quote me on that. I thought you were out of touch on this, Cindy.” It always amazed me how quickly she got herself up to speed.
    “I'm on it now,” she said. “And while I'm at it, word is that you saved a kid today. You should go home. You've done enough for one day.”
    “Can't. We got a few leads. Wish I could talk about them, but I can't.”
    “I heard there was a baby stolen out of the house. Some sort of twisted kidnapping?”
    “If it is,” I said with a shrug, “they have a new way of handling the potential ransom payers.”
    Cappy Thomas stuck his head in. “Lieutenant, M.E. wants to see you. In the morgue. Now.”

Womans Murder Club 3 - 3rd Degree

Chapter 12
    LEAVE IT TO CLAIRE, San Francisco's chief medical officer, my best friend of a dozen years, to say the one thing in the midst of this madness that would make me cry. “Charlotte Lightower was pregnant.”
    Claire was looking drawn and helpless in her orange sur-gical scrubs. “Two months. Poor woman probably didn't even know herself.”
    I don't know why I found that so sad, but I did. Maybe it made the Lightowers seem like more of a family to me, humanized them.
    “I was hoping to catch up with you sometime today.” Claire gave me a halfhearted smile. “Just didn't envision it like this.”
    “Yeah.” I smiled and wiped a tear from the corner of my eye.
    “I heard what you did,” Claire said. She came over and gave me a hug. “That took a lot of guts, honey. Also, you are a dumb bunny, do you know that?”
    “There was a moment when I wasn't sure I was going to make it out, Claire. There was all this smoke. It was every-where. In my eyes, my lungs. I couldn't see for shit. I just took hold of that little boy and prayed.”
    “You saw the light. It led you out?” Claire smiled.
    “No. Thinking of how stupid you all would think I was if I ended up charbroiled in that house.”
    “Woulda put a bit of a damper on our margarita nights,” she said, nodding.
    “Have I ever told you” - I lifted my head and smiled - “you have a way of putting everything in