Black Pawn (Michael Cailen Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

you
know how I like my coffee?”
    “Just a guess.”  A slight smirk crossed his lips, but she
couldn't see that.
    It wasn't a guess.  He had already been to her apartment
that morning and learned a lot about her from it.  He left early to pick up a
paper and figured he'd kill two birds with one stone and check out Jessica's home.
    While scoping out her apartment from a distance, he spotted
two guys sitting in a gold Ford Taurus just down the street.
    “Well, well, well. What do we have here?  Dumb and dumber.”
    The passenger was wearing an arm brace.  It was the two
surviving shooters from the cafe.  He had wounded one in the shoulder.  Pulling
out his camera, he snapped some pictures, a few close-ups and a few showing the
buildings in the background.  He then drove a block away to a pay phone.  Being
the good citizen that he was, Michael phoned in an anonymous tip that two of
the cafe shooters were sitting on Jessica's street.
    He parked at a nearby shopping plaza, pulled a hooded
sweatshirt from the back and put it on.  He jogged back to Jessica's street,
stopping just near enough to watch the show.
    First, an unmarked police car made a pass by the Taurus. 
The tranquil neighborhood gave no warning of what was about to occur.  Within
minutes, a swarm of police descended upon the two shooters.  As the two men
were on the ground being handcuffed, Michael casually walked down the sidewalk
to the apartment.  From the backseat of a police car, they saw Michael across
the street grinning victoriously at them as he turned to enter Jessica's
apartment building.
     
    IT WAS an upscale apartment.  Michael wondered what
Jessica did for a living working at home that she could afford such a nice
place.  Then he wondered why she was using the crap computer at the cafe when
she no doubt could afford a really nice one of her own.  He quickly picked the
lock on her door and was inside.  It was nicely decorated with fine wool Oriental
rugs scattered throughout.  He moved from the living room to the kitchen and
dining room.  He took stock of what she had in her fridge and cupboards.  Wires
on the counter looked like they went to a laptop, but there wasn't one in sight. 
Next stop was her office.  Here too it looked like there had been a computer at
one time, but it was gone.  The drawers of her desk had been rifled through. 
Someone was looking for something.
    Books filled a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf.  Many looked like
antiques and just for show, but others were apparently bought and read.  He
grabbed one of the latter, an adventure novel.  She liked adventure.  He
wondered if that would still be true after her ordeal.
    There was a basket of mail on her desk, all addressed to
Jessica Nickoli.  He leafed through the pile, but there wasn't anything of
interest.
    Knowing he shouldn't spend too much time,  he moved on to
her bedroom.  He chuckled seeing that she didn't make her bed.  He never made
his bed.  What was the point?  He looked through her nightstand hoping to find
a journal or something, but that probably had been taken as well.
    His eyes fell on a tiny bookshelf in her bedroom.  One of
the books looked a little odd.  He picked it up and realized it wasn't a book, but
a box made to look like a book.  Bingo.  Inside, he found her journal.  That
might come in handy since it seemed she might be with him for a while.  There
was no doubt in his mind they wanted her dead.  Somehow, he would have to
explain that to her.  He briefly searched her dresser drawers.  He was not the
first person searching them and didn't expect to find anything.  She was Plain
Jane in the underwear department he mused, but there was nothing else of
interest.
    He checked out her medicine cabinet, noting the lack of
birth control.  He couldn't help wondering why she was single.  She was
gorgeous and now he knew she had money.  Men should be falling over themselves
to be with her.  Another thing that struck him