Body of Lies Read Online Free

me?”
    “A bundle. New?”
    “Last year.”
    “Sorry I couldn’t help. Maybe you’d better call for a tow truck.”
    “When my car’s dead, my car phone’s dead, too. Do you have a cell phone?”
    The other man smiled. “You seem to be having trouble with mechanical objects. I remember a Stephen King book about machines gone amok. I listened to it on Books on Tape when I was driving through Iowa.”
    Capel tried to keep his temper. “Do you have a phone?” he repeated.
    “Sure, but it’s back at the motel on the charger. I was only going to go out and find a restaurant to have dinner.” He wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. “But hop in and I’ll give you a lift to the nearest service station. I’m new in this area. Do you know where one is?”
    “There’s a Texaco two miles ahead.” Capel hesitated, gazing at the Mercedes.
    “I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”
    “That’s for sure. Piece of lousy junk.” Capel strode over to the passenger side of the Saturn and got in. “Let’s go. I didn’t need this. I left the office early because I’ve got tickets to the basketball game tonight. And then this has to happen. Damn, I hate car trouble. The sooner we get this over with, the better.”
    “That’s what I think. I hate unpleasantness.” Jules Hebert got into the driver’s seat. “Let’s get it over with.”
    Joe turned away from the grave. “We’ll replace the headstone.”
    “I’ve got almost all the paint off.”
    “But every time you look at it, you’ll remember. We’ll get a new headstone. I’ll see to it when I go into work tomorrow.” He looked at her. “You haven’t seen anyone around the place in the past few days?”
    Eve shook her head.
    “Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.”
    “It’s a big property. It’s hard to keep trespassers off it.”
    “It won’t happen again,” Joe repeated. “Go on back to the house while I take a look around.”
    She looked at him warily.
    “Hey, I’m a cop. Let me do my job.”
    But this wasn’t a cop standing before her. He was in protective mode, and Joe could be lethal when he was this angry. “I don’t want you to do your job too well. It was vandalism.”
    “It hurt you,” Joe said flatly. “I won’t allow that. Never again.”
    “And I won’t allow you to kill some kid who thought this was just one big giggle.”
    He was silent a moment. “If it’s a kid, he may get by with learning a lesson he won’t forget. Satisfied?”
    “No.” But it was all she was going to get from him. Eve was beginning to hope they’d never find out who did this awful thing. “You can’t call a forensic team out here to solve a case of vandalism.”
    “I’m pretty good on my own.” Joe turned away. “Go on back to the cottage. Jane needs you. She’s pretty shook up.”
    “Not anymore. She wants to do the same thing as you. She said she was ‘gonna get him.’ ”
    “Good. Smart girl. But she doesn’t have to bother.”
    Eve watched in exasperation as Joe disappeared into the bushes. He was on the hunt, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
    She turned and went down the hill.
    Joe found the footprints almost immediately.
    Not running shoes or mountain boots like most kids wore in this area. Regular shoes. Size eight or nine, and the imprint was shallow so the wearer wasn’t very big.
    And he hadn’t tried to brush the footprints away. It was stupid enough to be a kid. Joe followed the prints down the hill.
    Car tracks.
    It was getting dark. Joe turned on his flashlight as he knelt down and looked at the tracks. He didn’t know enough about tire imprints to identify them. He’d go back to the cottage and get some plaster to make a mold, and then run it through the database at headquarters.
    He didn’t like any of this. His hand clenched on the flashlight as he thought about the grave and Eve’s expression when she’d told him about the defacement.
    He was going to get that son of a