Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) Read Online Free

finger?”
    “Right.”
    “You said four you know of, you think there may be more than that?”
    “I’m not sure what to think.”
    “Let me do some checking on this end, I’ll be waiting for you at the hotel.”
    “Cheers,” Jimmy said and hung up.
    “Homicide” the voice answered three minutes later.
    “Detective Manning,” I said, against my better judgment.
    “Who’s calling?”
    “Devlin Haskell, ” knowing this was bound to slow things up.
    “Just a minute.”
    I knew it wouldn’t be a minute, or two or even three. I waited for close to ten , was just a bout to hang up when he graced me with his voice.
    “Manning.”
    “Detective Manning, Devlin Haskell.”
    “Oh, damn it, it’s you calling. I thought they said someone was calling you in DOA. My mistake,” he said, then cracked the ever present piece of gum into the phone.
    “Sorry to ruin your day, Detective.”
    “I’m used to it,” he said, not joking.
    “Say , I just wanted to touch base with you. I’m providing security for an individual and she…”
    “ Security? You? She must be nuts.”
    I ignored his comment.
    “She’s been receiving threats for some time. The thing ’ s escalated to some nut case mailing her human fingers. She started receiving… ”
    “This that English Roller Derby broad, Harlotte Davidson?”
    “Yeah, as a matter of fact.”
    “They’re heading our way from Denver ?”
    “Yeah.”
    “We’re aware of it.”
    “What are you doing about it?”
    “Doing about it?”
    “Yeah, is there a plan, are you putting extra people on?”
    “Extra people? Have you read the damn newspapers or turned off the cartoons and watched the news the l ast couple years? We’re down by almost fifteen percent . Put some people on, gee, why didn’t I think of that ? Tell you what, I’ll just walk over to the squad room, you know find a-half-dozen guys who are sitting around eating doughnuts and tell them to stand by. In fact , g ood thing you called, now you can tell them, here hang on a minute, just let me put you on speaker phone.”
    “I’ll take that as a no, there isn’t a plan.”
    “A plan, yeah I got a plan. We’re watching every post office, one of those envelopes comes in with no return address we’ll be the first to let you know.”
    “They weren’t all mailed, the fingers.”
    “You must be referring to Chicago where the guy slipped it under the door of the hotel room?”
    “Not just Chicago, Detective.”
    “You mean the envelope taped to the door of the bus in Denver last night ? Checked out like all the others.”
    “Have you guys thought of maybe runni ng the fingerprint on the thing. I mean , does it strike you as strange you got four people missing a finger and no one has reported an assault or a body or a missing person or anything? ”
    “Wow, Sherlock, amazing you aren’t a cop with all those great ideas you have. Yeah, I think the various departments thought about running the fingerprint, just one problem , there isn’t one.”
    “Isn’t one?”
    “The finger print, it’s missing. Whoever’s doing this cut s off the finger tip. Anything else you care to add? Pardon the pun, ” Manning chuckled at his humor.
    “Do you have a plan?” I asked again, not sounding too sure.
    “A plan? Yeah, I got a plan. Hope nothing happens here and that they’re all out of our jurisdiction sooner rather than later. How’s that sound to you, Haskell?”
    “Sounds like a pl an detective .”
    “Always a pleasure,” he said , and hung up.
     
    Ch apter Six
    Jimmy McNaughton and the Hasting s Hustlers arrived about seven that night. They looked like you’d expect after riding on a bus for a thousand hours from Denver up to St. Paul , tired and cranky.
    “Right, the girls will check in, meet in the lobby in an hour or so. I’d say that gives us just enough time to get acquainted over a pint . Lead on, mate, ” Jimmy said , fleeing the checkin scene in the lobby and sounding like he could use a