Charged - Book One Read Online Free Page B

bolts were now the only parts still
working. I set Zero and the baloney on my desk so he wouldn’t get
glass in his paws.
    I wasn’t really that surprised to see the apartment
had been ransacked. If you throw enough people in jail, eventually
one of them is going to come back after they are released and show
you, in one way or another, that they’re pissed. I was kind of
shocked it hadn’t happened more. But the flat-screen wasn’t gone
and my watch was still on the table. As much as I would’ve liked to
believe it was someone from the past, it wasn’t. Someone was
looking for the box. I sat down at my desk and thought about who
could’ve possibly known I had the box, besides Aaron.
    It only took me a second to realize I’d made a
mistake. Someone besides the cops had already searched Richie’s
earlier this week and no one would’ve known I found anything if I’d
patched the hole in the wall. I was getting rusty.
    I didn’t bother calling the cops; it would just be
more paper work for them and nothing of value was taken as far as I
could tell. I had all my guns on me. Plus, I could already hear the
comments regarding my very small dog. Not worth it. I could’ve
scooped up the multitude of shards of glass and had Aaron inspect
them for prints, but my gut told me it would be useless.
    Then the cell in my pocket vibrated. I pulled it out
and the screen showed Marie’s number.
    “Hello.”
    “Lewis, its Marie. You find anything?”
    It was obvious Marie knew more than she was letting
on. There’s a huge difference, I thought, between the questions,
“you find anything?” and “you find anything out?” She should have
asked the latter.
    “Nothing,” I said.
    “Oh.”
    “How about you? The cops have any leads?”
    “No, nothing. You used to be a cop; don’t you keep in
touch with the old buddies?”
    I was slightly irritated by the ‘used to be part.’
Like cops ever stop being cops. “Not recently,” I said, knowing
this was a lie. I hadn’t seen any of my old buddies in years. “What
was Richie last into?”
    “I couldn’t tell you, Lewis. We hadn’t spoken for a
long time. But if you find anything, anything at all, please call
me. I gotta go. Talk to you later.”
    She hung up quickly, like someone was rushing her to
get off the phone. Red flag number two. She wasn’t going to answer
any of my questions. A part of me wondered if it was her who had
vandalized my place. It was too much of a coincidence that she
would call right afterwards. Plus, if she hadn’t kept in contact
with Richie, why did she go looking for him in the first place? And
why did she sound scared? Scared for me, or for herself? Either
way, it was doubtful her apartment looked like mine.
    I thought about all of this for too long. I came to
the conclusion that I had to search Richie’s one more time. I
proceeded to clean up the glass on the kitchen floor and would head
back to Richie’s tomorrow.

CHAPTER
7             
     
    WHEN I RETURNED TO RICHIE’S, I was a little more
cautious. I parked a couple blocks down from the laundromat. Since
the cane was a dead giveaway to someone looking for me, I left it
in the truck and tried not to limp. I also brought in a basket of
old clothes and proceeded to put them through a cycle.
    The laundromat itself was dirty, not any place I’d
actually wash anything. Two women were also there, washing clothes.
When everything felt right, I headed outside, lit a smoke and
slowly walked to the stairs around the outside of the building that
led to Richie’s flat. As I reached the top of the stairs, I noticed
I wasn’t alone and I quickly stubbed out my smoke.
    Standing in the center of Richie’s dinky living space
was a beautiful woman, bending over the coffee table rifling
through a stack of papers. The girlfriend? This made me pause as I
peered through the door, which was only slightly open. After a
moment, I noticed she was model-like, but not in a frail, bony way.
Her face