Delta Stevens 2: Storm Shelter Read Online Free

entourage.
    Bending over the body for a better look, Delta studied the knife hilt, which was about six inches long and bejeweled with red, green and blue stones. The design on the metal blade appeared antiquated, perhaps from another country. And the double-snake design gave it a distinctly ancient flavor. Besides the beauty of the handle, Delta noted that the knife had been driven so hard into the back of the dead man that none of the blade was showing; the hilt rested squarely against the blood-soaked lab jacket of the victim. Delta wondered if the victim had seen the knife coming. Had he known he was about to die? Was he trying to escape the brutal death awaiting him? Did he look into the face of his murderer before he died? Was that why his eyes were still open? Shrugging off her questions, Delta turned to Jan and sighed.
    “Whoever did this is awfully strong,” Delta remarked, staring at the gleaming handle.
    “Or awfully angry.”
    Delta didn’t seem to hear this. Instead, she examined the hilt more closely. In the Academy, she had taken a couple of courses on weapons, and this particular knife wasn’t what it initially appeared.
    “It’s a dagger,” she stated.
    “You suppose those stones are real?”
    “Hard to tell.” Rising, Delta was careful to avoid touching or stepping on anything that might be evidence. “I doubt it. Our murderer would probably have taken it with him if it was worth anything.”
    “You think this is a burglar caught in the act?” Jan asked, looking around at the apparently untouched goods in the store.
    “Hardly. Look. The keys are in the drug cabinet and there isn’t one bottle knocked over.”
    Jan joined Delta at the counter. “Whoa. Whoever did this could have cleaned the place out and made a few thousand bucks on street sales.”
    “Precisely my point. They didn’t.”
    Jan nodded slowly. “Motive?” Jan had worked with Delta long enough to know of her penchant for a good murder mystery.
    “Too early to call,” Delta mused, studying the corpse, the dagger, and the pill cabinet. On the wall above the back counter, were pictures of the store’s employees. Delta didn’t need to look twice to know which picture was of the dead man. “That poor guy came awfully close to getting away, didn’t he?”
    Jan shuddered. The blood had coagulated and was already beginning to emit the stench of death. “Just what we need. Another murder in our fair city. Any more of these and the D.A. is gonna have somebody for lunch.”
    Delta grinned. “Well, it’s not going to be us.”
    In the near distance, Delta heard the approaching sirens turn the corner and roar into the parking lot. She could tell by the squeal of the tires which Homicide detective had been assigned to the case, and she cringed at the thought.
    “Those detectives. don’t they ever sleep? How in the hell did they get here before back-up?”
    “You already said it. The D.A. is getting tired of people being murdered with nary a suspect to pin it on. She’s been running those homicide boys overtime. If they don’t come up with someone fast, she may just bust them down to dog catcher.”
    Delta nodded, remembering last night’s muster when the Sarge had said re-election time was coming up and the D.A. needed a suspect for the two unsolved murders in the past three months. Delta hated the politics of law enforcement. She wanted cops to catch the killers because that’s what they were paid to do, not because the District Attorney needed a solid case to try. Still, D.A. Alexandria Pendleton had been good to the cops in River Valley and if nailing a suspect would insure her a second term, Delta was all for it. It was Alexandria Pendleton who put Miles’s murderers behind bars for a long, long time.
    Still looking at the corpse, Delta averted her eyes from the pool of dull red blood. “Wonder why the killer let him get so close to escaping?”
    Jan shrugged. “Maybe he knew the guy.”
    “Maybe. Or maybe our man is