Delta Stevens 2: Storm Shelter Read Online Free Page A

just a real sicko.”
    Jan shook her head. “Aren’t they all?”
    “Who? Men or murderers?”
    Jan shrugged. “Aren’t they usually the same?”
    “Why, my little partner, I do believe I just heard a sexist comment coming from the old married one.” Delta winked, but she could see that the smell of blood was nauseating Jan.
    “I’m just sick of the whole murder scene thing.”
    Delta nodded and knelt down for one last look at the dagger before Forensics showed up and confiscated it. “I may be way off here, Jan, but something in my gut is telling me that what we have here is more than just a single murder.”
    “Well, do us both a favor and keep your ideas to yourself. The last time you offered to help Detective Leonard, he nearly had you suspended. Let this one go, Del.”
    Delta withdrew her notepad from her pocket and quickly drew a sketch of the hilt. She knew Forensics would have plenty of pictures of the hilt by the time they were through with it, but that didn’t guarantee she would ever be allowed to see them.
    Glancing at Delta sketching, Jan shook her head. “Delta . . .”
    “I know what I’m doing, Jan. Trust me. Something tells me we’re going to see this guy’s handiwork more than just once.”
    Jan groaned. “And something tells me that we’ve just entered the game.”
    Delta grinned. “Bingo.”

Chapter 4

    The stench of blood and death still lingering in her nasal passages, Delta plopped down on the chair next to Connie, a striking Mexican woman, who was navigating a little, dwarf-like creature through a maze on her computer. Once the elf was safe atop a giant toadstool, Connie turned and greeted Delta with a flawless smile.
    “Hi, Con,” Delta said softly. “You and Eddie winning?”
    “Eddie” was the name Connie had given her computer years ago.
    Connie grinned widely as she answered, “Do ducks pooh in the water?”
    Delta forced a grin. “Luckily, I wouldn’t know.”
    The constrained grin did not go unnoticed. Turning the monitor off,
    Connie reached over and laid her hand on Delta’s knee. “You okay?”
    Delta glanced sideways toward the women’s bathroom to signal that she needed privacy. What she was going to say wasn’t for general consumption.
    Once in the bathroom, Delta paced over to the far wall. She had waited all night to talk to Connie about her fears of failing at her relationship—not that she wasn’t comfortable talking to Jan, but Connie really understood her relationship with Megan. Connie had been there since its onset and well knew the hurdles Delta and Megan had faced and surmounted.
    Connie folded her arms and waited. “I know that look. You’re still worrying about Megan, aren’t you?”
    Turning to face Connie fully, Delta nodded. Connie Rivera was her best friend. They had been through the best and worst of law enforcement together. Without Connie’s masterful computer genius and her incredibly analytical insight, Delta might not have brought Miles’s killers to justice. Without Connie’s wisdom and compassion, Delta would have foundered in the days after the trial. She spent hour after hour searching for some meaning to all of the death and destruction which tore a jagged gash through her spirit, like a tornado in a cornfield. Connie had been her island in the midst of tumultuous waters, when Delta struggled with the love she had for a woman who walked on the other side of the law. It was Connie whom Delta turned to when she needed a dose of common sense or a warm hug. And right now Delta needed both.
    Jamming her hands in her pockets, Delta exhaled loudly. “It hasn’t been a year yet and already things seem to be souring. There’s so much about this job she doesn’t understand, and there’s so much about the changes in her life that I don’t understand.”
    Connie smiled warmly. “Being a cop’s lover is a hell of a lot harder than either of us could ever really know. Ask Gina. She worries so, and I’m not even out on the