First to Die Read Online Free Page B

you come up with this stuff?" I rolled my eyes. "I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm afraid of little monsters like you that feel the need to scare me every chance you get. One of these days, somebody’s gonna get shot. Let's see who's laughing then." The sound of a hyena came from Neville’s mouth and I threw in a few snorts for good measure. "Asshole."
    "Okay, enough. I can't take it." He managed to calm himself down. "Where's your boy?"
    "Stop saying that. He's not my boy." I shook my head. "He's off bothering the neighbors and looking for any witnesses."
    "There are none."
    "Of course not." I nodded my head in agreement.
    "Come on, let's hit it. I need a coffee."
    "Get out of here. I'm walking back."
    He pulled his keys from his belt and headed to his car. "Okay, be that way," he shouted back.
    Everyone had cleared the scene except for me. Each department had settled back to their respectful quarters. Ivy, I was sure, was already blasting the morning viewers with, "You heard it here first," sending the locals into a tailspin. She had a way with words.
    I stood at the scene, asking myself questions and actually expecting them to be answered. I was looking for the same answers as everyone else and I would have to answer them all. I had run so fast from my past that I had not realized that I was heading full circle. I was right back where I’d started.
    The walk to the station would be brief. I stood at the top of Main Street and looked at the view of downtown. It was breathtaking and welcoming, but it now symbolized something eerie. Something distorted. Abstract. I stared at the welcome sign as I made my way down the abandoned street. Riverview. The place where people come to play. The place where people come to die seemed to be more appropriate for the destination.

Chapter 5
    I slithered my way through the back door of the station so I wouldn't be noticed. I was thinking that, at this point, I would probably make a better criminal than a cop. I made my way to the little office next to the bullpen that I share with Jason and locked the door behind me. I leaned against the cold metal door and let out a sigh of relief.
    The silence would be brief and I intended to take advantage of every second. I could hear the rattle of the chief’s voice thundering its way toward me. I had about two minutes to catch my breath and wrap my head around the situation before he'd be searching for me. I tiptoed across the diamond-speckled tile shimmering from the few morning rays that were pushing through the clouds and fell into my chair. My phone rang. I hesitated before I picked it up. "You've reached Detective Kelly. I'm either on another call or away from my desk. Please leave..."
    "Don't make me come in there." Stella Johnson, our police clerk, had busted me.
    I laughed. "I'm trying to hide."
    "I saw you on the monitor. You're not very good at it."
    "That damn thing actually works?"
    "Yes, and the chief is on the war path about your pet, Billy Randall, so I suggest you lock yourself in a closet or something." She hung up.
    I wasn't surprised. Crazy bastard. He’d been on my back about little Billy Randall for the past month. I’d bribed Cole to let him slide by on a Minor in Possession charge. He hadn't been driving. He was sliding. On a mad roll down Millers Hill, I pleaded in our defense. I couldn't justify placing that kind of mark on a sixteen-year-old’s record. I’d rolled down that same hill when I was his age. We all did. The hill handed out too many broken bones and it was off limits except during the winter when the toboggan runs were carved out, and then it was okay to have a shattered femur. The rest of the hooligans had been coherent enough to scatter into the woods and hide. Luck or stupidity was on their side that night because I knew who they were and I would have hauled all of them in to give them a good scare. I’d locked Billy in a cell and waited a few hours for the vomiting to subside and called his parents to