Jolly Dead St. Nicholas Read Online Free Page A

something.
    Daniel liked Luke, who had just made lieutenant last month after a major arrest involving a drug ring trying to get a foothold in Crescent Falls. He was a tall, bulky African-American man who’d recently turned forty but didn’t look a day over thirty. He and Daniel weren’t good friends, but he knew the man always had his back on the job. He also had training in crime scene investigative techniques, so that made him a very valuable asset to the department.
    While Luke questioned the disgruntled youth, Daniel turned his thoughts to Judy Hess, a petite redheaded officer whose small stature hid the proficient Tai Kwan Do expert beneath. She’d been a star athlete on the high school gymnastic team. He’d seen her bring more than one belligerent drunk down with an expert move. He smiled as he thought about how her green eyes flashed like emeralds when she had to subdue a perp. Her marksmanship with a gun was also legendary. They’d partnered up several times while he was still a patrolman. He found her so easy to talk to, often thinking that if he wasn’t involved with Brenda Collier…
    Forget it. It would never work out. She’s a cop under my command and such things are strictly forbidden .
    Daniel’s thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Lloyd Fletcher entering the squad room. A ball of cold clay settled in his stomach as he watched the short, stocky realtor strut past the other officers. The only one he acknowledged was Ed Lucas. No big surprise, since they were united in their disapproval of the way Daniel was running the police department.
    Without knocking, Lloyd came into Daniel’s office, shutting the door soundly behind him. Daniel assessed the man from head to toe. His hair formed a light brown fringe around a shiny bald head. A pronounced pot belly struggled to remain hidden behind a starched white shirt. The man’s dark green eyes flashed angrily.
    In Daniel’s opinion, the word huckster had been invented for men like Lloyd. A native of Zanesville, he’d moved to Crescent Falls in the late 1990s and purchased two parcels of land. He’d developed the large acreage on the west end of town into a gated condo complex called Creekside Village, where Daniel now lived. Off State Route 550, Lloyd also purchased a smaller tract where he erected a less exclusive apartment complex called Mulberry Manor. Daniel guessed that Lloyd was probably a millionaire by now, since he seemed to own property all over the state, including two-hundred wooded acres he’d purchased about a year ago north of town. Coincidentally, that was just about the time Lloyd began pressuring council to allow a casino to be built in order to bolster Crescent Falls’ sagging economy.
    “What can I do for you, Lloyd?” Daniel asked in a voice he hoped didn’t reveal his aggravation at being interrupted.
    Lloyd glared down at Daniel from the other side of the desk. “You can catch the juvenile delinquents who have once again spray painted the lions at my gate. This time they are bright, neon green!”
    Lloyd owned a double lot on Buckeye Street. The house was in the beautifully restored area of two-story frame dwellings built in the thirties. About three months ago he’d commissioned a three-foot high stone wall across the front yard, with two hand-carved stone lions on either side of a wrought iron gate. The neighbors hated it, many of them still angry at the zoning board for allowing the construction, stating that was not in keeping with the architecture of the neighborhood. The local teens, however, seemed to love spray painting the lions on a regular basis. Lloyd would have them cleaned, but eventually they’d be repainted.
    “They’re hard to catch, Lloyd, since we never know when they’ll strike again,” Daniel explained. “Have you considered surveillance cameras?”
    Lloyd almost jumped up and down in anger. “Why should I have to pay through the nose for surveillance equipment when it is your job to protect