Nun But The Brave (A Giulia Driscoll Mystery Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

from the old TV show, everything.” She called across the room, “Hey, Martinson, remember that Archie Goodwin type a year ago Christmas?”
    Martinson nodded his shaved head. “He brought out the Nero Wolfe addict in me. I kept feeding him lines from the books, and he’d lose his place in the files trying not to respond.”
    “He sure looked good in the suit, though.”
    “Not my type.”
    “More for me.” Okorie turned to Giulia again. “Anyway, I could have told the Penn Hills version of Archie Goodwin not to waste his time. He’d been hired to find a thirty-five-year-old sales manager. She’d ditched her phone in the Steel Museum and the security camera footage was the last anyone saw of her. We questioned her last two boyfriends, but they had no reason to kill her and the few other leads fizzled out.” She picked up a homemade Missing Person flyer from one of Giulia’s folders. “We have dozens of these in our cold case files. It’s tough on the families, but sometimes people want to disappear.”
    Fatalistic attitudes brought out all Giulia’s stubbornness. She couldn’t squander the goodwill here, but she had to make some kind of reply.
    BANG.
    The gunshot came from the entrance. Shouts filled the hall. Detective Okorie ran for the door and Giulia dived behind the desk. Without her own gun she’d be a liability.
    Another bang.
    A female voice in the hall shouted, “You give me Cal or I’ll shoot this Barbie doll bitch.”
    Detective Okorie’s voice: “I can bring Cal to you.”
    “Then get him out here now, bitch!”
    “Wouldn’t it be better if we went to a quiet room where you and Cal can talk?”
    Harsh laughter. “Hell, no. Do you think I’m stupid? You drag his scrawny ass out here so we can go home.”
    A scuffle, more shouts, and one final gunshot. The bullet came through the wall above Giulia’s head and shattered the glass in a framed photo of the governor of Pennsylvania.
    Two detectives wrestled a massive woman with a meth-riddled face and matted blonde hair into the office. She cursed them, their mothers, and their manly parts as she kicked desks and chairs on her way to the holding cells.
    A female detective came in next, following the trajectory of the third bullet.
    Giulia pointed. “It hit the governor’s picture.”
    “I see it. Thanks.” She took photographs of the wrecked photo and frame, the glass on the floor, and the hole the bullet made in the wall.
    The receptionist came in with a tall detective who resembled Idris Elba. When he spoke, he ruined Giulia’s hope that his voice matched Elba’s as well. Real life could be so disappointing.
    “You’re sure you’re all right, Cassidy?”
    The receptionist fluttered her blue-tinted eyelashes at him. “Really, I am. That crazy meth-head ripped my sleeve, but nothing else. She was shaking like an earthquake when she grabbed me.”
    “Then let’s get your statement so we can keep her in a cell next to the love of her life.” He unlocked his computer.
    Cassidy adjusted her torn shirt. “I am going to get so much mileage out of this.”
    Detective Okorie returned to her desk.
    “You have the knack for negotiation,” Giulia said.
    Okorie straightened her jacket. “The drugs helped. Cal’s true love took an extra hit or two for courage. I know the signs.” She looked Giulia over. “You’re okay, yes?”
    “The last bullet missed the top of my head by several inches. I didn’t expect my day to imitate a Snoopy novel.” When Okorie looked puzzled, Giulia quoted Charles Schulz: “It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out.”
    “The maid screamed,” Okorie said.
    “A door slammed,” Detective “Idris Elba” said from one desk over.
    All three of them finished together: “Suddenly a pirate ship appeared on the horizon.”
    “Huh?” the receptionist said.
    Everyone bent their heads over their work.

Seven

      
    Joanne’s apartment house was as nondescript as her choice of clothes. Four