Rogue Operator Read Online Free Page A

make of it?” asked Jamie Conway as she chewed on a power bar. Peanut butter
flavor. His favorite.
    “Do you
have another one of those?”
    She
shook her head. “Sorry, Boss, last one. Want half?”
    He waved
off the proffered bar. “Naw, I’ll grab something after we’re finished up here.”
He pointed at the tread marks. “Get the crime scene guys down here, have them
get photos of the treads, see if they can match the vehicle types. Put an APB
on the vehicles. One or two black SUV’s, tinted windows, damage to the front
end of one.”
    “Damage?”
    Percy
pointed at the ground. “There’s some glass and plastic here. Could be from the
SUV, could be from the car. Have the lab guys check it out.”
    Jamie
finished jotting in her notebook then nodded.
    “So, do
you still think it’s a bullshit call?”
    He
shrugged his shoulders. “For all we know there was a rear-ender. Car hits back
of truck, SUV hits back of car, insurance papers are exchanged quickly, or
there was no major damage so they decide to forgo it. You know how reliable
witnesses are.”
    “Do you honestly
believe what just came out of your mouth?”
    He grinned.
“Not for a second.” Twenty-two years on the force told him something more was
going on. Witnesses would conflict in their statements, and the witnesses here
did, but they all agreed on one thing. A car was pushed into the back of a
truck. The disagreement was on what the truck looked like, what the car and SUV
looked like, and the number of vehicles involved.
    “Did we
get any cellphone footage?”
    Jamie
shook her head. “Nada. Not exactly prime real estate here, and the few
witnesses didn’t think to haul out their phones.”
    “No
teenagers then?”
    Jamie
grinned.
    He
swirled his hand over his head. “Check every store, see if we have anything
caught on security camera. We might get lucky.”
    Jamie didn’t
look convinced. “Not exactly a camera friendly neighborhood, Boss. This is
industrial.”
    One of
the officers manning the scene ran over.
    “Detective,
they just found the truck, the SUVs, hell, everything!”
    “Where?”
    “Not
even five miles from here.”
    Percy
frowned. If they had already abandoned their vehicles, there might be no way to
trace them. He looked at the officer.
    “And?”
    “Car in
the back of a semi-trailer, empty, two SUVs, one with damage to its front end.
Just like some of the witnesses said.”
    “Shit!”
muttered Jamie. “This is big, Boss.”
    Percy
nodded. “Make sure the area is secure, get crime scene over there, tell
dispatch we’re on our way.”
    The
officer nodded and got on his radio as Percy jogged toward their car, Jamie at
his side.
    “What do
you think, Boss?”
    “I think
this is bigger than we originally thought.”
     
     

 
     
    Mona Reservoir, Utah
     
    Jason Peterson woke when his head rapped against something hard.
Wherever he was lying bounced again, and again his head smacked against the
floor. His head throbbed, his brain an unfamiliar fog, the only feeling he
could recall that was similar was the one and only time as a freshman in
college that he had gotten drunk. He had been drunk since, but nothing like
this, and never again in college.
    He had never lived it down.
    Goaded into drinking by his roommate and lifelong friend
to that point, he had agreed to have his first beer at eighteen. Then a second.
Before he knew it, he had lost count, and lost track, of not only the number of
drinks he had had, but the limbs he had under his control. He was told the next
day he had had a good time, but had no recollection beyond waking up, lying
across the bathroom counter of the dorm, his head in one of the sinks, with a
few photos going around of the night that were too embarrassing to want to
recollect.
    The montage at the end of The Hangover was uncomfortably familiar.
    He escaped with all his teeth, and unmarried, but swore
off alcohol until he could drink around people he could trust to not put his
mouth and