Sacrifice Read Online Free Page A

get here?”
    “Same time you did. The captain thought you might need some help since Mohammed didn’t make it in, so I volunteered. I haven’t worked a homicide in a while though. I saw you were already heading toward the body, so I thought I’d interview the witness.”
    “Anything?”
    Trina shook her head. “She’s in bad shape.”
    Malloy stepped beside her as she turned back to the witness.
    “Detective Malloy, this is Mona Miller. Mona, this is Detective John Malloy. Mona was just telling me what she saw when she came to her door after she heard the screams. Do you want to tell Detective Malloy what you told me?”
    Mona Miller was unhealthily skinny. She looked like a drug addict or chemo patient. John suspected the former, though he wouldn’t have ruled out HIV. The way she was dressed in men’s boxers and a baby-doll T-shirt that revealed her midriff suggested she was a stripper or a hooker. Both of which were common professions for a girl her age and body type in Las Vegas. She had huge black eyes that stared out from her gaunt face, like the sketches of aliens drawn by alleged abductees. Her pupils were dilated, staring at something far away, as if she were still witnessing her neighbor’s destruction. She was shivering despite the heat. Goose bumps rose on her arms while she repeated her story. The coffee in her rainbow-colored mug splashed as she raised it to her quivering lips. She was scared senseless.
    “They were eating him alive. They were all over him! He was covered with animals, and they were just ripping into him, tearing him apart. He was screaming. Horrible, terrible screams. There was so much blood. Pete, his Great Dane, had Bruce’s head in his jaws, crushing it. Bruce was so terrified. He was in so much pain. You-you should have heard the way he was screaming. I’ve never heard anything so-so agonized. They were all over him. They were all over him! And-and I wanted to kill him too! I don’t know why. I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone before in my life. I mean, Bruce and I got along just fine. But at that moment I-I hated him. I wanted him dead.”
    “She’s in shock. Let’s get her a blanket.” John called to a nearby EMT. Soon they loaded her into an ambulance. Trina ordered a uniform to ride along with her. There was a possibility she was more than just a witness; she very well may have killed him herself. Hacked him up and fed him to his own dog. He’d seen stranger things - much stranger things.
    “So are you going to be joining me on this case full-time? You leaving sex crimes and coming over to robbery/homicide?”
    “No, I think I’m going back to riding a desk for a few more months until I can get everything figured out, you know? I’m just here to help until Mohammed’s back.”
    “Trina?” Dark violent shadows swirled in her eyes. It was like he could almost see her nightmares. “Is everything okay with you? I mean, are you all right?”
    “I’m fine. I wish I knew what happened to me though. I wish somebody would just tell me the truth. Maybe then these nightmares would go away and I could sleep. Maybe even get back to being a real fucking detective.”
    Malloy thought about it. How do you tell someone she was tortured and murdered by a serial killer who has the power to bring people back to life and that her friends have to keep the killer alive or else she’ll die? How do you tell someone that? And how would she deal with it if you did?
    “Some things are just better remaining mysteries, you know? There are some truths that help and some that hurt. Just let this one go.”
    Trina stared at Malloy for a long moment. Her body was tense, muscles flexed. Veins stood out in her neck as her jaw muscles worked. John could see the pain, fear, and confusion inside her through her eyes. He thought she was either going to scream, slap him, break down in tears, or stab him with that pen she still clutched in a death grip. Instead, she turned and walked