Spectrum (The Karen Vail Series) Read Online Free

in.”
    “Borelli, right?” Russo asked.
    The detective’s face brightened. “Me in the flesh.”
    “Good to see you again.” Russo and Vail stepped into the brownstone, Russo talking ahead of him even though Vail was behind him. “There are never any curb spaces around here. Which means I gotta double-park. And if I do that, on that narrow side street, no one can get around me. So I block the hydrant. An FD engine needs to hook up, he can hook up. It ain’t ideal, but it is what it is. Got it?”
    “Got it. You’re the boss.”
    “Don’t keep saying that. You can think it, but I don’t want to hear it.”
    “Whatever you say, sir.”
    He stopped and turned to face Vail.
    “Sorry. Russo . You’re not my grandfather.”
    Russo frowned, then continued on down the hall to another officer, who was standing outside a bedroom. They walked in just as a photographer’s flash illuminated the area.
    “Oh, wow.” Vail hadn’t meant to say it; the words just kind of tumbled out of her mouth. Gotta watch that. Think before you speak, Karen. You’re already on his shit list.
    The murder scene was not like anything she ever imagined. Actually, she hadn’t imagined anything—she had only viewed slides the instructors projected during class. Ahead of her was a dead body—a “DOA” they called it in class. A real DOA.
    It was chalky white, the facial expression frozen in time. I shouldn’t think of her as “it.” Doesn’t seem right. She’s a person, not some inanimate object. “Does she have a name?”
    The ME’s assistant consulted his notes. “Carole Manos.”
    Vail knelt in front of the woman, who was sitting up in the bed, back resting against the headboard. Legs spread, dress drawn up and exposing her underwear. Her face was slashed and gashed, deep folds of flesh folded back at the margins. A chunk of jagged glass was sticking out of the right side of her neck. “Why did this happen to you, Carole?”
    “You’re not expecting her to answer you,” Russo said. “Are you?”
    Vail tilted her head. “I—I don’t know. I mean, the body can kind of like talk to us, right? Tell us a story.”
    “When she tells you who the villain is—or better yet, how that story ends—let me know.”
    Another man in the room, broad in the shoulders, back to them, laughed heartily. He turned around and winked at Russo.
    Vail gave the guy a disdainful look as she felt her face flush, then turned to Russo. “Well, I mean, we gotta start somewhere.”
    “We’ve already started. This here’s the medical examiner. Max Finkelstein.”
    What’s protocol? Shake his hand? She opted for a safer nod of acknowledgment. Cool. Detached. Like a seasoned cop. Right? How am I supposed to know? Best to just nod. No one could fault her for that approach. Besides, I already got off on the wrong foot with him.
    Finkelstein tilted his head and looked at Vail over his reading glasses. “First day on the job?”
    Shit. Is it that obvious?
    “Indeed it is,” Russo said, turning to Vail. “Guess we should turn this into a little learning experience. First-on-scene secured the area, deter-mined the pretty friggin’ obvious that it was not a death by natural causes. I was called, then the medical examiner and the Crime Scene Unit. So what are you thinking?”
    Vail bit her lip. What am I supposed to be thinking? I just got here. And—oh, yeah. It’s my first day on the job.
    “I’m thinking that this isn’t gonna be a walk in Central Park.” She smiled.
    Russo looked long and hard at her before a grin cracked his face. “Fast learner. Good, I like that.”
    Borelli walked in, a kit in his hand.
    “Any latents?” Russo asked.
    “Lots,” he said. “Problem is, are any of them our killer? It’s gonna take awhile to print the deceased’s family and friends, match ’em up against what we’ve got in the apartment.”
    “Elimination prints,” Vail said.
    “Listen to the rookie,” Russo said. “You’re good at