Tenderloin (Abby Kane FBI Thriller) Read Online Free Page B

kidnapped him.”
    “They’re looking at all the possibilities.”
    “Don’t tell me they think he was working with the cartel.”
    “They’re not telling us anything. They want our take on it.”
    I sat there a little dumbfounded. Colombia? I had never been there. I knew nothing about that country. “Do we know anything else?”
    “We’re hoping to get answers from the autopsy. If you didn’t already know, the medical examiner’s office in San Francisco is top notch. They’re one of the best. The body arrived here yesterday.”
    My eyebrows shot up. “This is moving fast.”
    “They lost an agent. They’re eager to get to the bottom of this. That’s why I’m putting you on this case.”
    “Wait, what? I know nothing about the drug cartels.”
    “You’ll have help,” he said. “You saw that body. It didn’t look human. We need to nip this in the bud, fast.”
    Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have a problem taking on a case like this, but the whole drug/South America thing threw me off balance.
    “There’s one more thing I should tell you, Agent,” Reilly said, shaking me from my thoughts. “There’s a witness, but it’s a little suspect.”
    I crinkled my nose. “Why?”
    Reilly scratched his forehead and then rubbed his chin. “Well, the witness mentioned the muerto viviente .”
    I raised my shoulders. I still had no idea what my boss was trying to tell me.
    “It’s Spanish for the living dead .”
    I threw my head back and let out a loud laugh. “You can’t be serious?”
    Reilly wasn’t smiling.
    “Wait… you know you’re talking about ‘zombies’, right?” I emphasized my question with air quotes.
    “I said it was suspect, didn’t I?”
    “So then why are we following this up?”
    “Zombie or not, we have a job to do. A DEA agent was killed. It’s our duty to help figure out who did it and bring them to justice. There’s a lot of pressure coming down the pipeline from above. I’m counting on you. I already got my supervisor making my job harder than it needs to be; I don’t want to give him any more reason to get up my ass. Got it?”
    “Do you have a file for me?”
    “I do. You can pick it up in Bogotá.”

 
     
    Chapter 7
     
    Before heading home, I stopped by the medical examiner’s office for a closer look at the body Reilly had showed me earlier. I hadn’t bought into the whole zombie thing yet, not sure I would. There had to be a reasonable explanation. The muerto viviente was nothing but old folklore.
    Even with my Chinese ancestry, I found it hard to believe. My people had more legends passed on from generation to generation than I cared to count. I should have been hooked by the living dead story, but I wasn’t. I didn’t believe any Chinese folklore, except for one: Ling Chi , death by one thousand cuts. Growing up, I thought it was a tale used to scare children into being good until I came across a victim who had suffered it—well, until I came across what was left of him.
    The Office of the Medical Examiner was located on Bryant Street inside the Hall of Justice. The trip here was a first for me, given that most of the cases I investigated were fraud related. Of course, that was by choice.
    While serving as chief inspector for the Hong Kong Police, I spent my days chasing serial killers and taking down gangs. During that time, I was in charge of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau. Climbing the law enforcement ladder ended when my husband, Peng, was found murdered in his office. His sudden death was hard for me to accept. There I was, a hotshot inspector fighting crime, and I couldn’t even keep my own family safe. What did that say about me? I burnt myself out proving to all the naysayers that I could catch the killer. I never did. I knew that I needed to make a change. That’s when I quit, picked up the family and moved to San Francisco. Greener pastures, right?
    The examiner I was scheduled to meet with was Timothy Green. Reilly told me he was one of