The Day Before Read Online Free

nodded. “I’ll come up tomorrow to let Hoss out. Leave some fried chicken in the fridge for you. You’ll have the rent check? I’m fixin’ to leave for Florida by Friday. Gotta see my grandbabies.”
    â€œI’ll leave it on the fridge,” Sam promised. Hoss stole some crumbs off her plate. “Poor baby, you’re going to be stuck in the house all day all alone. I wonder if I could smuggle him into work.” Hoss’s nubbin of a tail wagged hopefully, and she almost felt bad for bringing it up. “I don’t think he’d even fit in my office.”
    â€œHoney, he wouldn’t fit in your car!” Miss Azalea laughed. “I’d take him with me, but my boy has two dogs. Little things. They’d be snacks.”
    â€œIt won’t be a problem. I can come home during lunch.”
    Hoss licked her face. He wouldn’t care what happened as long as he got cookies out of the deal.
    â€œA gent Rose, we’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Detective Altin said, as she got out of her car. He was a trim, older man with wiry, steel-­gray hair who often had the thankless task of smoothing out wrinkles when the police chief and Marrins butted heads. ­“People are going to start talking.”
    â€œHardy-­har-­har. You should try stand-­up comedy, Detective, you’re a natural,” Sam said, as they walked toward the nondescript building. “What’s all the fuss about?”
    â€œOh, just your standard weekend vandalism with a side order of fried electronics. The local hooligans decided we were getting too much experience raiding drug labs, so they added breaking and entering to their repertoire. Now I get to teach a class about tracking down stolen property to all our new recruits.”
    â€œWhat was stolen?”
    â€œNothing that we know of yet. I have Officer Holt leading the team checking the inventory lists, but a refresher course never hurt anyone.”
    â€œLovely.” As they stepped inside, the lab’s glass atrium was a cool respite from the rising heat and humidity. A large black desk stood guard at the far end of the space, looking over a sea of gray marble and white-­barked beeches and gardenias planted in raised beds, reaching for the skylights. “I like the yellow police tape. It adds a touch of roguish punkery.”
    â€œGood use of taxpayer dollars. To the left we have the government-­sponsored labs run by a Dr. Esther Vergeet. To the right of the guard desk you have the workshop where the team keeps older research displays, abandoned ideas, and Dr. Abdul Emir’s modern projects lab.” Yellow police tape hung over the second door, which had been warped and crumpled into a mass of rippled metal.
    â€œWalk me through this. I see two main entrances. The front door”—­Sam pointed behind her to the door she’d come in—­“and the doors over there.” She nodded to an identical set of wide glass doors that looked out over a courtyard with picnic tables. “The labs are to the left, with six cameras I can see, a security desk, and ID locks. Over to the right is?” Sam looked at the double doors leading to the brick addition.
    â€œThe green door on the right leads to the lecture and conference hall. Next door is a multimedia room for greeting the press and holding high-­school career fairs and such.”
    â€œSo the thief came in through a back door? Fire escape? Down through the roof maybe?” Sam guessed.
    â€œThat, we don’t know.” Detective Altin led her to door number two. “On Sunday nights, two human guards man the desks. Robotic security with heat sensors patrols the back rooms. The lab is closed at noon Sunday and doesn’t open to general staff until ten Monday morning. Weekends, the lab is open only to staff with level-­four security clearance or higher, plus the designated security guards, who never go