Random Victim Read Online Free Page A

parking lot and remembered the old days before the stop-and-go
     light had been installed and an officer had to be stationed there to direct traffic for a solid eight hours. It had been the
     preeminent shit detail for those who’d stepped on the wrong toes. Pure hell. He sighed, knowing that at least he wouldn’t
     have to worry about drawing something that bad for his transgression.
    After the Com Ed plant, Leal turned and joined the line going into the court parking lot. He knew there wouldn’t be any room
     in either the headquarters or academy lots, so he circled wide and found a space near the fringes that placed him relatively
     close to the three-building complex that housed the administration, the headquarters, and the academy. Strange how he kept
     returning here at different stages in his career, like a pilgrim to Mecca. His initial training when he’d first come on the
     job right out of the army, his sheriff police training after he’d served his two years in the jail, and the various specialty
     courses over the years: self-defense training, investigations school, MEG school…Now, he knew whatever was ahead was
     waiting for him just beyond the four massive white pillars that made the front entrance look almost like some ersatz antebellum
     mansion instead of what the solid black lettering across the front said it was: COOK COUNTY SHERIFF’S POLICE.
    He cut over to the side of the academy wing and pulled open the door, stepping into the coolness of the air-conditioning.
     To his right he saw some uniformed cadets sitting in a classroom, listening attentively. Been there, done that, Leal thought.
     But still, he was suddenly affected by a certain nostalgia. The pressure of cramming all that knowledge into just twelve weeks,
     the sweat of keeping up with the daily runs, the workouts in the defensive tactics class…
    He heard the clanging of weights as he went by the gym and couldn’t resist poking his head in for a look. On the far side
     he saw a lone figure seated at the Universal machine doing lat pull downs. He walked over and watched the lean muscular arms
     bulge and strain with each repetition. Collar-length blond hair hung over the back of a dingy gray sweatshirt with the sleeves
     cut off. The long hair made Leal wonder if the guy was a new MEG agent. Maybe his replacement. But when he was about four
     yards away the person stood up, and Leal suddenly realized that the “guy” was actually a heavily muscled woman. Her powerful
     curved legs sprung from a pair of red, French-cut gym shorts and seemed to ripple with each movement. She looked over at him
     and smiled.
    “Hi,” she said. “You want to do a quick set or something?”
    Leal shook his head. “Nah, you made me tired just watching you.”
    She smiled again and went to the shelf holding the rows of chrome-plated dumbbells. Her features were well formed, although
     somewhat sharp-looking, so that her face was one of those that could be described as almost pretty. He noticed that her eyebrows
     were a shade darker than her blond hair, which was plastered to the side of her head now. Seating herself on a bench, she
     began to do concentration curls with a twenty-five-pound dumbbell, causing a network of veins to spread up her arm and coalesce
     into a larger vessel that snaked over her biceps. Nice strong teeth flared from her tan face as her lips rolled back from
     an obviously burning exertion.
    Leal watched her do a few more curls, bracing her right elbow against her thigh. She switched hands, and he caught the tangy
     scent of her sweat when she shook her head, sending some droplets flying. The striations of her arms seemed to gleam under
     the sheen of perspiration. She completed the set. He was fascinated by her strength, yet somewhat repulsed by her massive
     muscularity.
    She looks like the kind of babe that could knock you up, he thought as he turned and walked out of the gym. Probably sweats 98 percent testosterone.
    As he