No Rep (Madd CrossFit #1) - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,6

sandpaper in my throat.

I’d been up all night, and it was now three in the morning.

“Taos.”

I would know that raspy, perpetually pissed-off-sounding voice anywhere.

“Hey,” I greeted. “What’s up, Chief?”

The chief sighed. “Long story short? There’s been a few murders that I’m worried about. Seriously worried about.”

I felt my stomach sink.

“What’s going on with them?” I asked, not able to help myself.

I’d been a detective at the police department in town for ten years after I’d gotten out of the Army.

I just couldn’t help myself from wanting to know. My brain was wired differently.

I just saw things, patterns, and inconsistencies, that other people didn’t see.

That was why the FBI had tried to recruit me. Twice.

However, I’d stayed with Paris PD and Chief Wilkerson because I didn’t usually buck from tradition.

“Bad shit,” Chief Wilkerson grumbled. “I know that you’re not here anymore, and I’ve left you alone for a year. But shit. This one is getting at me. I need you to look at the case notes. I just… something doesn’t sit right with me.”

I looked at my current work in progress. Then at the time on the clock. “Now?”

“I’m at a crime scene now,” he said. “The fourth one exactly like this.”

I knew what that meant.

We might have a serial killer on our hands.

“I can be there in fifteen minutes,” I stood. “I need some coffee because I haven’t gone to sleep yet. And some pants.”

Chief Wilkerson sounded like he’d had a laugh ripped right out of him at that.

“I’ll wait.” He paused. “The body’s been dead a while. Fifteen minutes, or thirty. Won’t make a fuckin’ difference.”

I looked at my watch and grimaced.

I had to be at the gym at six to teach a class.

That meant that I had three hours to sleep. Or I would have, had I not had to go do this.

“I’ll be there soon.”

And I was.

It took me two minutes to get to the house, which fuckin’ sucked because that meant that there was a murder taking place not even a couple of blocks away from me.

Parking my vehicle in the front of the house—a house that looked like it’d been built just recently seeing as it still had red dirt instead of grass along the side of the road between the sidewalk and the road—I got out.

The moment my feet hit the driveway, I stopped and studied the front yard with curious eyes, taking in the manicured lawn, the well-tamed flower bed, and the lilies that were planted around the mailbox.

Either a woman lived here, or a woman had done the gardening and the upkeep.

As much as I would like my place to have flowers and shit, they were too much upkeep, meaning I didn’t have them.

“Taos.”

I looked up to find Chief Wilkerson heading toward me.

I gave him a chin jerk and canvassed the neighborhood next.

The chief gave me a grimace.

“What’s wrong?” I wondered.

“It’s bad.”

I had no doubt it was if he was calling me.

It wasn’t like they needed me. They’d replaced me easily enough.

Sure, the solve rate on the crimes wasn’t as good now that I wasn’t around, but they were still getting through.

But this…

“Let’s get it over with,” I grumbled. “I have to be at the gym to teach a class by six a.m.”

The chief nodded his head and led me inside, looking like he’d rather pluck off his testicle hair than go back inside.

Yet he went anyway, and his face was blank the entire way inside.

“Tell me what happened, and the events leading up to finding the body,” I asked as we walked.

The chief held open the heavy oak door and waited for me to get inside before he closed it behind us.

The house still smelled new, too. As if there was still the scent of pine and fresh paint that was clinging to the walls.

“Call came through about nine last night,” he said, sounding tired. “Officers came and knocked on the door, but no one answered. The neighbor said that the guy who lives here hasn’t been home in at least a week. Left on a business trip the middle of last week they think. The only reason they knew was that they were heading to work when the guy was heading out with his suitcases. He said that as far as he knows, the guy is the only one that lives here.”

“Okay.” I paused. “Was it the guy who died?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

Then he walked me into the living room, right into a nightmare.

At first, I wasn’t sure what