Free Last Shot (2006) by Gregg - Rackley 04 Hurwitz Page B

legs on either side of him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and chest and gave him a squeeze, then rested her chin on his shoulder and watched Walker's exit from the chow hall.
    "I miss it sometimes," she said. "The job. Almost as much as I don't miss it."
    "It's always there. You're still your captain's favorite."
    "I'd rather partake vicariously. Better hours." She waited through a moment of silence, then turned, lips brushing his cheek. "That was your cue, dummy."
    He found himself re-sorting the information as he told it to her, ordering his thoughts. She listened quietly and attentively, her muscular body still enfolding him. In the intense yet comfortable silence that followed his account, he could sense her working over the facts.
    "The Palmdale Station covers Littlerock, right?" Tim asked. "You still in touch with Jason Elliott up there?"
    "Now and then. You're thinking as a maybe-former sheriff's deputy, I could get a fuller picture of the sister's suicide investigation?"
    "More than we'll get out of the crime-scene report and a CYA phone conference."
    He switched the tapes--back to the toothbrush through the carotid artery.
    Dray watched, rapt, and made a noise at the back of her throat as if she'd just seen Barry Bonds send one into the Bay. "Impressive. No hesitation."
    "Former military."
    "You know how those boys are." She plucked the remote from Tim's hand and rewound the tape. "Look at that. Not even adrenaline. No anger, no tremor in the hand, nothing."
    "He seems to be a dispassionate guy."
    She paused the video, inadvertently capturing Boss's grotesquely twisted face as he sailed over the rail. "If you buy the veneer. But in the dining hall footage, your boy's working through some material. Here he's not. He doesn't even slow down to take in Boss's reaction to getting stabbed. Doesn't seem personal to me, as far as murders go."
    "That's the problem. No one--not the guards, LaRue, or Freddy--came up with a motive for why Walker would whack Boss."
    "Maybe there isn't one."
    "There must be. If we can find it, we'll at least be on the right trail."
    "Like if you could find out what the mint mouthwash was for?"
    Tim shifted, regarding her across his shoulder.
    She clicked "play," sending Boss to plummet into darkness. "Helluva spectacle, this murder. Blood spraying. Free fall. This wasn't no quick-and-quiet on the catwalk. Remember, Walker's a strategist. He used decoys in his cell. To sidetrack you."
    "So you think he killed Boss to create a diversion?"
    "I think you're looking at this backward. There's no need to pitch the guy three floors just to hear the thud. Boss's murder wasn't the reason Walker decided to escape." Dray pointed at the inmates mobbing the screen. "It created the spectacle that allowed him to escape."
    Tim felt the range of possibilities crank wider, a sensation that was both exhilarating and alarming. "Okay. But we're still stuck with this one: What's a guy that close to the end of his sentence escape for?"
    Dray rose, tugging Tim to his feet and leading him back to the bedroom. "Something that couldn't wait a year and a half."

    Chapter 14
    Walker sat on the sagging couch watching the dust filter through the slant of early-morning light that fell through the back slider. He stayed leaned over, elbows on his knees, his fingers laced to form a pouch. On the scratched glass coffee table before him lay a dish of stale potpourri, a cluster of keys linked to a blue rabbit's foot, and, enigmatically, a used electric label maker with a red gift bow on it. A few ambitious commuters whined by on the freeway, the distant sound carried into the family room almost as a vibration. A clock ticked. Somewhere up the street, a dog barked. He'd forgotten what the world sounded like.
    "Get out of my house or I'll fucking shoot you!"
    Calmly, he turned his head, getting a partial view of the woman behind him. She stood in the mouth of the hall, clutching a gun with trembling hands before her L.A.