Free Spirited 1 by Mary Behre Page A

wasn’t.
    To her utter mortification, she puked all over his tan slacks and black loafers.
     • • • 
    T HE APPLAUSE STARTED the moment Seth walked through the front door of the brick police station on Seventeenth Street. Catcalls and whistles were accompanied by a dozen officers holding their noses and pretending to gag.
    Dealing with the dregs of society all day, cops enjoyed nothing better than a chance to blow off steam, especially when it came in the form of ribbing a brother in blue.
    For that reason, and the fact that Captain Peterson had called him into the station, Seth accepted the ribbing with as much good humor as he could.
    “Losers.” Seth made sure to add an over-the-top growl to his voice. “Go bust a felon or something.”
    As he expected, they laughed at him and went back to work.
    He made his way through the lemon-scented main office. The desks sat two by two facing each other with flatscreen computer monitors on top, back to back. Twenty desks sandwiched into the square office space that consisted of five rooms. The main office, a small room for interrogation, Captain Peterson’s office, and the locker room were connected by doors on one wall. At the opposite side of the main room lay the entrance to the holding cell. Every wall of the station was covered in vintage eighties-style wood paneling. Framed pictures of the response workers raising the flag at Ground Zero, the president, and sailboats hung in frames around the main room.
    “Great job getting that witness to spill her guts,” Detective O’Dell called out.
    He clapped a hand on the shoulder of Detective Reynolds, who stood with his arm propped on top of the water cooler.
    “Good thing it’s now a homicide investigation or he might have made her spew her story again and again,” Reynolds added, then playfully elbowed O’Dell in the ribs.
    Both men wore smug grins. Both had been Seth’s partner at some point in the past five years. And both were now partners in the homicide division.
    “You’re here?”
    Seth turned his back on the idiot brothers from different mothers and found Jones holding an open folder and frowning at it. “I am.”
    “I thought you were going home to shower.”
    Seth glanced down at his obviously clean suit and back at the younger detective. But Jones wasn’t looking at him. He appeared engrossed in a file. “Whatcha got there?”
    “My notes from the crime scene.”
    “We’ll take that.” Reynolds reached to pluck it out of Jones’s hands, but the kid was too fast. He closed the file and held it against his chest. His expression all but dared Reynolds to reach for it again.
    “We need to talk.” Jones turned to Seth and said in hushed tones, “First, I learned the part of Atlantic in front of the parking lot was closed for street cleaning between four and seven this morning. I found a flyer and contacted the department of sanitation. They confirm no cars could have gone in or out of the lot during that time.”
    “Good,” Seth said. “Anything else?”
    “Yeah.” Jones frowned and lowered his voice even more. “The body in the Dumpster was our tramp-stamped robber.”
    “Crap.” Seth didn’t know why he was surprised. “So instead of robbing McGivern’s, they used it as a dump site.”
    “Seems so.” Jones frowned then added, “But why trash the place and not take anything?”
    “Well, if the vic was part of the gang, perhaps they had a difference of opinion? Maybe they trashed the place to stage the robbery, hoping we’d focus on that and not search for the body in the Dumpster.”
    “Maybe, but they haven’t been above taking cheap stuff before. I’ll have the owners carefully review their inventory to be sure nothing is actually missing. I just can’t see the burglars casing the place just to dump a body and take nothing, ya know?”
    “Agreed!” Reynolds chimed in. He gestured to O’Dell. “And while you two are searching for jewels that may or may not be missing,