Free The Next Chronicle (Book 2): Damage by Joshua Guess Page A

office.
    “Anything new?” she asked as she entered the room, toweling her short hair as she walked.
    “Let me check,” Ray said, backing out of the document and refreshing the file. “Looks like it,” he said, glancing at the new icons in the folder. “More background information, looks like some more recent stuff from the locals.” He opened that one, another summary report compiled from multiple sources.
    Ray read through it quickly. It was ten pages, but much of that was reference material. Photos, documents, citations, and links to outside sources.
    “Shit,” Ray said when he was finished. “You definitely need to read this.”
    “That bad?” Kit asked.
    “Yep,” he said. “Looks like our dead guy and James Shane had some pretty serious beef.”
    “In what way?” Kit asked as she made her way to the couch.
    Ray frowned. “The wallet we found with the body identified him as Robert Lile. The report here says James Shane moved back to Kentucky three weeks ago to help take care of his sister, who had been assaulted by three men at a party.”
    Kit plopped onto the couch, shaking the whole thing. Ray smiled; he sometimes forgot that Kit outweighed him by a fair margin even though she was tiny and slim.
    “Sexual assault?” Kit asked as she reached for the computer.
    “Not according to the charges she filed,” Ray said, a sour feeling growing in his stomach. “But the pictures are pretty conclusive that she was at least attacked.”
    He watched Kit as she scanned the files one after another. It took her far less time, and Ray wondered whether Kit realized how quickly she was changing. Their friendship was still nascent, a handful of months old, but even in that short time Ray could see the acceleration in Kit's powers. Four months ago she would have needed twice as long to read through all those documents, something he had seen firsthand many times as he sat in this very spot while they worked together.
    If he were to put money on it, Ray would have guessed she knew even if she never talked about it. There were other signs, both obvious and subtle. Increases in strength were easy to spot if you knew to look for them. Noting the less and less frequent appearance of any sort of fatigue was harder, but Ray had caught that, too.
    “Well,” Kit said after finishing the file, “at least Shane did the right thing and notified us when he moved here. It'll make our job a little easier.”
    “I can understand where he's coming from,” Ray said. “His sister gets hurt so bad she needs help taking care of herself, and the guys who did it get out on bail.” Low anger boiled in the back of his head, but like his powers he kept a firm leash on it.
    “I don't like it either,” Kit said with a sigh. “We don't have much of a choice, here. James Shane might not have meant to kill Robert Lile, but he had motive and we know his powers were involved. We have to err on the side of caution, even if it means protecting these assholes.”
    Ray's mood darkened at the thought. “Just because it's the law doesn't mean it's right,” he muttered.
    Kit's mouth drew into a disapproving line. “Innocent until proven guilty.”
    “Funny,” Ray said as he stood to leave the room. “I never got a trial for Fairmont.”
    He took a moment to catch the rare appearance of surprise on her face before leaving, letting the door swing shut silently behind.

Kit
     
     
    Being in charge was a sword with many edges. Kit's natural instinct was to micromanage, though she didn't see it as such. She wanted to be out in the field going after James Shane. Had the man been a bigger threat, she would have. As it was, Shane was only likely to go after the men accused of brutalizing his sister. He wasn't much of a threat beyond that.
    Being stuck at the facility meant she didn't have to personally safeguard the men who had, according to the excellent police work done by the Louisville department, almost without a doubt beat a young woman