Free Don't Close Your Eyes (Stephanie Chalice Thrillers Book 1) by Lawrence Kelter Page A

back of Alamento’s skull and blown a chunk of brain matter out the back. “Possible 9mm?”
    “Bet ya even money. I don’t care if forensics and the ME have to work all night. They have to find the slug. I want to know if this bullet matches the one that went through the tram conductor’s back.”
    “Let’s hope they can find it,” Lido said.
    “Officer Dugan, can you get the proper personnel down here on the double?” I smiled at Dugan and he took off without a word.
    I turned back to the latest victim. I guessed that Victor Alamento couldn’t help but nose around. The man had the biggest schnoz I’d ever seen. It looked like some kind of medieval battle horn. If he had only thought to sneeze, he might have blown the projectile right back into the gun. Thank God big noses don’t run in my family. It would have been a shame if I’d needed a nose job. Just for the record, I’m completely unaltered. Nothing’s been added, removed, augmented or sculpted and the only surgeon who ever touched me drove a BMW and had eyes like Paul Newman.
    “I take it our perp didn’t shoot this guy because he finds big noses offensive.”
    “Not likely.” I replied. “Alamento probably ran into harms way while our psycho was screwing around with the elevator controls.”
    “Our psycho is damn good with his hands,” Lido said.
    “You noticed.” By the way, Lido has really nice eyes. “Our boy definitely has skills. We’d be wise to check for priors on perps with mechanical training, perhaps someone who’s repaired elevators or installed them; an engineer, someone with technical smarts.”
    “Maybe someone heard the gunshot. I’ll start knocking on doors right away.”
    “Good, that should make you nice and popular with all the neighbors. Better you than me,” I remarked. “I know this guy named Ambler at the Bureau. He and my dad go way back. I can call him and see what the FBI computers can dig up. Ambler’s a career bachelor. He never sleeps.”
    “You know how I love the Bureau,” Lido remarked. “I’d better stop off and get some Crisco.”
    We both laughed. “Hey, you’re starting to get funny, Lido.”
    “You’re rubbing off on me.”
    You should be so lucky. “Seriously, Ambler’s one of the good guys. Somehow he’s managed to remain oblivious to the Bureau’s brainwashing. Doesn’t live anywhere near Connecticut, doesn’t eat white bread, and adores pro wrestling. He’s got autographed pictures of The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin.”
    Lido shook his head in dismay.
    I guess you’re wondering how two God-fearing police officers can crack jokes while standing three feet from a cooling corpse. Well, I don’t have an answer for you. It’s just a part of our makeup. You’d never catch a Fed doing it. They’ve got too much starch in their shorts. All except for Ambler and I’ll bet he wears briefs.

Chapter Ten
    All those guys who think that women work out in Lycra for that hot and sexy look should try ripping a sweaty sports bra over their head after sixty minutes of aerobics. Hot? You have no idea.
    I covered myself with a bath towel, slipped into my thongs (as in sandals) and went off to the showers. It’s amazing how immodest some women are. Some plump woman was standing in front of the mirror, naked as the day she was born, applying blush in full view of everyone in the women’s locker room. Her breakfast was sitting on the sink ledge. We come here to avoid looking like cottage cheese, so why eat it? I knew that she had once been a working actress and was still a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild. However, from the shape of her these days, SAG may have meant something entirely different.
    The forecast called for clear skies and temperatures in the low eighties. There was no way I was going to wear a skirt again, so I put on a linen suit. It was sage, a color that doesn’t exist in a man’s vocabulary. I layered it over a rayon tee. The T-shirt was ecru. Men are