and along came SPIDER ( A Martina Spalding Thriller ) (Spider Series Book 1) by J.R. WRIGHT

said, “Should I give you a minute?”
    Martina simply threw up
a hand to the waitress as a signal to wait.  “We’ll get through it together. 
And we’ll start by leveling with that detective, Dunbar.  Okay?  We have no
reason to hide anything now.  We’ll get that sonofabitch if it’s the last thing
we do!”
    With that, Gloria
nodded and slid the hands away from her wet cheeks.  She then picked up the
menu Martina slid to her and tried to focus.  Even though she had little in the
way of an appetite, she rested a finger on bacon and eggs and dropped the menu
for Martina to see.
    Turing back to the
waitress, Marti said.  “We’ll have two of the number four, with black coffee
and orange juice.”
     
    Forty minutes later,
Martina eased Parker’s truck into a space next to her car, in the lot at the
rear of the apartment building, and locked it securely.  She didn’t plan on
driving it again until Parker was ready for discharge.  A few minutes later,
she and Gloria reluctantly entered through the front door hoping the blood
mess, Parker McLean’s blood, had been cleaned up in their absence.  To their
surprise, however, right where most of the mess had been, on a freshly scrubbed
gray marble floor, stood Lieutenant Dunbar.
    “Ladies,” he touched
the brim of his brown fedora.  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you both to
come with me.”
    While Gloria froze and
glared at Martina… Marti responded.  “Is it that urgent, Lieutenant? 
Presently, we’re going on twenty-four hours without a wink of sleep.”
    “I think you’ll be
amused,” he said mysteriously, stepped around the two of them, and pushed open
the door.  This left them little choice but to comply with his wishes.
    Gloria wondered if by
chance they were under arrest.  How could that be, though?  They hadn’t done
anything wrong.  But if by some freak chance they were going to jail, she
wondered now if she should ask to be allowed to go to her apartment for a quick
shower…or at least a change of clothes and fresh deodorant.  No telling how
long they would need to be there… and she already felt a bit stale.  The
thought, however, escaped her when she saw a patrol car now sitting at the
curb, a uniformed officer stationed at the open rear door.

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
     
    The four of them rode
in silence for twenty minutes before turning down an alley and coming to a stop
adjacent to the rear door of a red brick clad building.  Dunbar hastily stepped
from the shotgun seat and opened the rear door.
    “Step out, ladies,” he
said as pleasantly as he could through the permanently snarled face he must
have been born with.  He then pulled a pack of Camels from his pocket, pounded
one out and lit it with a Zippo.
    “Where are we?” Marti
asked, as she stepped a boot to the ground and glanced around.
    “This is the city
morgue, ma’am,” Dunbar said around the cigarette, as he gave her a hand the
remainder of the way out.
    “Oh!” Gloria said, upon
hearing where they were.  Why had they been brought here, of all places?
    The uniformed officer
went to the unmarked door and pressed the red button on a small speaker box. 
Within seconds a voice said, “Department and badge number?”
    “Police.  Ten
eighty-six.”
    Following that, a
buzzer sounded and the young officer pulled the door open.  This prompted
Dunbar to step out the cigarette and herd the two women through the door.  Just
the three of them proceeded down a long, dimly lighted hallway.  Footsteps on
the tile floor and an eerie buzzing noise echoed throughout as they traveled,
it seemed forever, to a set of double doors marked with a large, red number
four. 
    Dunbar pushed through
them as if he owned the place.  Spotting an attendant scrubbing a drain table,
he said, “Is our John Doe decent?”
    “No.  Not yet.  I just
got him cleaned up.”
    “God dammit, Harley! 
How long does it take to throw over a sheet!  I told you I was