PROLOGUE
Detective Jane Perry took another hard drag on her cigarette. She knew she needed to quiet her nerves for what she was about to see.
Another victim. Another senseless, gruesome murder that she would add to the board at Denver Headquarters. When Sergeant Weyler called her half an hour ago, she hadnât even finished her third cup of coffee. âThis one is odd, Jane,â he told her with that characteristic tone in his voice that also suggested an evil tinge behind the slaying du jour. âBe prepared,â he said before hanging up. It was a helluva way to start a Monday morning.
As Jane drove her â66 Mustang toward the crime scene in the tony section of Denver known as Cherry Creek, she tried to look on the bright side. If sheâd still been a drinker, sheâd be battling an epic hangover at that moment and doing her best to hide it from Weyler. But since becoming a friend of Bill W., her addictions involved healthier options such as jogging, buying way too many
pounds of expensive coffee and even briefly joining a yoga group. She stopped attending the class only because the pansy-ass male instructor wasnât comfortable with her setting her Glock in the holster to the side of her mat during class. Since she was usually headed to work after the 7:00 AM stretch session, Jane was obviously carrying her service weapon. She wasnât about to leave it in her car or a locker at the facility. Nor would she be so careless as to hang it on one of the eco-friendly bamboo hooks that lined the yoga room.
So for Jane, it was obvious and more than natural for the Glock to lie next to her as she attempted the Salutation to the Sun pose and arched into Downward Facing Dog. In her mind, there was no dichotomy between the peacefulness of yoga and the brain-splattering capacity of her Glock. As the annoying, high-pitched flute music played in the backgroundâa sound meant to encourage calmness but which sounded more like a dying parakeet to Janeâshe felt completely safe knowing that a loaded gun was inches from her grasp. The other people in the class, however, did have a problem, and they showed it by arranging their mats as far from Jane as humanly possible. None of this behavior bothered Jane until the soy milk__chugging teacher took her aside and asked her to please remove the Glock from class. Since Jane wasnât about to take orders from a guy in a fuchsia leotard who had a penchant for crying at least twice during class, she strapped her 9-mm across her organic cotton yoga top and quit.
Thatâs what predictably happened whenever you shoved a square peg like Jane Perry in a round hole of people and situations that donât understand the real world . Crime has a nasty habit of worming its way into the most unlikely placesâchurches, schools, sacred retreats and
possibly yoga studios. The way Jane Perry looked at life, yoga might keep you flexible but a loaded gun kept you alive so you could continue being flexible. She knew what it felt like to be the victim of circumstance, to be held hostage by another personâs violent objective. Even though it was a long time ago, sheâd never wash the stench from her memory. Her vow was always the same: Nobody would ever make Jane Perry a victim again.
CHAPTER 1
But somebody apparently had made the old lady inside the Cherry Creek house a victim. Jane rolled to the curb and parked the Mustang, sucking the last microgram of nicotine from the butt of her cigarette. Squashing it onto the street with the heel of her roughout cowboy boots, she flashed her shield to the cops standing at the periphery and ducked under the yellow crime tape that was draped between the two precision-trimmed boxwood shrubs that framed the bottom of the long, immaculate brick driveway.
Jane checked the front door. There was no sign of forced entry. Stepping back, she searched and easily found two security cameras. PROPERTY PROTECTED BY
Detective Jane Perry took another hard drag on her cigarette. She knew she needed to quiet her nerves for what she was about to see.
Another victim. Another senseless, gruesome murder that she would add to the board at Denver Headquarters. When Sergeant Weyler called her half an hour ago, she hadnât even finished her third cup of coffee. âThis one is odd, Jane,â he told her with that characteristic tone in his voice that also suggested an evil tinge behind the slaying du jour. âBe prepared,â he said before hanging up. It was a helluva way to start a Monday morning.
As Jane drove her â66 Mustang toward the crime scene in the tony section of Denver known as Cherry Creek, she tried to look on the bright side. If sheâd still been a drinker, sheâd be battling an epic hangover at that moment and doing her best to hide it from Weyler. But since becoming a friend of Bill W., her addictions involved healthier options such as jogging, buying way too many
pounds of expensive coffee and even briefly joining a yoga group. She stopped attending the class only because the pansy-ass male instructor wasnât comfortable with her setting her Glock in the holster to the side of her mat during class. Since she was usually headed to work after the 7:00 AM stretch session, Jane was obviously carrying her service weapon. She wasnât about to leave it in her car or a locker at the facility. Nor would she be so careless as to hang it on one of the eco-friendly bamboo hooks that lined the yoga room.
So for Jane, it was obvious and more than natural for the Glock to lie next to her as she attempted the Salutation to the Sun pose and arched into Downward Facing Dog. In her mind, there was no dichotomy between the peacefulness of yoga and the brain-splattering capacity of her Glock. As the annoying, high-pitched flute music played in the backgroundâa sound meant to encourage calmness but which sounded more like a dying parakeet to Janeâshe felt completely safe knowing that a loaded gun was inches from her grasp. The other people in the class, however, did have a problem, and they showed it by arranging their mats as far from Jane as humanly possible. None of this behavior bothered Jane until the soy milk__chugging teacher took her aside and asked her to please remove the Glock from class. Since Jane wasnât about to take orders from a guy in a fuchsia leotard who had a penchant for crying at least twice during class, she strapped her 9-mm across her organic cotton yoga top and quit.
Thatâs what predictably happened whenever you shoved a square peg like Jane Perry in a round hole of people and situations that donât understand the real world . Crime has a nasty habit of worming its way into the most unlikely placesâchurches, schools, sacred retreats and
possibly yoga studios. The way Jane Perry looked at life, yoga might keep you flexible but a loaded gun kept you alive so you could continue being flexible. She knew what it felt like to be the victim of circumstance, to be held hostage by another personâs violent objective. Even though it was a long time ago, sheâd never wash the stench from her memory. Her vow was always the same: Nobody would ever make Jane Perry a victim again.
CHAPTER 1
But somebody apparently had made the old lady inside the Cherry Creek house a victim. Jane rolled to the curb and parked the Mustang, sucking the last microgram of nicotine from the butt of her cigarette. Squashing it onto the street with the heel of her roughout cowboy boots, she flashed her shield to the cops standing at the periphery and ducked under the yellow crime tape that was draped between the two precision-trimmed boxwood shrubs that framed the bottom of the long, immaculate brick driveway.
Jane checked the front door. There was no sign of forced entry. Stepping back, she searched and easily found two security cameras. PROPERTY PROTECTED BY
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