A Hope City Duet

Home > Other > A Hope City Duet > Page 50
A Hope City Duet Page 50

by Kris Michaels


  “Whatcha got?”

  Looking over his shoulder, he smiled at his sometimes partner, Rachel Seas, stepping into the kitchen, jerking her head to avoid a water drop falling from the ceiling. At over eight months pregnant, he knew she would soon be out on maternity leave.

  Before he had a chance to answer her question, she added, “I never thought an empty room could be a mess, but hell, this is nasty.”

  He chuckled as she walked closer, peering around him to see what he was bagging. “There was nothing in the room other than the deceased. The ME just left with the body but showed me a bag of pills that were tucked in his coat pocket. This is the only thing I’ve found in here, so far.”

  “Any ID?”

  He shook his head. “I was just getting ready to go through the other rooms to see if I could find any other evidence that might tell us who he was or what he was doing here.”

  “Could’ve just been looking for a place to sleep.”

  Nodding, he silently agreed. Leaving Rachel to continue looking around the small first floor, he walked upstairs, finding it much like the downstairs. Shining his light around, he saw the space was completely empty. The bathroom cabinets and fixtures were ripped from the walls. The upstairs windows were broken and water on the floor kept him from seeing if the dust had been disturbed before the fire next door. He continued around each room but found no evidence that anyone had been there recently

  After a thorough search, he walked back downstairs, where he found Rachel as empty-handed as he. “Nothing?”

  “Anything on the floor would have been washed away with the fire hoses. Upstairs?”

  “Same. I found no evidence that he or anyone had been upstairs.” Carter stretched his back, feeling, as well as hearing, his neck crack. “I’ll take what I found in the pantry to the lab. I’ll get the rest from Natalie, and hopefully we’ll be able to get an ID along with cause of death.”

  She lifted an eyebrow and grinned. “Are we going to hit the homeless shelters again?”

  “Yeah, even if we haven’t had much luck with the last two.”

  Patting her stomach, she said, “Since I’ll be on maternity leave soon, I hate to leave it all to you. Hopefully, we’ll get a break soon.”

  “Are you sure that little one doesn’t want to wait longer to arrive?” He pretended to grumble and watched her fight a grin.

  The two stepped out of the back door and walked past the charred walls of the first unit. Its interior was well lit from the portable lamps, and he spied Sean and Jonas kneeling, scraping bits of evidence into jars. While they might have much more evidence to collect, he did not envy them. The serial arsonist plaguing Hope City was not going to be easily caught.

  Walking to the perimeter, he offered a chin lift to the police officer standing watch. Ducking under the yellow tape, he bypassed the few reporters who had gathered for information about the arsonist.

  Placing his evidence in the back of his SUV, the young face of the deceased stayed vividly in his mind. If he truly was homeless, Carter wondered who would mourn his passing. Certainly not the media, clambering for headlines. With the recent, high profile murder of one of Hope City’s richest men, Carter knew his unidentified body would receive little interest or fanfare. Slamming the door of his SUV, he also slammed the door on those thoughts. As far as he was concerned, the young man who died alone, possibly after doing nothing more than finding a warm place to sleep, deserved Carter’s full attention. And that’s what he’ll get… My full fuckin’ attention.

  The end…or rather the beginning of more Hope City!

  Do not miss the next exciting Hope City

  Stories coming soon!

  Click here for :

  Carter (book 3)

  Brody (book 4)

  Kyle (book 5 coming Fall 2020)

  Ryker (book 6 coming Fall 2020)

  Click here for a bonus deleted chapter from Brock!

  AND

  Click here for a bonus deleted chapter from Sean!

  Don’t miss other Kris Michaels books! Visit her website for all the latest and buy links!

  Don’t miss other Maryann Jordan books! Visit her website for all the latest and buy links!

  Also by Kris Micheals

  Don’t miss other Kris Michaels books! Visit her website for all the latest and buy links!

  Kings of the Guardian Series

  Jacob: Kings of the Guardian Book 1

  Joseph: Kings of the Guardian Book 2

  Adam: Kings of the Guardian Book 3

  Jason: Kings of the Guardian Book 4

  Jared: Kings of the Guardian Book 5

  Jasmine: Kings of the Guardian Book 6

  Chief: Kings of the Guardian Book 7

  Jewell: Kings of the Guardian Book 8

  Jade: Kings of the Guardian Book 9

  Justin: Kings of the Guardian Book 10

  Christmas with the Kings The Kings of Guardian

  Drake: Kings of the Guardian Book 11

  Dixon: Kings of the Guardian Book 12

  Passages: Kings of Guardian Book 13

  A Backwater Blessing: A Kings of Guardian and Heart's Desire Crossover Novella

  Montana Guardian: A Kings of Guardian Novella

  Guardian Security Shadow World

  Anubis (Guardian Security Shadow World Book 1)

  Asp (Guardian Shadow World Book 2)

  Lycos (Guardian Shadow World, Book 3)

  Thanatos (Guardian Shadow World, Book 4)

  Tempest (coming soon)

  Everlight Series

  An Evidence of Magic (Everlight Book 1)

  An Incident of Magic (Everlight Book 2)

  Standalones

  A Heart's Desire

  Hot SEAL, Single Malt (SEALs in Paradise Book 9)

  SEAL Forever

  Hot Seal, Savannah Nights

  Guardian Security - The Defenders Series

  Gabriel - Origins

  Maliki (coming soon)

  Facebook

  Website

  Also by Maryann Jordan

  Don’t miss other Maryann Jordan books! Visit her website for all the latest and buy links!

  Baytown Boys (small town, military romantic suspense)

  Coming Home

  Just One More Chance

  Clues of the Heart

  Finding Peace

  Picking Up the Pieces

  Sunset Flames

  Waiting for Sunrise

  Hear My Heart

  Guarding Your Heart

  Sweet Rose

  Our Time

  Count On Me (2020)

  Heroes at Heart (Military Romance)

  Zander

  Rafe

  Cael

  Jaxon

  Jayden

  Asher

  Zeke

  Cas (2020)

  Lighthouse Security Investigations (Military Romantic Suspense)

  Mace

  Rank

  Walker

  Drew

  Blake

  Tate (2020)

  Saints Protection & Investigations

  (an elite group, assigned to the cases no one else wants…or can solve)

  Serial Love

  Healing Love

  Revealing Love

  Seeing Love

  Honor Love

  Sacrifice Love

  Protecting Love

  Remember Love

  Discover Love

  Surviving Love

  Celebrating Love

  Alvarez Security (military romantic suspense)

  Gabe

  Tony

  Vinny

  Jobe

  SEALs

  Thin Ice (Sleeper SEAL)

  SEAL Together (Silver SEAL)

  Letters From Home (military romance)

  Class of Love

  Freedom of Love

  Bond of Love

  The Love’s Series (detectives)

  Love’s Taming

  Love’s Tempting

  Love�
�s Trusting

  The Fairfield Series (small town detectives)

  Emma’s Home

  Laurie’s Time

  Carol’s Image

  Fireworks Over Fairfield

  Please take the time to leave a review of this book. Feel free to contact me, especially if you enjoyed my book. I love to hear from readers!

  Facebook

  Email

  Website

 

 

 


‹ Prev