Crew (eBook)

Reese Hawking: Book 2

Dani Donari (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
332 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-7338-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Reese Hawking, New Orleans's newest detective, takes on her first big case. A string of home invasions in one of New Orleans's wealthiest neighborhoods. The rest of the force is watching to see if she can handle the case. What Reese doesn't know is that someone far more sinister is watching her every move.

Dani Donari is a part-time author and full-time environmental professional from Texas. She wrote her first novel in 2016 and created Reese Hawking's character because as the incomparable Toni Morrison said, 'If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.'

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Reese has survived the greatest ordeal of her life. Now a detective in the city she loves, she tries to move forward with Al by her side. Her first big case, a string of home invasions in one of New Orleans's wealthiest neighborhoods, proves more challenging than either of them expected. Reese knows the city, the rest of the force, and Al are all watching to see if she can handle the pressure and solve the case. What she doesn't know is that someone far more sinister is watching her every move. Solving this case is only the beginning...

Textauszug

Chapter 2

Detective Reese Hawking pulled into a parking lot of the New Orleans Police Department just before 7 a.m. Monday morning. She took one last look at herself in the visor mirror–making sure her black curls were pulled back tight, and her nude lip gloss didn’t wash out her light brown skin. After a quick glance, she snapped the visor closed and scolded herself for caring at all. She turned the car engine off and started across the street toward the mirrored glass building. Even at that early hour, she was sure Brenner would be waiting for her.

Reese had known Detective Alan Brenner for over ten years. They’d met when Reese was a teenager and Brenner was dating her mother. He and her mom had broken up, but after Reese’s mom died in a car accident, Brenner kept an eye on Reese. Checking in to make sure she had what she needed. Pushing her to finish school. After she graduated from college, he had encouraged her to become a cop and, more recently, helped her move up to detective. As soon as she passed her exams, Brenner, the only detective in the department without a partner, had taken Reese under his wing again.

It had been three months since she’d officially become Detective Reese Hawking, but she still felt her cheeks flush every morning when she stepped off of the elevator into the Robbery and Homicide division. It pissed her off that she was still nervous walking onto the floor. She’d worked hard. She belonged there as much as anyone. Still, she kept her head down as she took her seat at the desk just outside of Brenner’s office, which to her surprise, was empty.

Reese turned on her laptop and went through case logs while the other officers in the division, all men over forty, trickled in. When she reached across her desk for a file folder, Reese’s eyes fell on the framed picture sitting in the corner. Whenever she saw it, she tried to force herself back to the happy memories she had with Janae. Instead, her mind almost always sent her back to the last time she’d seen her best friend. Dead on a stretcher beside Lake Pontchartrain. Reese hated herself every day for letting that be the last time she’d seen Janae’s face. At the funeral, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to look at her friend laid out in a casket. Reese had been too distraught. Or maybe she’d been too angry. Angry at the man who had taken Janae from her family. Angry at herself for not stopping him.

Just weeks after she put her best friend in a mausoleum, Reese’s anger had propelled her across the country to track down Janae’s killer. In the chaos that ensued, Reese had gotten herself kidnapped. The man who took her slit Reese’s wrist before throwing her into the deep end of a swimming pool. Brenner and FBI Agent David Rickman had found her before she drowned or bled to death.

As the memory flashed, Reese unconsciously touched the two-inch-wide brown leather bracelet that hid the scar on her left wrist. The entire department knew what had happened to her. Hell, the whole city knew. But she wore the bracelet, anyway. No need to remind them of her ordeal every time they saw her. Or, more likely, she wore it to hide the scar from herself. When David gave her the bracelet, he’d told her he didn’t want her to have to answer questions about her scar. She wondered if maybe he’d given it to her so he wouldn’t have to be reminded, either.

David. The thought of him made Reese’s stomach tight and her pulse quicken. After the investigation into Janae’s murder, he had wound his way into Reese’s life. Or perhaps she pulled him into it. Either way, he had tucked himself into a place inside of her that she didn’t want to admit existed. A place where only a select few lived. After Reese had recovered from her injuries and returned home to New Orleans, she and David had talked almost every day. Most of their conversations were one-sided. Tilted heavily towards Reese talking about own problems, which was completely against her nature. For the first time since meeting Janae as a kid, Reese had opened up to someone.

It had been shockingly easy with David. Their talks had been cathartic and reassuring. He settled her in a way no man ever had. A few months after the case was closed, he had come to New Orleans to see her. They spent a long weekend holed up in Reese’s apartment. It was the first time she’d felt normal since her abduction. But in the months that followed, the time between their conversations had grown longer. David always blamed it on how busy they both were. Reese worried it was something else. Something that he didn’t want to say.

She had admitted to herself long before that she had feelings for him. But she often wondered if those feelings were sustainable. She worried that she was using him to fill the hole that Janae’s murder had left. Or the one left by her mother’s death. Or the one her father left behind when she was three. There was so much empty space inside of her. Space that sucked people in but then, somehow, still left her hollow. Maybe that was because she never actually absorbed any of their love. She just sucked it up and tried to live on the residue they left behind when they inevitably left her.

Brenner’s voice broke through Reese’s thoughts, forcing her back to the humid, crowded office. “Detective Hawking. Time to go. You can work on that paperwork later.”

Reese stood from her desk and turned to find Brenner’s six-foot-two frame towering over her five feet and three inches. She hadn’t noticed him come into the office. “Where are we headed?” She asked.

“Garden District. Home invasion robbery.” Brenner threw her his car keys before turning to the elevator. “You’re driving.” Reese caught the keys and followed. By now, she knew protesting would do her no good.

The Garden District of New Orleans, just south of downtown, was home to some of the city’s richest residents. As she guided Brenner’s department issued sedan out of the parking lot, she wondered why anyone would risk a home invasion there. The small neighborhood had constant foot traffic from tourists looking to shop, eat and gape at the historic mansions that lined the streets. Getting in and out without being seen would’ve been damn near impossible. And if you were smart enough to believe you could pull off a robbery there and get away unseen, why wouldn’t you just rob the place when no one was home? 

Brenner hit her lightly on the arm. “I can hear the wheels turning. What’s going on up there?”

“I’ll tell you when we get there.” Reese had been driving toward the district but didn’t know which home they were headed to. “Where exactly is there?”

Brenner scoffed. “Just follow the patrol lights and news vans.”

“Media already knows?” Reese couldn’t remember hearing anything about a home invasion on the morning news.

“It’s the Garden. Of course, they know. The home owners are Richard and Kathy LaBarge.”

Reese searched her memory for the names. “Don’t they own a restaurant or something?”

Brenner nodded. “A restaurant, a hotel, and a luxury car rental service. And I think they bought a minority share in an MLB team a few months back.”

Reese passed a trolley, then glanced over at Brenner. “They aren’t from here, are they?”

“They are not.” Brenner turned up the air conditioner and took off his sport coat. “They bought up a bunch of property in the Quarter after the storm. Then they bought a summer home in the Garden. I’m pretty sure their other businesses are based in Chicago.”

Reese shook her head, still confused. “But they were home when it happened. You did say home invasion, right?”

“Yep. Some guys broke in before sunup this morning and held them at gunpoint. Not sure what they took. From what Chief Simmons told me, it didn’t sound like anyone was hurt too badly.”

Reese furrowed her brow. “Chief Simmons called you directly?”

“Unfortunately. I’ve been in his office all morning. He pulled us off the other ten cases we’re working. Apparently, those aren’t as important anymore,” Brenner said sarcastically.

“Of course he did,” Reese retorted.

The media attention from a potentially violent crime in the Garden would put added pressure on the mayor. Which meant pressure on the police chief. And thus, pressure on the entire department to close the case. The squeaky wheel always gets the grease. Except, in this case, it was probably more like the rich, shiny wheel.

It didn’t take Reese long to find the house. Brenner had been right. All she had to do was follow the police lights and crowds of people to the white, two-story on the corner. Police cruisers had the street blocked off in both directions. Rather than get the cruisers moved so they could get closer, Brenner asked Reese to park the sedan around the corner. They walked the two blocks toward the crowd of onlookers standing in the blazing morning sun.

Reese wiped sweat from her forehead. “Why couldn’t we just make them move the cruisers?”

Brenner’s eyes darted to the faces in the crowd. “I want to walk through. Get my eyes on as many of them as I can. You should do the same.”

Reese followed Brenner’s gaze. “What exactly am I looking for?”

Brenner shrugged. “Smiles. Jeers. Taunts. Anyone who looks happy.”

Reese did her best to inconspicuously look at as many onlookers as she could as they passed. No one looked happy to see half of the police department...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.10.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-7338-9 / 9798350973389