Читать книгу Colby Conspiracy - Debra Webb - Страница 9

CHICAGO BOASTED the largest Chinatown in the Midwest. Densely populated with more than 10,000 residents, mostly Chinese, the area south of Cermak Road was chock-full of Asian grocery and herbal shops, bakeries and restaurants. Traditional Chinese architecture filled the colorful streetscape, welcoming new visitors and longtime residents alike.

Amid the terra-cotta ornaments and mosaic murals, bold, sculpted lions guarded street-level doorways. But nothing in this eclectic culture could protect against the events playing out beyond the commercialized places where tourists wandered. Here, in this less-than-desirable section, there was no glamour or glitz, certainly no goodness. There was only fear waiting around every corner, and survival of the most ruthless was the single prevailing law.

The alley was long and narrow, dark and damp from the rain that had fallen earlier that evening.

Homicide Detective Carter Hastings was barely three months from retirement. He’d turned fifty-five a few weeks ago. Most might not consider that milestone old, but it was damned ancient for a cop. He had decided that he would spend the rest of his life making up for all he’d missed or failed to accomplish these past thirty-odd years. In particular, he wanted to rectify his relationship with his only child, his daughter. He’d let the job rule his life for far too long. He wanted to know his daughter the way a father should.

But that wasn’t going to happen now.

He stared into the cruel eyes of certain death towering over him. “I won’t tell anyone,” he pleaded. “I swear I won’t.” Carter had never considered himself a coward, but tonight, knowing what he knew, he begged for mercy. He needed just one more day to set to rights all he’d failed to follow through on…to say the things he hadn’t said to the daughter he loved.

But this kind of evil knew no mercy. He should have realized years ago that this secret would come back to haunt him, that he could never trust a person who clearly had no soul to stand by any sort of promise. He had no one to blame but himself.

He prayed he would be the only one to pay for his error in judgment.

“Stand up and take it like a man, Hastings.”

The words hissed out at him as if they’d risen straight from the hottest flames of hell. Funny, Carter mused, in a way they had. Even the grave’s unyielding grip couldn’t restrain this kind of evil.

“I kept that secret,” he urged, a growl of anger roaring up into his throat, sealing his fate once and for all. He would die tonight. Nothing outside an act of God could save him, and with him would go the whole truth. “You don’t have to do this. What purpose would it serve? It’s over. Do you hear me! It’s been over for nearly twenty years. No one has to know it was you.”

Diabolical laughter echoed off the cold, damp walls of the dilapidated buildings crowding in on the place and time that now represented the rest of his life.

“You always were a softy,” his killer taunted. “I knew that when you fell for the wife of the victim. All that stopped you from being just like me was your so-called principles.” Another of those cruel sounds that couldn’t really be called a laugh split the eerie quiet. “You brought this on yourself, Hastings. You should have stayed out of it. I will not tolerate your interference. Don’t expect me to believe you’re finally willing to set aside those fine principles.”

Carter closed his eyes and said a final goodbye to the daughter he’d been less than a decent father to. Sent a quick prayer heavenward for the other woman whose life his long-ago actions would forever change. Now he would never have the chance to make up for his past sins.

The sound of the bullet exploded around him an instant before he felt the hot metal sear his brain.

Carter watched his killer walk away without a single backward glance. Then his eyes closed for the last time.