When he was safely out of Port Fontaine and onto I-55, Jenner stomped on the gas pedal. The engine hummed, and the needle crept past the 80 mark, the road underneath hard and flat as an airport runway.

Jenner floored the accelerator, pushing it down until his calf ached from the pressure. The engine pitched up to a high whine as the air blasted in and shuffled the junk on the backseat. And though it killed the sound, and warmed the car, and sent paper skidding into the front compartment, it wasn’t enough to get rid of the image of Marty, lying dead on the shroud beside the drowned car, arms uplifted, so badly decomposed that even his close friend couldn’t recognize him.

Jenner had failed. He’d failed and he knew why he’d failed: because of his attitude. He’d failed because he wouldn’t kiss Tom Anders’s butt. Even before Port Fontaine, he’d always been failing. He’d lost his license and blown his reputation because he hadn’t been smart enough to make nice with Amanda Tucker, or to play ball with fucking Steve Whittaker, now the chief ME in New York City.

It was Jenner’s own fault, his own fucking fault.

And now they were cutting him out of the investigation, riding him out of town while Rudge and Halvorsen and Bartley hunted the people who’d killed Marty and Bobbie. And Jenner knew that, because of his work, in a week or two, Tommy Anders would be appearing via satellite on Amanda Tucker’s American Crime Prime Time, explaining to the nation how he’d tracked down and caught the killers.

And it should be Jenner. Jenner should be moving the investigation forward. Jenner should be keeping his promise to Marty.

It should be Jenner, and he’d fucked it up.

The electric throb of his cell phone at his hip snapped him out of his thoughts. He slowed the car.

He pulled over to the shoulder and called back. The office needed a signature on an out-of-state transport approval for Mrs. Rosenblum. She’d already been removed by the funeral home—if Jenner could stop by and sign the form, Mr. Jones, the funeral director, would pick it up later.

Jenner asked for the funeral parlor address, then said, “If you fax the form over to Mr. Jones, I’ll head back into town and sign it there, save him some trouble.”

A Hard Death
001-coverpage.html
002-titlepage.html
004-epigraphpage.html
003-TOC.html
005-chapter01.html
006-chapter02.html
007-chapter03.html
008-chapter04.html
009-chapter05.html
010-chapter06.html
011-chapter07.html
012-chapter08.html
013-chapter09.html
014-chapter10.html
015-chapter11.html
016-chapter12.html
017-chapter13.html
018-chapter14.html
019-chapter15.html
020-chapter16.html
021-chapter17.html
022-chapter18.html
023-chapter19.html
024-chapter20.html
025-chapter21.html
026-chapter22.html
027-chapter23.html
028-chapter24.html
029-chapter25.html
030-chapter26.html
031-chapter27.html
032-chapter28.html
033-chapter29.html
034-chapter30.html
035-chapter31.html
036-chapter32.html
037-chapter33.html
038-chapter34.html
039-chapter35.html
040-chapter36.html
041-chapter37.html
042-chapter38.html
043-chapter39.html
044-chapter40.html
045-chapter41.html
046-chapter42.html
047-chapter43.html
048-chapter44.html
049-chapter45.html
050-chapter46.html
051-chapter47.html
052-chapter48.html
053-chapter49.html
054-chapter50.html
055-chapter51.html
056-chapter52.html
057-chapter53.html
058-chapter54.html
059-chapter55.html
060-chapter56.html
061-chapter57.html
062-chapter58.html
063-chapter59.html
064-chapter60.html
065-chapter61.html
066-chapter62.html
067-chapter63.html
068-chapter64.html
069-chapter65.html
070-chapter66.html
071-chapter67.html
072-chapter68.html
073-chapter69.html
074-chapter70.html
075-chapter71.html
076-chapter72.html
077-chapter73.html
078-chapter74.html
079-chapter75.html
080-chapter76.html
081-chapter77.html
082-chapter78.html
083-chapter79.html
084-chapter80.html
085-chapter81.html
086-chapter82.html
087-chapter83.html
088-chapter84.html
089-chapter85.html
090-chapter86.html
091-chapter87.html
092-chapter88.html
093-chapter89.html
094-chapter90.html
095-chapter91.html
096-chapter92.html
097-chapter93.html
098-chapter94.html
099-chapter95.html
100-chapter96.html
101-chapter97.html
102-chapter98.html
103-chapter99.html
104-chapter100.html
105-chapter101.html
106-chapter102.html
107-chapter103.html
108-chapter104.html
109-chapter105.html
110-chapter106.html
111-chapter107.html
112-chapter108.html
113-chapter109.html
114-chapter110.html
115-chapter111.html
116-chapter112.html
117-chapter113.html
118-chapter114.html
119-chapter115.html
120-chapter116.html
121-chapter117.html
122-chapter118.html
123-chapter119.html
124-chapter120.html
125-chapter121.html
126-chapter122.html
127-chapter123.html
128-chapter124.html
129-chapter125.html
130-chapter126.html
131-chapter127.html
132-chapter128.html
133-chapter129.html
134-chapter130.html
135-chapter131.html
136-chapter132.html
137-chapter133.html
138-chapter134.html
139-chapter135.html
140-chapter136.html
141-chapter137.html
142-chapter138.html
143-chapter139.html
144-chapter140.html
145-chapter141.html
146-backmatterpage01.html
147-acknowledgmentpage.html
148-aboutauthorpage.html
149-adcardpage.html
150-creditspage.html
151-copyrightpage.html
152-aboutpublisherpage.html