Chapter One
Night fell clean and cold in Dublin, and wind moaned
beyond my room as if a million pipes played the air.
Gusts shook old windowpanes and sounded like spirits
rushing past as I rearranged pillows one more time, finally
resting on my back in a snarl of Irish linen. But sleep
would not touch me, and images from the day returned. I
saw bodies without limbs or heads, and sat up, sweating.
I switched on lamps, and the Shelbourne Hotel was
suddenly around me in a warm glow of rich old woods
and deep red plaids. I put on a robe, my eyes lingering
on the phone by my fitfully-slept-in bed. It was almost
two A.M. In Richmond, Virginia, it would be five hours
earlier, and Pete Marino, commander of the city police
department's homicide squad, should be up. He was probably
watching TV, smoking, eating something bad for
him, unless he was on the street.
I dialed his number, and he grabbed the phone as if he
were right next to it.
"Trick or treat." He was loudly on his way to being
drunk.
"You're a little early," I said, already regretting the
call. "By a couple of weeks."
"Doc?" He pause ... read full excerpt from: Unnatural Exposure ebook
