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Back Lost Hills Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. Contents
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. Author’s Note and Acknowledgments
  49. About the Author

“Because it makes me happy,” he said. “I made happiness a priority. That’s key to achieving my stats.”

Eve set her empty can on the table and gathered up her badge and gun. “I can’t be happy when things are unsettled. Order is what makes me happy.”

“You can’t keep up like this, Eve. You’ll burn out fast.”

She pocketed her badge and holstered her gun on her belt. She was ready to go. “It’s just this one case.”

“Uh-huh,” Duncan said. “You aren’t going to change your clothes?”

Eve lifted her arms and sniffed under her armpits. “I’m good.”

Duncan handed her the box of donuts. “I’ll drive while you have breakfast.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

It was 8:40 on Sunday morning. The Santa Ana winds were blowing at thirty miles an hour through the Los Angeles Basin, fanning the flames in Valencia, and humidity was barely measurable, prompting the fourth straight day of red flag warnings in Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties.

The ride to the Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, where Coyle had been transferred on the previous night, took them nearly ninety minutes in rush-hour traffic, though “rush hour” was a misnomer. The traffic ordinarily didn’t ebb until about lunchtime, even on Sunday, and that was only if there were no serious accidents to clear.

The Men’s Central Jail was the epicenter of the ongoing scandals that were dogging the department. Now that the jail was under a media and Justice Department spotlight, every deputy and civilian employee was on their best behavior, assuming that any prisoner, lawyer, or family member entering the facility was a potential media source or FBI informant.

Eve and Duncan locked up their weapons, filled out the necessary paperwork, and were led to an interview room where Coyle and his lawyer were already waiting. Coyle was relaxed, stretched out in his hard chair as if it were a comfy recliner. The lawyer stood up and introduced herself as Stella Winters. She was a short, barrel-bodied woman in her fifties whose chin seemed to have been absorbed by her neck. A man would have compensated for his lost chin by growing a beard to establish some definition. Winters tried to use makeup to create some shadow but it didn’t work.

“Thank you for coming down, Detectives,” Winters said. “We won’t keep you long.”

“Why isn’t the assistant district attorney here?” Eve asked as she sat down.

“Because Burnside is not the one with the most at stake here,” Winters said.

“Say what?” Duncan said. “Your client is the one looking at the death penalty. Are there stakes higher than death?”