The Shadows of Pike Place (A Thomas Austin Crime Thriller #2)

by D.D. Black

Suddenly, she felt violently ill. Her stomach twisted painfully and she barely got her head over the side of the bed in time as she threw up.

“No pets allowed,

This is Seattle. Just because you have piercings and tattoos doesn’t make you a bad kid.”

“They got in a fight.” “Oh, when?” “Christmas. He makes loud music and she didn’t like it. She liked the Beatles. He said the Beatles were trash.”

“When he fought with Nanna, he said rock and roll was dead. She said his music was bad. He said EDM was forever. That’s when he said the Beatles were trash.”

though I don’t have access to fifty year old police files.

Most people—even killers—spend most of their time doing everyday, mundane things.”

The area was flush with Vietnamese restaurants—mostly specializing in phở, which was as much a staple around Seattle as pizza was in New York.

no one makes a song called Death to Grandmas and then goes and kills their grandma.”

When I worked patrol, my partner and I would drive around the county and bet on which run-down restaurants and stores would turn out to be criminal fronts. A pizzeria in Bremerton, a dog-grooming place on Bainbridge Island that never had any customers but reported $11 million in income. That sort of thing.

Being a detective was roughly seventy-five percent investigative work, twenty-five percent poker.

“As bad as things are,” she said, “and they’ve never been worse, my mother would want me to keep drinking.”

He felt better than ever about his decision to avoid the internet as much as possible.

“If Chief Jackson asks, none of what is about to happen ever happened.”

“Shut up you sick bastard.”

You know how often it is that handsome men who aren’t creepy as hell move into the county?”

I don’t want to be a buddy who helps you solve crimes. I want more than that.”