Whodunit

Nook edition

Chapter 3

In Pursuit of an Elusive Killer 

(excerpt)

Police Chief Carl Reed stood in the doorway of his office. With his boot and his back supporting his slim body as it rested against the door facing, he ran his hand over his shaved, bald head and down his face, stopping at his cleft chin. He had been up most of the night investigating the Jim Russell murder in the Texas Tech library. Fortunately, the nasty deed had been done in the stacks, in an area that was a bit secluded, not restricted mind you, but rather, not used by most students. With the school's security cameras and campus officers, the Police Chief hoped there would be a break in the case soon.

   His whole future in the City of Lubbock Police Department rested in cracking this case. All the negative press had been a cold-blooded chain-saw massacre of the Police Chief's office with this fifth murder. 

   As luck would have it, elections were still six months away, and Police Chief Reed was pretty sure that the opposition party didn't have the votes to run him out of office, though. A sixth human-instigated human fatality and Police Chief Reed might have to see about working for the Chevrolet plant in Irving again. Being an assembly line worker paid okay, but in the city of Lubbock, as Police Chief, he had power. People knew who he was. He was respected and well thought of by most people. Being an assembly line worker, he'd be any old Joe Blow with a job. The key phrase, however, was with a job. In a really tight economy, assembly line worker didn't sound so bad, after all.

   "Just the same, I have to find whoever is doing all this killing. . . .[ . . . ]