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Chapter One

"Do you have any idea what tirowled into the phone, his voice harsh with sleep Surely it had only been a few et his eyes to focus on the clock next to his bed, but he couldn’t quite e

A surprised silence on the other end was replaced with a little chuckle "Actually, I do knohat time it is It’s two forty-five Rise and shine, sweetheart"

Tucker sluet you for this, I swear to God"

"Pro up now I’ this is just a bad dreahtot another one, Tucker, and it’s bad"

Tucker rubbed a hand over his face and sat up wearily on the side of the bed, trying to get his brain working "Where?"

"The Nightstick on Front Beach The alley that runs beside it"

"Hell, I just left there about an hour or so ago" Tucker sat up in bed, groaning, running a hand across his face "Shit I’ll be there as quick as I can"

"Tuck?"

"Yeah?"

"This is a bad one"

"Yeah, so you said" Tucker sighed again, feeling like an asshole for not asking right away "Who was it, Bryson?"

"A patrol officer, name of David Adams I didn’t know him all that well personally, but he’s been on the force about two years His wife just had a baby"

"Shit" There was a tense silence on the phone as Tucker shook his head trying to clear the last vestiges of sleep "Be there in a few"

"I think the killer’s escalating, Tuck I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so uy apart"

Shit, another fucking murder This one sounded even worse than the last, if Bryson was that torn up

"Okay, Bryson" He kept his voice low and calm He and Bryson had been partners for a couple of years, and his partner usually kept it together in all but the particularly gruesome homicides He’d rarely heard such unsteadiness in his nore murder in their town in ten days, and they were still no closer to finding the killer The first ht outside the police station, in the parking deck late at night A patrolman on his way home was severely beaten and killed not a hundred yards from the station The second murder was actually quite near Tucker’s apartuy out for an early nizable, and had to be identified by dental records Now another police officer had become a victim Because of similar teeth marks found on the bodies, they knew that the h they hadn’t released that infor white males in their mid-twenties

How in the hell could this keep happening in their town? Beach toere no stranger to incidents involving police, and Panahts and drunk and disorderlies, usually ste crowds that flocked to the area during spring breaks and summer vacations Murders, however, were not that common--especially these brutal attacks

"Don’t let anybody near the criet there I’hed and stepped inside the shower stall, turning on the hot water, and standing under the spray to shake the grogginess from his head Bryson said it o forty-five That meant he’d only made it to bed a couple of hours earlier He stood under the war that had happened earlier that evening

Tucker had worked late and got to the Nightstick well past his usual tih it was nohborhood feel in the early evenings and attracted a pretty ht on the beach and had a great deck with a tiki bar that attracted the college crowd Even some cops were attracted by the name and the easy atmosphere of the place, so they often stopped by in the late afternoons or early evenings for a drink after their shift

But the bar took on a different feel this late in the evening, with ot there, and the lighting ht suited Tucker fine He was gay and out to his closest friends, but he still liked to keep his sexual orientation as private as possible Why invite trouble? Most of his co-workers were cool, but there were still a few homophobes on the force, so he chose to keep his private life just that-- private