Everyone Dies

by McGarrity, Michael (Author)

• ISBN13: 9780525947615
• ISBN10: 0525947612
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: E P Dutton

Summary

The Anthony Award-nominated author with "a cunning mind for crime fiction" (The New York Times Book Review) ratchets up the stakes in a novel of electrifying action and unstoppable suspense, where a vengeful killer with an unspeakable agenda won't stop until . . . everyone dies. Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney and his wife, Lieutenant Colonel Sara Brannon, are on leave and eagerly awaiting the birth of their son when a prominent gay attorney is gunned down outside his office by an unknown assailant. Called to the crime scene and faced with scanty evidence and no apparent motive, Kerney directs his chief of detectives to delve into the victim's personal and professional life, a decision that ultimately leads to a SWAT team screw-up and the death of two innocent people. But the killer has just begun. Kerney's horse, a mustang he'd gentled and trained, is viciously and senselessly destroyed; a dead rat is left on his doorstep; and a second victim with ties to the criminal justice system is found in bed with her throat cut along with a warning: EVERYONE DIES. As a time of joy turns into a nightmare, Kerney and Sara search desperately for a seemingly unstoppable chameleonlike killer who promises to murder them and their unborn son.

Author Biography

Michael McGarrity is author of the Anthony Award-nominated Tularosa, Mexican Hat, Serpent Gate, Hermit's Peak, The Judas Judge, Under the Color of Law, and The Big Gamble. A former deputy sheriff for Santa Fe County, he established the first Sex Crimes Unit. He has also served as an instructor at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy and as an investigator for the New Mexico Public Defender's Office.

Excerpts

1Jack Potter, perhaps the most successful and best known attorney in Santa Fe, had recently attended a gay rights costume ball dressed as Lady Justice. The following morning a photograph of a smiling Potter, wearing a shimmering frock, a curly wig, and holding the scales of justice and a sword, appeared on the front page of the local paper.Today Jack Potter wore a tank top, shorts, and a pair of expensive running shoes that looked brand new to Detective Ramona Pino. He was faceup on the sidewalk with a bullet hole in his chest. He'd bled out in front of his office across from the county courthouse early on a warm July morning. From the blood trail on the sidewalk, Pino could tell that Potter had crawled a good fifty feet before turning over on his back to die.Ramona was more than slightly pissed at the man who'd discovered Potter. Alfonso Allesandro had spotted the body as he passed by in his newspaper truck, and had called the city editor on a cell phone before dialing the cops to report the crime. As a result a photographer had hurried over from the newspaper offices a few blocks away and walked through the blood trail taking pictures before the first officer arrived.Both men were now waiting in the panel truck under the watchful eye of a uniformed officer while Pino worked the cordoned-off crime scene with the techs, searching for shell casings and anything else that looked like evidence.Little orange evidence markers were placed at the cigarette butts lying in the gutter, at a broken toothpick found a step away from Potter's body, and next to the small puddle of fairly fresh crankcase oil in the street. One tech dusted the parking meters for fingerprints, and another worked on the door and front porch to Potter's office.Ramona inspected the small fenced lawn in front of the building looking for any signs that shrubbery and grass had been disturbed or for fibers, threads, or hair that might have been transferred by contact. Finding nothing, she sent a tech who'd finished taking snapshots of the bloody footprints to secure the photographer's shoes so a comparison could be made. The photographer opened the truck door, pulled off his shoes, and shot Ramona a dirty look as he handed them to the tech.Ramona smiled, but not at the photographer. The newspaper's truck bore an advertising slogan, EVERYONE READS IT, and in black spray paint someone had added: AND WONDERS WHYBy the time an assistant district attorney, a medical examiner, and Lieutenant Sal Molina showed up, the courthouse was about to open for business. A small crowd of lawyers, clerks, judges, and officers scheduled for court appearances had gathered across the street and were scrutinizing her every move, which made her a little uneasy.The ME, a roly-poly man with skinny arms showing below a short-sleeved shirt, went off to declare Potter officially dead. Ramona turned her back on the crowd and briefed Molina and the ADA in a low voice."Potter was shot in the chest at what appears to be close range," she said. "We have no witnesses to the crime and so far no substantial evidence.""Was it a drive-by?" Molina asked."I don't think so," Ramona replied. "Potter took just one bullet. If the killer had been firing from a moving vehicle, he probably would have emptied his weapon at his target.""The shooter could have been parked at the curb.""Possibly," Ramona said. "But if the killer was in a vehicle, I doubt it was a passenger car.""Why do you say that?" Molina asked."The entry and exit wounds don't look that much out of alignment," Ramona answered. "From a car, the shooter would have been firing up at an angle."Molina nodded in agreement. "Have you found the bullet?""No," Pino said as she gazed down the street. At least a dozen buildings would have to be checked for the spent round, including an elementary school, an