SSC (2011) The Road to Hell (10 page)
“Why does he want you?”
“Metro Crime Scene tried to lift prints off the corpse with the plate-glass method. See if somebody carried Tupton into the wine cellar. They came up with something on the wrists, but they’re not good enough to match up, though they seem to exclude the paramedics. Socolow wants me to oversee a methyl-methacrylate test.”
Charlie was too modest to say it, but he’s the old coot who invented it. Getting latent prints from the body of a corpse was tricky stuff. Moisture, the breakdown of tissues, and the surface of the skin itself were major problems. Sometimes, prints would show up by rolling a piece of glass across the body, but usually it didn’t work. Charlie came up with the Super Glue method. Convert the glue into fumes and tent the body. The sticky stuff settles on the skin, and
voilà
, if someone manhandled the body, prints appear in the glue as the fumes condense on the skin.
“I don’t mind, Charlie. Take the job.”
“I don’t need the money,” he said.
“C’mon, take it. I’d rather have you on the other side than some yahoo who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Remember, I’m supposed to be seeking the truth.”
“No, you’re not, Jake. You’re supposed to be representing Nicky Florio.”
Mortal Sin is available as a
Smashwords ebook
.
Also Available
Coming Soon — The Rest of the Jake Lassiter Series
Flesh & Bones
Coming Fall 2011
Lassiter
(in hardcover and an e-book, from Bantam Books)
About the Author
The author of 14 novels, Paul Levine won the John D. MacDonald fiction award and was nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, International Thriller, and James Thurber prizes. A former trial lawyer, he also wrote more than 20 episodes of the CBS military drama “JAG” and co-created the Supreme Court drama “First Monday” starring James Garner and Joe Mantegna. The critically acclaimed international bestseller “To Speak for the Dead” was his first novel. He is also the author of the “Solomon vs. Lord” series and the thriller “Illegal.” His next novel, “Lassiter,” will be published in hardcover—and as an e-book—by Bantam in Fall 2011. Visit Paul Levine on the Web at
http://www.paul-levine.com
.
Free Newsletter
Sign up for the free JAKE LASSITER NEWSLETTER and the chance to win signed books, DVD’s and other prizes at
http://www.paul-levine.com
.