First Watch

by Valentina Giambanco

Genres: Crime Fiction

Synopsis

A exclusive ebook-only standalone preview to The Gift of Darkness, a perfect introduction to the critically acclaimed Detective Alice Madison series. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Sharon Bolton and Kathryn Croft. Featuring a special prequel scene and an extract from the new book.

Release date: May 16, 2013

Publisher: Quercus Publishing

Print pages: 24

Sample

January was already halfway gone and soon it would be dark. The traffic inched its way along 8th Avenue and all along the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the on the bridges scattered throughout Seattle the flow of headlights would begin to flicker and glow. Alice Madison wondered what had pulled her back after graduating college in Chicago nine months earlier.

She wished she could see a sliver of Elliott Bay from the corner of Virginia Street where she was standing – even a quick glimpse of water between the buildings would do – but she knew she was in the wrong place.

Madison stomped her feet to keep warm. Heavy clouds were rolling in from the west and she could almost smell the snow in the air; tonight the homeless shelters would be packed, and Patrol would find the embers of garbage can fires lit to help the lost and the vulnerable get through the night.

‘Officer Madison,’ the secretary called out from inside the glass door.

Madison nodded and automatically adjusted her buckle: she wasn’t yet used to the full weight of the belt, the Glock .40, and all the various add-ons, and – to her immense annoyance – she tended to fidget with the handcuffs case when nervous.

The inside of the building was unpleasantly warm after the chill outside. Madison followed the secretary – forties, professionally coloured hair, maroon trouser suit – down the pale green corridors of the Settle Police Department Headquarters. She was familiar with the building but she had never been in the suite of offices and meeting rooms on the first floor, and she’d have been pleased to keep it that way.

The secretary rapped twice on a door and showed Madison inside; seven people turned to look – only one of them wore a uniform, she noticed.

‘Officer Madison, do come in and have a seat.’ Sgt. Pete Richards, Office of Professional Responsibility, gestured to an empty chair at the long table. It was a smart room in shades of oatmeal; on one wall, a picture of Chief Torres next to a picture of President George W. Bush.

Pitbull Richards, Madison thought. Everyone in the department knew him by that name, chances were even his family called him Pitbull, and with very good reason. He looked like a wrestler with a buzz haircut and deep-set eyes the colour of lead.

‘Right. Now that we’re all here we can start. Officer, a few introductions.’ Richards went around the table. Five men, two women. The uniform was Captain Lowell – Madison knew him by sight. The others, whose names she hoped her brain had somehow retained, were other O.P.R. det. . .