The 1st Victim Page 6

  “So he’s a traveling salesman,” Kovac said. “I don’t care what he’s driving.”

  He cared that he was standing over another young woman who would never have the chance to become an old woman. Whoever this girl was, she would never have a career, get married, have children, get divorced. She would never have the opportunity to be successful or make a shambles of her life, because she didn’t have a life anymore.

  And no matter if she had been the perfect girl or a perfect bitch, somewhere tonight someone would be missing her, wondering where she was. Somewhere on this New Year’s Eve a family believed they would see her again. It would be Kovac’s job to tell them the hard truth. If he could manage to figure out who the hell she was.

  On the sidelines, the reporters had begun to get restless, wanting details. One of them called out, “Hey, Detective! We heard there was a zombie. Is that true?”

  Off to the southwest the sky suddenly exploded with color. Fireworks over the burbs.

  Kovac looked at his partner. “Happy freaking New Year.”

  TAMI HOAG is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books. Renowned for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag first hit the New York Times bestseller list in 1995 with Night Sins, and each subsequent novel has repeated that performance. Hoag lives in Florida.