A Fifth of Trouble — A Jake Burbank mystery excerpt

“We got him.”

“You don’t have him.”

“He was on scene, his DNA is all over the place.”

“Do you know how many times he pisses in that alley every night?”

Allan shook his head.

“This is our guy,” he crowed.

“He’s not,” she ticked off on her fingers. “He’s a drunk. No motor control when he’s drinking. And when he’s not drinking, he’s got the shakes like Parkinson’s.”

“My gut says go with the simple explanation,” he stated. “You don’t see a frog jumping and think rabbit.”

“The cuts were made with precision, plus there’s no blood on scene.”

“It’s him,” Allan repeated. “I can feel it.”

AND

“You need to stop drinking,” she told him.

He didn’t point out the irony of saying it with a wine glass in hand.

“Why?”

“It’s not good for you. Go to an AA meeting.”

“No thank you,” he tapped the edge of his tumbler to call for a refill.

“It could help.”

“Sure,” he winked at the bartender as she topped him off. “A lot of things could help. But I like drinking. I like being…