Red-Handed, The

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. Detective Rebecca Hayes crouched beside the body, her latex gloves already stained with blood as she examined the scene that would define the rest of her career. The victim lay sprawled across the marble floor of the downtown art gallery, his expensive suit soaked crimson, a sculpture of twisted metal lying nearby with blood coating its sharp edges. What should have been a routine investigation was about to become the nightmare that would destroy everything she'd worked for. The gallery owner, Jonathan Marsh, had been found dead at seven-thirty that morning by his assistant, who'd arrived early to prepare for the evening's exhibition opening. The scene appeared straightforward: a burglary gone wrong, with several valuable paintings missing from their frames and the safe in the back office standing open and empty. But Rebecca's trained eye caught details that troubled her, inconsistencies that suggested something more complex than a simple break-in. The blood spatter patterns were wrong for the weapon's position. The victim's wounds didn't match the sculpture's angles. Most disturbing of all, the footprints in the victim's blood led in a deliberate pattern that suggested the killer had moved through the gallery methodically, as if familiar with its layout. This wasn't random violence; it was execution disguised as robbery. Rebecca's partner, Detective Mike Santos, was interviewing the assistant in the gallery's front office while Rebecca processed the crime scene. They'd been working together for three years, and she trusted his instincts almost as much as her own. Mike had a talent for reading people, for seeing through lies and extracting truth from reluctant witnesses. Between his people skills and her analytical approach, they'd built an impressive clearance rate that had earned them recognition throughout the department.