title: Code for Murder
author:  Eliot Parker 
description: Eliot Parker is the author of three previous novels, most recently <i>Fragile Brilliance</i>, which was a finalist for the <i>Lords of Discipline</i> Thriller Prize. He received the West Virginia Literary Merit Award in 2016, as well as the Bronze Award for Mystery/Thriller Writing from the National Literary Habitat Organization. Eliot is graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing.
zlib_text: **Womans Murder Club 6 - The 6th Target**
  
   **Womans Murder Club 6 - The 6th Target**
  
  Womans Murder Club 6 - The 6th Target
  
   **Womans Murder Club 6 - The 6th Target**
  
  **Chapter 1**
  
    
  
  A KILLER IN WAITING, Fred Brinkley slumps in the blue-upholstered banquette on
  the top deck of the ferry. The November sun glares down like a big white eye
  as the catamaran plows the San Francisco Bay, and Fred Brinkley glares right
  back at the sun.
  
  A shadow falls across him, a kid’s voice asking, “Mister, could you take our
  picture?”
  
  Fred shakes his head — no, no, no — anger winding him up like a watch spring,
  like a wire tightening around his head.
  
  He wants to smash the kid like a bug.
  
  Fred averts his eyes, sings inside his head, Ay, ay, ay, ay, Sau-sa-lito-
  lindo, trying to shut down the voices. He puts his hand on Bucky to comfort
  himself, feeling him through his blue nylon Windbreaker, but still the voices
  pound in his brain like a jackhammer.
  
  Loser. Dog shit.
  
  Gulls call out, screaming lik