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I grinned at him, feeling the weight of the amulet pressing against me. No way was I ever
taking this off now. With you? Absolutely.
36
About the Author
Cari Z is a Colorado girl who loves snow and sunshine. She works, travels, writes and speaks
poor French, but at least the French is improving. Slowly.
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37
A single pink orchid sat on my desk when I returned to the station. Just the one flower,
elegant and exotic, curving slightly towards my chair with its sweet smelling blossom
perfuming the room. And it was growing out of my coffee cup.
Damn it! I swore. I threw the paper sack that held my lunch onto my desk. No way. No
way in hell. I stormed out of my cubicle and down the hall to where my supervisor, Jack
Myers, spoke on the phone in his own, much larger, office. He held a hand up to forestall any
speaking on my part while he continued nodding into the phone. I waited with ill grace until
he hung up a few minutes later, and then I exploded.
I m not doing it!
Andrea. He tried to placate me. It wasn t my idea, but the commissioner insisted on it.
Try to be reasonable.
Reasonable? I exclaimed. How can I be reasonable, when you re handing my case over
to that arrogant, selfish, ass kissing little
Andrea, you re keeping the case. O Connell will just be assisting in the fieldwork. It s
safer for you to have backup anyway. Someone inside the clubs, not just sitting in a squad car
a block away.
It was reasonable, but I didn t want to listen. He can t tear himself away from a mirror
long enough to be helpful. Jack, I ve been working on this case for three months and I deserve
to be the one to see it through. Just because the police commissioner thinks Darren O Connell
is the greatest thing since the inception of forensic thaumaturgy doesn t make him a good
man in the field. He s a lab rat disguised as a caped crusader. He doesn t follow orders. He
Steals glory? Jack interrupted softly. His voice was kind but his expression was firm. I
know how you feel about O Connell. I know you two have a history together. But you said it
yourself, Andrea. You ve been working the case for three months. You still haven t managed to
get your hands on a sample of the drug. We need to know what we re dealing with in order to
hunt down the people who are manufacturing and distributing it, and this stuff has the fastest
half life of any magical narcotic we ve ever encountered. We can t hold the people who sell it
because as soon as they turn out their pockets, the stuff disappears. He sighed heavily, the
lines in his face deepening.
Meanwhile we ve got everyone from runaway kids to the wife of a state senator getting
sick on the stuff. O Connell s skills fit this case. The police commissioner thinks we need him
to close it, and I m tending to agree with him. Jack heaved himself up from behind his desk
and walked around to me, then took one of my hands in both of his.
It wasn t strictly professional, but I didn t care. Jack and I went way back. He was one of
the only people in the world I could truly call a friend, him and his wife Moira. The only other
person in this part of the country I d known as long as them was Darren, and our relationship
hadn t turned out so well.
He ll be back pretty soon. He had some sort of official luncheon to get to and couldn t
wait for you. When he comes back, let him read the case file, okay? Try to be polite. You re
both adults. Both professionals. Both cops. You can do this.
It was all true, and yet I felt like a whiny teenager. Something about Darren pushed my
angst button. Maybe it was his showmanship, maybe it was that his career had gone so much
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