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Nikki nodded, not knohy she was feeling disturbed when Andy was ah, huh? I’ll bet she could tell I’d been a junkie once upon a tihed "Hey… you don’t think, if Max knew about my past, that he’d fire me, do you?"
"No And who knows about Max’s past, anyway?" Nikki joked Then she turned serious "Andy, you had a hard life, but you’ve risen above it Contessa gave you good advice Watch out for anyone who ain That’s it"
"She warned ers Let e people in my past, that’s for sure"
"So leave them in the past"
"Yeah, well… sometimes I wonder if they’ll come back to haunt me, no matter where I leave them" She hesitated "Did you ever shed "Yes, I arettes!"
"In high school and college Then I quit"
"Yeah, but were you ever really addicted?"
"You bet I went to a hypnotist, and I chewed the guarettes are the hardest addiction to break," Andy said "But you kno it is You quit siven it up for years--but soarette, and you just want one so badly you can barely stand it But you know you can’t have that one cigarette because you’ll wind up with the addiction all over again, no ?"
"Yes, I know I can’t have one cigarette"
"It’s like that with other stuff… Every once in a while, you think, h, just one more time But you know you can’t do it"
"You’re not afraid you’ll be tempted, are you?" Nikki asked her, worried
Andy shook her head "No Because I knohat could happen And I’ve seen far too ht as an arro"
"Good for you," Nikki said
"And I love reat Hey!" Nikki said suddenly She lowered her voice "Speaking of drugs and addictions… look"
"What?"
"There’s that guy again"
"What guy?"
"The onetoday, at Mada across Conte There was a crowd around the popular bar on the corner, which was supposedly haunted by a cool jazz guitarist "Where?" she deave hiust
"I don’t see hiht there" Nikki pointed The ht at her He still looked as if he longed to reach out, touch her… talk to her
Then the crowd an to play And he was gone
"Well, go figure No more twenties to junkies, huh?" Andy said She walked on
And Nikki followed, trying to shake off the sudden chill that seemed to wash over her like ice from a not-so-distant past
Another day
Another corpse
A junkie, lying beneath one of the highway overpasses, nearly covered by newspapers and other debris, needle by his side
Detective Owen Massey and his partner had been called in after the patrol cops had cordoned off the scene The ME had arrived, too, and agreed that this was just another life wasted, tragic but si At least the poor sucker hadn’t rotted and decayed like a otten rat By the ME’s estioner for a matter of hours Cause of death see tiht his child, if he’d ever had one But there were days…
A few ht, sitting at his desk
Massey had nearly finished with the paperwork--not a ho across the rooot an ID?" Massey asked "A match on the prints’?"
"Yeah Tom Garfield FBI Under cover for the last three roaned, nearly letting his head fall on the table
It would be one hell of a long tiht
"The feds will be sending soreat"
He let his head crash to the desk
No one noticed A bunch of unifor as they went
Massey looked up, frowning "Politics," Joulette told hi to provide security for soed "It’s a hot race for that senate seat," he explained "I haven’t seen this e"