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She nodded, not looking at either of the around in front of her "Are you alone here? I thought I heard voices"

"I’ed "Last-ie had walked to the door "Whoa! Good-looking boy Wonder who he was shopping for?"

"His newest love, I iiefor?" Maggie said, forcing her voice to be casual "The love of his life, I i"

"Oh, well Hey, are you sure you won’t coie narrowed her eyes at her friend "Is Sean going to be with them?"

"No, honey Sorry," Cissy said

"Maybe I’ll co, I’ll just get soie said "The guys are kinda gluie looked at Cissy, then at Maggie "You haven’t heard the news yet, huh?" She tapped her teie and I just heard the report upstairs Another body has been found"

Another body Maggie felt as if she was choking

"Oh?" she irl, the newscaster was saying Had a little boy What a sha you wander around alone, no irl wasa lot, just warning single woo anywhere alone"

"Well, I won’t go to dinner with you if you don’t letto be with two cops," Cissy said "We’ll have dinner and see Maggie hoht You can walk ie looked at each other and shrugged

"Sure," Angie agreed

It was true Though they tried to be decent dates, both Mike the Adonis and Jack the charmer were down The body had actually been found yesterday, but they’d kept it out of the news until the evening, trying to ascertain an identity on this one in order to notify next of kin before getting involved with the barrage the press was sure to put on theie reh they were cops, they couldn’t expect to cure all the ills in the world Mike agreed, but said, "It’s just this case It’s just so daie re heat on this one It’s tearing hih"

"Oh?" Maggie asked

"Well, we’re not supposed to say tooof a description of the killer

That’s going to help a hell of a lot It ie ie, sorry, we really can’t say ht," she told hi, they all walked back to the shop

"Go on up and lock yourself in," Jack told her gruffly

"I will Thanks, guys Good night"

She entered the building, and knew they aiting to hear her twist the bolts Dutifully, she did so

Then she leaned against the ground floor door to the upstairs offices She bit into her lower lip, and thought again that ht, was likea limb And she was scared Unnerved

She suddenly ran upstairs, deter up street addresses Then she hurried back downstairs, and let herself out of the building

The night was dark The fulldown the street quickly, searching out faces as she went

CHAPTER 8

He was drea, but it was da a horse A handso

All around him, he could hear the thunder of hoofbeats He rode hard, knowing that everything hinged on his ability to find and defeat his enemy He felt the horse, felt the heat of the day, felt sweat trickling down his neck He earing wool, and the sun wasout some kind of loud, shrill yell, a sound that was fierce and savage, and startled hies of the drea He hadn’t knohere he was going, only that he was searching for an eneh the streets of New Orleans and catch the killer

He stretched, aware that he had dozed off on the sofa, staring at his television screen He should have been drea about murder victims Thankfully, however, the news about the latest find had been carefully doled out to the press, and by so responsible and panic h, it o prostitutes and a pimp who had been killed The moral majority liked to believe that such a killer would never be a threat to decent people Maybe that was helping to keep the panic down, to keep ain, New Orleans was a city fond of sin, the forgivable kind of sin And God knew, soon enough, the populace would see the victih, the entire city would be up in ar hiht have a chance at the killer now He had an artist’s rendering of the

He rose, walked into the kitchen, and got hi bleary-eyed

Sean owned the hundred-and-fifty-year-old building he lived in on Conte Street in the heart of the city It was in good repair, not so much because he was able to put any tiround floor to a friend of his sister’s who ran one of the finest Cajun restaurants in the city

Grateful to Sean who had given her six months free rent when she started her business, Danielle Bonet now made sure that the place was painted, reroofed, and repaired at the slightest hint of trouble She also sent her own cleaning wos to eat, and saw to it that his shutters, drapes, and upholstery were kept in good for quarters in the city were consistently pleasant, and home was a haven from the office and the world

He lifted his beer bottle "To you, Danielle Thanks"

He chugged down a few long ss of beer, feeling restless There were things he could do He’d already been to the hotel room where the most recent victim had been killed It had appeared spotless