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"What’s the matter?" He came out into the hall half-dressed, but for once I didn’t pause to appreciate his bare chest

"We need to go see Lenny Marlowe"

"Why?"

I understood his confusion but we didn’t have tiht be in trouble"

Understate Chance joined ave hie himself as he drove

"Shit Call Saldana and have hireat It e to have a cop on our side for once, instead of being in the crappy position of trying to explain the wildly improbable I still wasn’t sure I trusted hiiven us Lenny as a lead Would he have done that if he intended to watch and kill hio to thatto thinkNo I hadn’t tossed out the dirty cop idea entirely;around his office, listening to his personal conversations? But then again, except for Saldana, I hated cops, so it made me happy to blame one

Our pet police "Saldana"

"I may have a problem that requires your assistance," I said in lieu of hello

He sighed "You know, Corine, there’s a picture of you next to the definition of high maintenance What is it now?"

Because I did need his help, I ignored the insult "Our ht I was asleep and I , to say the least We’re headed over there to check on him, but I’d appreciate your official presence on scene"

There was a long pause, and background noise increased So and a o a long while without seeing that fellow and nevercautiously

"Yes, ma’am, I’ll take a ride over to check on your nephew I don’t mind a bit, Miss Alice No, it’s no trouble," he added, although I hadn’t spoken

Huh He didn’t want his partner to knoas talking to ood," I said with a snicker "You should do Vegas"

"I hen you geta mentor would turn out like this? I’m on my way"

I closed lanced at Chance "I think Iout my welcome with Officer Saldana"

A smile pulled at the corners of hisover us like a swathe of gauze Unlike the alht and sunny other days, the air felt heavy thisIn silence we followed the access road leading back to the trailer park where Marlowe lived

Jessein the tiny excuse for a front yard, beside the BEWARE OF DOG sign Chance got out and went toward the porch and knelt as if he were listening to sorio in," he warned us "I already called the forensic folks It’s bad in there"

"Pulled-apart-by-de his head, he answered, "Shot-up-with-automatic-weapons bad What did he say when he called you?"

I played the e for the third time "I feel like shit We told him to leave it be"

Saldana eyed me with an expression of pure dislike I didn’t expect I’d be fending off his advances anytiet him in trouble, the poor du this is ave me his name, so how about we spread the blame around some?"

"You think I’m not aware of that? Christ, I told you his name and now he’s dead It’s as much e" Jesse yanked it off his belt and studied it for a minute, dull silver in the palm of his hand, and then craht now"

Oh So that was it

"Maybe you bent the letter of the law, but you had good intentions You wanted to close the case and you thought--"

"Fuck what I wanted A ood intentions" Saldana stalked to the end of the drive to wait for the coroner’s wagon, now driving down the dusty road toward us

"We should get out of here If Moon comes" I trailed off when I realized Chance wasn’t listening to ravel to see what had hihtened with a tiny, blood-spattered dog in his arms Butch had lost so, the Chihuahua curled deeper into Chance’s ararded us fro how his day could possibly get worse

"Shit," I said "We’re keeping him, aren’t we?"

Chance leveled his best look on , Will Travel

The da

We left the scene just before the official vehicles arrived, and I had a feeling that was the last favor I could safely ask of Saldana With guilt weighing on hih it wouldn’t bring back Lenny Marlowe

And Nathan Moon definitely didn’t like enuine ical reason for it