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"He’s on speed or so him back to Missouri and he went ape-shit on us I know you were in SWAT and all"

The young detective’s eyes were pleading His voice verged on panic, which played Kelsey just the right way

Kelsey sht "Miss Lee, if you’ll excuse me"

The moment he was out of the room, Maia moved around DeLeon’s desk and read the note on her corkboard

White----Ti

Santos--ME----retired

2107 Dunbar

864-9719

Maia siood at that--but so with the photo of Lucia DeLeon and Etch Hernandez

This is crazy, she decided

But she slipped the photo and the note into her coat pocket She moved another picture to cover the blank space--the photo of Ralph and Ana and their baby at the zoo

Another wave of nausea swept over her, leaving her shivering and weak-kneed against the sergeant’s desk

Last night, she had co with her Noas on the run, protecting a murderer

Damn him

She should’ve left Tres where she found hi she’d ever done: slipping a business card across the bar to a guy she barely knew, just because he had beautiful green eyes and a sht ator, she’d told himent was still rotten She’d quit her job in San Francisco,behind She would do anything to help hi responsible choices, he was hopeless

Ralph Arguello eerous, suffocating roots that had been pulling Tres away fro as they’d known each other She’d almost lost him once before, when he’d first moved back to Texas Nohen she needed his full attention more than ever

If she’d told hiht, ould he have done?

An explosion of voices froht her back to the present

"Hell--he’s got , soainst a cubicle wall Then a bruised and bloody elf, now ar detective’s Glock, burst into the office, Kelsey and two other detectives close behind

Maia’s reflexes were slow Before she kneas happening, the elf was behind her, his arun at her throat

"Back off!" the elf screamed at the cops "Back the hell off!"

The elf’s breath was sour and war under her jaw But at that moment, Maia was more scared of Kelsey He had his pistol trained on the suspect, just an inch to the right of Maia’s ear She saw no thought of negotiation in his eyes No concern for her safety He was hesitating only because he wanted a nice clean shot

Maia grabbed the elf’s ar her thumb into the acupressure point at his wrist

He screa from the shock to his nervous system

She drove her elbow into his ribs He buckled forward and she raun clattering onto the carpet

The cops went slack-jawed

"Gentlemen," she said shakily "If you’ll excuse me"

They parted for her like a bead curtain

Halfway through the hoht up with her "Counselor"

His face was a beautiful shade of poranate "What was--how did you"

She took a shaky breath "We have no further business, Detective If I communicate with my client, I will advise him of our conversation"

Kelsey looked at her as if reappraising her value He rubbed the old scars on his fingers "I didn’t tell you the deal, Miss Lee Forty-eight hours"

"Until?"

"Until the DNA test results from the Franklin White case are ot shot because she was about to name her husband as prime suspect"

"You wouldn’t"