Page 9 (1/2)

Chase was sitting at his desk, his leg in a splint propped up on a footstool When alked in, he jerked his head up "About time Where were you?"

I waved off his question "Chill, Johnson We do have other things to do besides hold your hand all the tiet on with this" But I flashed hi

"How’s your foot?" Delilah gave hiht about the lanced at the elfin medic Queen Asteria’s niece, Sharah was also Chase’s current girlfriend, and she was pregnant with his baby

Her gaze darted froain, and I knehat that lookand I wanted to smack them upside the head Clueless, with a capital C

"Chase, here’s the report on your officers" Sharah’s voice was abrupt, and I caught the sa raed over to Delilah and gave her a sharp nod to lanced atfilled her eyes, she quickly lanced over at Delilah, still blissfully unaware of his faux pas "Broke the ankle Shouldn’t take too long to heal, though It was a clean fracture Hurts like an SOB" Chase, still blissfully unaware, picked up the reports Sharah pulled away, scowling, and left the roo around

"Idiot Can’t you see she was upset?" Hands on lared at him, then turned to Delilah "And you…you know better than that"

"What? What did I do? What’s wrong now?" Yep He had that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look Clueless

"Use your brain Sharah’s very pregnant, and very volatile She co a kiss--albeit a friendly one--but given your history, I ioing to help Instead of dropping what you were doing and greeting her like you really love her, you brushed her off with a peck on the cheek"

"But we’re at work…"

"Dude Pregnant woiven her a s from clueless to oh-I-am-so-fucked "Oh man, nobody warns you about this stuff Why isn’t there a father-to-beyou should know during your woh "I aht think Caive her time to cool off And soht still think we have feelings for each other--"

"We do" Chase stared at her "And ill, but they aren’t…I’ently, s "But Sharah’s the one who needs to know that"

"Fine Chase is going to buy flowers and eat crow, and you both are going to be careful about the touchy-feely stuff Let’s get on with it Lindsey Cartridge is on the way down here right now, Chase She has soation of this ’s events" I quickly outlined what she’d told et in trouble"

Chase let out an exasperated sigh "You do know desecration of a grave is a raveyard dust, too, so you want to lock ed and flipped through the report "Whatever We’ve gotto steal sorave robbers and knohat happened to …within reason"

"What ceewood So, really, is there any way to find out if they drained off the souls or spirits or whatever spooks were hanging around there?" He frowned, pausing over the papers Sharah had given him "Zombie attack probably killed this officer, too His neck was broken and his ar to tell his wife"

"Can you tell her it was a dog?" Delilah asked

"And that would be better, how? Might turn her against dogs the rest of her life" Pursing his lips, he closed the file and tossed it back on the desk "I won’t tell her it was zombies, but I have to tell her he was i knocked on the door and peeked in "Lindsey Cartridge to see you She’s with another wolanced around his office It wasn’t the most spacious cubicle He reached for his crutches, wobbled to his feet, andconference rooi shook his head "Nope, it’s free"

"Have thei saluted and headed back the way he’d come

Delilah and I followed Chase into the empty conference roo, but crutches are never anybody’s best friend

The rooot quite a bit of use Several empty steno pads were scattered around the table, and a couple of gory case pictures hung on one bulletin board, apparently forgotten frohtly queasy

Following aze, Chase asked me to take therimaced but moved over to the photos I’d no more than unpinned them from the corkboard and tucked them in a drawer on one of the built-in counters when Lindsey walked in

A little shorter thanwheat-colored hair pulled back in a ponytail, and she was athletic as hell For an FBH, she could give Delilah a run for her h she’d had a baby only a few ht train, and I had no doubt she could bash in a few heads

Behind her was a woman as petite as Menolly, with curly brown hair, and a boy who rese like a frightened rabbit

As they silently sat down at the table, Chase motioned to the coffee urn "If you want, we have fresh coffee, and there’s also hot water for tea Would you like a soda?" He glanced at the boy

"Um…sure Coke, please" The kid’s voice was shaky, and he sounded surprised I had the feeling he aiting for the iron to drop in the fire

Chase gave Delilah a dollar, who plugged it into the vending machine She handed the kid a Coke Lindsey fixed coffee for herself and her friend When she glanced over at us, Delilah and I shook our heads Delilah didn’t like coffee, and I’d tasted the coffee at HQ before I knew better