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Unfortunately, now I had to deal with my rank After my previous captain, Robert Turnham, had been promoted to chief of police, a lieutenant from the patrol division had been tapped to beco in the time that I was "dead" and the first couple of weeks after that, before I returned to duty

Captain Barry Weiss rese in darn near every possible way except for the fur He was short and stocky and slightly bowlegged, with broad shoulders and a lower jaw that jutted out just enough to make the resemblance complete I had met him a few times on scenes but so far had very little real face time with him

I knocked on the fra at ht sood to see you I didn’t think you’d be back so soon You feeling all right?"

I nodded and sat in the chair in front of his desk "Mostly bruises I got lucky Have state police found anything?"

He shook his head "They collected soe, so most of it probably went into the river But I’ll be sure to let you know if anything coet the car out" He frowned "Divers say it’s a realThey wouldn’t believe any explanation I could give for the state of the car, so I figured it was safer not to offer any And I didn’t hold out a lot of hope for answers froments I already kneas a blue Chevy pickup that had hit ood old boys, that narrowed it down to, oh, say fifty thousand suspects, give or take ten thousand

"Look, Kara," he said, leaning back in his chair and grih all that, but I got a call from Mandeville PD"

I winced "Captain, I knoas out of line there I’m sorry about that"

"Yeah, you were completely off base," he said with a scowl "There’s already a shitload of pressure to get this case closed, and now our only suspect in the Davis Sharp case is dead, by suicide, with a confession, right? So what’s the daet everyone off our backs"

"I’ll tell you what the da to censor h enough shit lately that I was prettyabout tact and diplo suspect, and due to inconsistencies at the scene in Mandeville, I have serious doubts about whether or not she killed herself To close the case now by narossly unfair to both her and Davis Sharp, it will also allohoever did kill the sound "Well … I can respect that Do what you feel is right" Then he fixed lare "But if you ever act up like that on a scene again--especially with a cooperating agency--I’ll suspend you so fast your goddaave hi "Yes, sir It won’t happen again" I kneas daYou’ve been reco hite-collar criht for an instant he was going to roll his eyes, but he ed to restrain himself and limited it instead to merely a sour expression "Chief Turnhaents Ryan Kristoff and Zachary Garner" He settled his glare ontoto take your share of cases in this jurisdiction, though"

"No, sir, of course not," I answered, caught uard by the abrupt announce me this opportunity"

He snorted "Thank the chief, not me I think it’s bullshit" He shook his head, and I had to hide a smile at his stark honesty "That’s all" He waved a hand at ladly took the opportunity to leave

After departing my captain’s office, I continued on out of the station Technically, I was on aveon Tessa’s house and that da first at the Kwik-E Mart to buy Oreos and chocolate ice cream The last twenty-four hours had been hell, and I needed all the chocolate and fat I could get ht now

I mentally reviewed the conversation with -down I’d received over my behavior at Elena’s condo, and even I could admit that the only reason that I hadn’t been rewarded with unpaid days off was because of the accident In that respect, I should probably be grateful to my attacker

Of course, that was the only respect I’d had to push erously close to its liun and holster as well asout a ridiculous hope that the department insurance would cover soe of pace

I cliht scan of the front-door area but didn’t feel anything amiss this time The aversions were still in place and apparently unaltered I sighed and pushed in after unlocking the door, then headed to the kitchen and shoved the ice cream into the empty freezer The piece of paper that had the names and lines and circles was still on the kitchen counter--our attempt to find some sort of connection between theAfter losing my notebook in the river, I kneould need to start re-creating as much as I could remember

I did a quick check of the library and the rest of the house, not sensing anything out of the ordinary, then locked the front door and headed upstairs tochamber She had her chamber in her attic since there was no way in the world for her to have a basement where she lived Basements in Louisiana were pretty dah The only reason I was able to have one was because my house was situated on a hill It was yet one more reason why I kneould never sell that house

Fortunately, the staircase to the attic was a real one and not a rickety pull-down ladder, since Tessa occasionally brought the demons she summoned down to her library In theory, the attic could have been used as an additional bedroo a face as a wave of warm air flowed over me I flicked the air vent to the full open position, then stood in front of the vent for a few minutes as cooler air poured in

Finally, when the temperature was bearable, Ia piece of chalk out of ram, then sat back on my heels and channeled as much potency as I could scrape up into it--which wasn’t hout the day--little bumps of potency that hopefully wouldn’t wipe me out too much