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"Only if it’s naughty," he replied with a laugh

"Not in the way you probably want," I said, also with a laugh "Can I co It has to do with the body theft"

"Yeah, sure thing" He gave me so up and drove the van the halfthat housed the Sheriff’s Office

His door was open when I arrived His office was the size of a broo cabinet, and an extra chair The desk itself had a computer and a phone on it, and every other square inch was covered with stacks of paper and files A cork board on the wall behind hi several speckled trout, as well as another of him with the sa up beers Around the edge of the corkboard were a nus of what I assued between a pile of papers and his cohtly on the doorfraaze froel of Death!" He chuckled and motioned to the chair in front of his desk "Come on in, have a seat"

I closed the door behind me, then sat His eyes flicked briefly to the closed door, but he didn’t coeted for a few seconds while I tried to think of how to explain my theory "Is that your brother?" I asked with a nod toward the fra on the first piece of conversation I could think of

Ben smiled, shook his head "Nope My boyfriend"

I blinked in surprise "Oh!" I paused, fu to say that wouldn’t ives you shit about that around here?"

He chuckled "They’re welcome to try I’m sure soh to say anything to atherings that spouses or girlfriends are welcorinning Ben lint in his eye right now that told me he would seriously fuck up the first person who dared mess with someone he cared about "I’d like to ht nod "That can be arranged So, what’s going on?"

"Okay, here’s the thing," I began "I know there are people who think the loss of that body was some sort of fuck up on my part--"

"I don’t believe that," he interrupted, eyes narrowing

I gave him a weak smile "Thanks But the other theory is that it was some sort of stupid prank, and I honestly can’t believe that it was anything of the sort"

He leaned back in his chair, nodded "I can tell this is bugging the shit out of you"

"It is, and not just because h the uy who died I know that on paper he looks like a nobody, but there has to be so with the watch on his desk "I took this off the body when I first bagged hierprinted…to see if the dead guy really was this nobody security guard everyone thinks he is"

Ben picked up the bag and peered at the contents To oddamn conspiracy theory" He looked back up to ht now" He stood up "Wanna come with me?"

"Sure!" I said I loved forensics and CSI and all that shit There was no way I was going to turn down a chance to see the inside of a cri adjacent to the Investigations Division, joined by a covered ay Upon entering I found le desk covered in piles of paperwork and one other door that had the kind of key card lock that we used at the coroner’s office A ed Asian woman with hair cut in a short pixie style sat behind the desk She gave Ben a nod of greeting andnote of the coroner’s office insignia on , Tracie," Ben said "Is there anyone around who isn’t too busy and could do a quick processing of a piece of evidence for fingerprints?"

"No such thing as a ‘quick processing,’" she ad as ‘isn’t too busy’ around here We do have a backlog of cases to work, you know"

He gave her a placating smile "Sure, but I’m always super nice to y’all, and deserve to be bumped ahead of those other rude bastards"

She snorted, but went ahead and picked up her phone and punched a button "Hey, Detective Roth is here and wants to kiss your ass because he needs soet screwed?"

I blinked in surprise, but Tracie caught my eye and winked "Gotcha," she said into the phone, then hung up "Sean said you’ll owe him lunch," she told Ben, "but he’ll come do it"

"Perfect," he said "He can put it on my tab"

Less than a minute later the red-haired tech opened the secured door "Oh, hi there, Angel Hi, Ben Coave Ben a look filled with distrust "Not like the tioogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>