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This is what happens to rats

It was unprecedented stuff So that so off Perrine It also had to be soh up in the FBI or the DEA, since the identities of the slain informants were top secret

It was aletting worse Almost fifty thousand people had died in the last few years of the cartels’ do Noith the attacks on the Mob, our worst night true Border be da into the Mob’s territory No different fro us, killing Americans with impunity

Eious political horseshit that was going on in our government With the approach of an election year, the president, looking for the Hispanic vote, had backed off on strong border policies In fact, the Justice Departovernressive border-related law enforcement”

No doubt about it It was Alice in Wonderland crazy time No wonder Perrine was on the rise

And that wasn’t even the only new terror-inducing bit of inside scoop Ee white substance had been found at one of the Mob hits in Malibu

Emily had actually shown me pictures of the Mob boss and his wife, who had been exposed to the substance, and it was so else Their skin was a shade of purple I’d never seen before It looked as if they had been turned inside out

I was standing there, trying to get the frightening ies out of my head, when one of the kids hit a Wiffle ball off the sill I looked out theataround oblivious in the side yard

Jane was in a lawn chair with her nose deep in a Poké at each other with gun-shaped sticks Brian had arranged a gaer kids, and as I watched, Chrissy hit the ball and began running toward third until Fiona grabbed her and turned her around

After a second, I pulled open the back door and lifted a second foul ball before Shawna could pick it up Shawna squealed happily as I actually picked her up as well

“OK, butterfly girl,” I said, forcing a s to be the first one to try to deal with Daddy’s screwball?”

CHAPTER 14

MARY CATHERINE’S HAIR WAS still wet from her shohen she ca before dawn

She smiled as she turned on the oven to warm yesterday’s blueberry scones The scones had been Juliana’s idea: switch out the raisins in her Irish soda bread recipe with blueberries, and dust it with sugar Could she be any prouder of Juliana? She was going on seventeen now, and instead of being a draot, with very little gru about it

She’d be leaving theh, Mary Catherine knew Juliana had recently confided that she wanted to join the Coast Guard, of all things She said she loved the ocean and thought it would be a great way to serve her country and learn so how difficult a challenge tuition would be for their huge faain? Mary Catherine thought