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Chapter 1

Chirp Chirp Chirp

Jade Lockhart gripped the down pillow and shoved it over her ears Stupid birds Didn't they know she'd only just fallen asleep? All she needed was a few more precious moments of beauty rest and then—

She sat up in bed, holding her breath while she stared around for her cell phone

"I should never fall asleep with that darumbled, then shook out the sheets and tossed all the pillows from the bed The phone flopped onto the floor with a dull clunk and she snatched it up and pressed the power button

Nothing happened

"Shit," she hissed, then pulled on a pair of slacks that had been laying on top of her dresser fro away After she shoved on a reasonably work-ready blouse from her closet, she sprinted down the hall, toward the kitchen and—

"Double shit" The neon green nuain

"Okay, okay, okay," She scurried into the living roorabbed her sidearm from the hook near the wall, and shoved her cell phone into her pocket She'd just have to charge it when she got to the station If she hurried, she'd still be on tiot there—

The damned speech was on her phone The reason she'd been up half the night was lost in the ether of her notepad app and she was left with nothing All those beautifully worded arguments Poof Gone

She slipped on her shoes and pulled her blond hair into a messy knot on top of her head

"How alanced at her cat, Lisa, who rolled over as if to say: "not my problem"

"Very helpful Right," Jade said, then dropped soh her cluttered living room and out her front door

"Keys," she rerabbed theain

"Okay Okay I can totally do this" She squinted in the early la people never warned other people about being a detective—the chances of getting a car you'd actually be proud to drive were slim at best She just counted herself lucky that her car had actually been manufactured within the last ten years

"Maybe if I think really hard, I can rees I was going to say"

She tried to recall the polite wording for the fact that the rainbow on their neaii State Cries looked, well, like a multicolored dildo Of course, the two little clouds at the base did nothing to help that impression

Honestly, didn't the police have enough proble old d—

"Hey!" She honked her horn as someone cut her off on the interstate into Honolulu She should pull them over and show them just