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“Back off,” Eve ordered with enough force to have one eager beaver stu on the foot of a cohort “Nobody gets a coets squat until I’m ready”

“If I do buy this place,” Roarke said to Eve in a voice just loud enough to carry, “I’ll have to make several staff cuts”

That created a side enough to stride through Eve zeroed in on a face she recognized “Rigley, where’s Furst?”

“Hey, Lieutenant” He was all teeth and hair and aesturing toward his console

“Furst,” she repeated, in a voice like a bullet “Where?”

“I haven’t seen her all day I covered herreport myself”

“She called in” Bea some time off,” he explained, and his mobile face shifted to sober lines “She’s pretty ripped up about Louise We all are”

“Is she at home?”

“Said she needed soot a couple of weeks coain “So, if you’d like a little airtime, Dallas I’m your man”

“I’ve had plenty of your airtime, Morse”

“Well then” He dismissed her and shifted toward Roarke His se “It’s a pleasure to meet you You’re a difficult man to contact”

Deliberately insulting, Roarke ignored Morse’s offered hand “I only give ti”

Morse lowered his hand, but kept his smile in place “I’m sure if you spared me a few minutes, I’d find several areas of interest for you”

Roarke’s smile flashed, quick and lethal “You really are an idiot, aren’t you”

“Down, boy,” EveRoarke’s arm “Who leaked confidential data?”