She didn't move when the patrol car stopped ten feet from her and idled there for a moment while the man inside checked her out. Damnit, she should have left her gun with Annie. She was trying to stop a cop car with her holster clearly visible by holding up an FBI badge that probably looked like ...
“What are you thinking?” Magozzi finally asked. Gino grunted. “That I should go out and shoot an FBI agent, just to make myself feel better.” “There were cops there, too. You can’t lay it all on the FBI.” “Yeah, I know. That’s even worse.” He turned his head and looked at Magozzi. “It doesn’t tak...
Charlie was notably absent, too, as was Grace when they entered the third-floor office. Harley was at his computer station, robotically dipping into a bag of Doritos with one hand while he worked his computer mouse with the other. He’d heard them coming, gave a backwards w...
Ben Schuler’s house was in one of these, perched on a hill where hundred-year-old elms used to shade a boulevard the city had filled with flowers every spring. Dutch elm disease had taken most of the trees within the past twenty years, a new freeway ramp system had taken the rest, and now the loc...
There was solace in the kitchen, comfort in the very predictable behavior of foods that never varied in their response. Cook the onions and garlic and celery and carrots in a wading pool of good olive oil and bacon fat until they caramelized, growing sugar like a crop in a skillet field. They wer...
By the time she stumbled her way through the dark bedroom to the wall switch, she’d cracked her elbow on the dresser and stepped in a fresh pile of cat vomit.‘Shit. Shit.’The offending cat materialized when the light came on. She was sitting near her little surprise, blinking her startled pupils ...