Page 62 of The Wrong Side of the Law

Chapter Nineteen

Gabriel

Lavender.

Lavender and… something else. Something fresh and light. Very sweet and feminine.

I can’t put a name on it, but it’s intoxicating, and it’s what I smell on my pillow when I wake up.

It smells like her. Like Emily.

Eyes still closed, my brain begins to engage. Why does my pillow smell like her? She didn’t stay the night. Hell, I didn’t even invite her back to my place.

Troubled by the question—and suddenly aware of a stiff, aching neck and shoulders—my eyes pop open to find a red stapler staring me down.

Shit. I fell asleep at my desk.

Emily’s pale blue sweater, rolled up in a ball, was underneath my face.

My pillow really did smell like her. I wasn’t dreaming, then. Not about that, at least: some of the other things that happened between us in my mind while I slept… those were dreams. Good dreams, too.

The chair squeaks as I sit up and stretch.

“Someone didn’t get a lot of sleep last night,” Emily says from her desk by the door.

I start to laugh, but as soon as my mouth opens it turns into a huge yawn.

“I wound up pulling an all-nighter,” I confess. “What about you?”

“Objection,” she answers, a twinkle in her eyes. “Question is irrelevant. I’m not the one who fell asleep at his desk.”

“Objection over-”yawn“-ruled,” I say, rolling my eyes and pointing a stern finger at her. “Witness will answer the question.”

“I think we’re getting our metaphors mixed here,” she giggles. “Or something. But seriously, you need to take care of yourself better.” A sigh. “I got almost a full eight. I got in a bit late. I hope that’s okay?”

“Yeah. Of course. As late as you were here last night, yeah. No problem at all.”

If half the staff had the same kind of work ethic as Emily Wilson, we’d have the most efficient State Attorney’s office in all of Florida.

“And,” I say, rolling my shoulders to try and work out a kink, “I have some good news. I didn’t give up my night for nothing. Well. Possibly good news. Maybe,” I amend.

“Oh?” Emily’s eyebrows climb sharply as she spins around, her attention laser-focused on me. “You found something?”

“Whoa now, hold up,” I say, hands raised in front of me. “Slow down. I saidmaybe.” I pause, giving her a significant glance, but she’s still practically vibrating with excitement. I don’t know why I’d have expected anything different. “Imayhave found something. Thanks to you, in fact. One of the other cases that came from Banks. It was in your notes.”

“So tell me already!” Emily is practically bouncing in her chair in anticipation.

“Oh, hell,” I say, then cover my mouth for another yawn. “I don’t remember which case it was, to be honest, but they did a full chemical workup on the drugs. That one was about heroin, so it’s not directly comparable but still, they found a connection. It was the same stuff—chemically identical, I mean—to some other batches that had been found in a city earlier on the tour.”

“Okay,” she says, cocking her head to the side and squinting at me. “I don’t really see how that helps? I remember that one now. Guzman, right? The guy who had track-marks on his arms, a works in his duffel bag, and a baggie of heroin in his pocket when he got arrested?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Exactly. That’s the one. They did the analysis because they were looking to see if the heroin in his pocket was from the same batch. He admitted to having bought the baggie but denied that the rest of it was his. Analysis showed that it was chemically identical, though. Same mix of everything, and it came from the same batch. He must have bought it from the same people that Ferry got the brick of it from.”

“Right. The one case in that whole pile where it looks like they might have actually gotten a verdict against someone who wasactuallyguilty.” Emily shrugs, holds her hands out in an unspokenso what.“Even if he was guilty of a lot less than he went down for.”

“The interesting part isn’t the coincidence about the baggie… it’s the other arrests that came out of it. They were able to take down the dealer that the guy admitted to buying from, as well as breaking a distributor in Omaha. And they were able to do it because they’d done a full workup on the drugs.”

“So, the ecstasy…” Emily trails off, squinting and staring down at her knees in concentration. “Where do you think it came from?”

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