Page 175 of Detectives in Love
Fear.
I fumble for my phone, hands unsteady, and call Xavier. It rings. And rings. But he doesn’t pick up.
Dozens of details flash through my mind, snapping into place like puzzle pieces.
The party on Hickory Road… I can see it now—myself standing there, like I’m watching from the outside.
“Just about how you got ahead thanks to our gay Foreign Minister.”
It’s all connected. Everything.
“I’ve heard a lot about you from Chief Willand, Mr. Ormond.”
It used to feel like half the pieces were missing. But it was only one—one that tied the entire picture together.
“I mostly cover politics, but sometimes crime, so we talk pretty often. We go way back.”
One person.
“You must live nearby to be a regular here.”
“Just down the street.”
One link.
“Got a big scoop. Front page material.”
A scoop. A murder. A scandal.
No—
A scandal.
“You hear about Minister Craig’s latest mess?”
A murder.
“All Farewell Security homes come with an option for hidden cameras.”
“You think they’re connected to his death?”
A scoop.
“But why would anyone do that? Are they trying to distract us?”
Minister Craig’s scandal.
Cormac Bridge’s death.
Xavier Ormond and I—headline fodder, a frenzy for every journalist in the city.
The story about us was never the point. It was a distraction.
“What’s a Kansas City Shuffle?”
“A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left.”
CHAPTER 17. SCOOP
