Page 39 of Deja New
“Leah Nazir.”
“The one who killed her mom?”
“No, she killed the man who killed h—”
But Marci was already shaking her head, annoyed withherself as always when she got a detail wrong. “Right, right, I knew that, it was all over the news... I saw her on TV a few times. The Brenner case, andLane v. Hitler.What was she like?”
“Quiet and pointed. No wasted words.”
“A soul mate!”
Jason smiled and shook his head.
(not in the cards for me... or my soul)
Marci continued, “She touch you?”
“Sure. We shook hands.”
“She give you the rundown on your past lives?”
“No, of course not. That’d be like a doctor running into someone with a broken arm, examining them, and setting the bone on the spot.”
“You’re saying a doctor wouldn’t do that?”
“Captain...”
“We’re getting off topic,” she said, which Jason knew wasn’t true. Marci didn’t start up random conversations and then let them roam far afield. She had wanted to talk about what was going on inside his head so she could decide on his workload. “We were talking about your next move with the Drake file.”
“Yep. We were. My next move.”
He had no next move. He’d never had a next move. How to explain that it wasn’t so much about clearing Drake as it was about seeing Angela? Marci, a relaxed and tolerant supervisor in nearly all things—including encouraging the use of her first name—would bounce him off the case in half a second if she knew. It’d be re-filed in the tomb that was the CCD and that would be the end of it.
All this to scratch an itch (even without the Angela factor,the Drake file bugged him—there was something right in front of his face and he couldn’t see it) for a woman he barely knew.
“I’ve got some new records to look over,” he heard himself saying.Bad idea. Lying to the police or your boss is always a bad idea. Particularly when they’re one and the same. Bad bad bad.“But if there’s nothing there, I’m at a wall.”
She was nodding. “Yeah. Well. Do the best you can, but you’ve gotta know there’s a limit here.”
He did know. A lot of superiors would have nixed it right out of the gate. Especially when most people thought the killer had been locked away. “I’m thinking we’ll bounce it back to CCD by the end of the week. Sorry, Jase.”
“It’s fine.”
“I’ll tell the family if you want.”
“Not necessary.”Hand over my last chance to talk to Angela unless she kills someone and gets arrested? Nonsense.
“Good talk,” she said, rising from the chair.
No. Not really.
