to work here. Anyway, his department was helping out the DEA with a raid. Supposed to be a dealerâs house, wrong house. One a those things where the snitch burned them and everything went wrong. A twelve-year-old that lived there was terrified by all the commotion and picked up a toilet plunger for protection. And he ran right out and into Jack Graves. Jackâs eyes saw: Guy-with-Gun. It was dark. Jack reacted, squeezed one off, didnât mean to.â
âWhat happened to him?â
âThe D.A. was considering a prosecution for manslaughter. There was a so-called witness, a brother-in-law to the righteous drug dealer that lived next door to the victim. I did the investigation for Jackâs lawyer and proved that the dealerâs brother-in-law was a lying, cop-hating gob a slime. In the end, Jack got pensioned off on stress. I donât generally go around helping lawyers and P.I.âs, okay?â
âLook, Lynn,â Breda said, âIâve heard youâre just waiting for your disability pension to be approved. And Iâve heard you might wanna be a P.I. yourself after you get the pension. And Iâve heard you might need money even though you make it a practice to house-sit for Palm Springs millionaires and exercise their Rolls-Royces when theyâre not in residence. And Iâve also heard that these days you donât have enough money to put gas in those cars. Thatâs what Iâve heard about you, Lynn. Is it wrong?â
âWell, itâs true that my last marriage gave me a bigger deficit than Nicaragua, but you donât have it quite right.â
âWhat am I missing?â
âThat I do get my paycheck even though I ainât got the disability pension locked up. I mean, I got a pair a knees with all the flexibility of Margaret Thatcher, but the pension ainât official yet, so I donât wanna screw things up by selling myself to some P.I. They call that double-dipping, and I believe itâs even against the law, is it not?â
âI got a couple easy jobs where thereâd be no written reports of any kind with your name on them. No testifying, nothing illegal or immoral. Just a few little jobs for somebody like you. Somebody male as it turns out.â
âYou were right about the empty tank in the Rolls,â he said. âThe house Iâm sitting has nine bedrooms and eleven bathrooms and two Rolls-Royces in the garage with the gas gauges on empty. Iâd walk home except I ainât feeling good. Will you drive me? Itâs still my home for three more weeks, then I hope to house-sit at Tamarisk Country Club for two months.â
Breda, deciding it was over, disgustedly started up the 280ZX. After she drove for a few minutes, Lynn said, âHow much could I make?â
Breda kept her eyes on the street, saying, âUp until yesterday I couldnât have paid much, but I just got the best client Iâve ever had. I could pay you as much as a thousand bucks, if you can get the results I want. Cash. Nobodyâd ever know about it.â
âWhat would I have to do?â
Breda Burrows turned toward Lynn Cutter and said, âIâve been thinking about this. One reason Iâm going to need a man helping me on this case is because of some special undercover work. The job might call for a sperm sample.â
Lynn Cutter removed the shades, gawked sideways at Breda Burrows with eyes like bags of plasma, and said, âLady, you canât be that lonely!â
O n the same afternoon that Breda Burrows was learning how easy it would be to hate a world-class cynic like Lynn Cutter, Officer Nelson Hareem was doing what he did best: plotting, scheming and fantasizing about how to secure a lateral transfer from his police department to Palm Springs P.D.
Officer Hareem had worked a total of five years at two police departments, one in San Bernardino County and another in Los Angeles County, before ending up on
Elizabeth Amelia Barrington