Say Goodbye Read Online Free PDF Page B

leaving the house angry.
    “Things are different now,” he said quietly.
    “I know things are different, Mac. I’m the one wearing pants with an elastic waist.”
    “I worry.”
    “Well, you shouldn’t. According to last week’s exam, mommy and baby are doing great.” She sighed, relenting a fraction. “Eight to twelve more weeks, Mac. That’s all I’m asking for—this last little window before I become as big as a house, and then I have to obey your every command because I won’t be able to put on my own shoes.”
    She gave him a final kiss, feeling his resistance in the set of his jaw. She straightened and headed for the door.
    She heard his last words, too. The line he never spoke, probably never would speak, but remained in the air between them.
    Her father had also put the needs of the Bureau first. And it had destroyed her family.

FOUR
    “The initial bite is usually painless.”
    FROM
Brown Recluse Spider,

BY MICHAEL F. POTTER, URBAN ENTOMOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
    SANDY SPRINGS WAS LOCATED FIFTEEN MILES NORTH of Atlanta, off Route 285 and Georgia 400. A major metro area, it boasted four hospitals, several Fortune 500 companies, and, of course, a freshwater spring. While Sandy Springs strove for a family-friendly reputation, it remained best known for its nightlife, with bars that stayed open until four a.m. and a plethora of “massage parlors” always eager for new clients. Young, old, male, female, drunk, or sober, you could find a good time in Sandy Springs.
    Which really started to annoy the locals. So in June 2005, they voted overwhelmingly to incorporate as a city, overnight becoming the seventh largest in the state. First order of business for the brand-new city council: form its own police department to crack down on the area’s less desirable elements. Sandy Springs was jumping on the urban renewal bandwagon, by God, right down to a new collection of very trendy restaurants.
    Kimberly hadn’t worked with the new PD yet. She figured the officers would either be fresh-faced recruits or fifty-year-old state police retirees coasting into a second career in a middle-class metro area. She got a little of both.
    Kid that met her at the door looked about three years away from shaving. The night sergeant, on the other hand, with his thinning hair and growing middle, had clearly been around the block. He shook her hand warmly, angled his head at the kid and gave her a look that said,
Can you believe the puppy I got working for me?
In case that wasn’t enough, he smiled and winked.
    Kimberly didn’t return the wink or the smile and after a moment Sergeant Trevor gave up.
    “We picked up the girl shortly after one a.m.,” Trevor reported. “She was working the MARTA station on—”
    “She was working at the train station?” Kimberly couldn’t help herself. Somehow, she’d assumed the girl had been pinched during a raid on a massage parlor. Streetwalkers were reserved for the red light districts such as Fulton Industrial Boulevard. In theory, Sandy Springs was too…hip…for that kind of obvious display.
    “Happens,” Trevor said. “Especially since we’ve started raiding more of the establishments. Some of the girls think they can blend in with the clubbers, you know, except the hookers show slightly
less
skin. Others…hell, they’re too strung-out to care, or operating on orders to pick up more chicks, that sort of thing. Gotta replenish the henhouse, you know.”
    Trevor puffed out his chest, clearly wanting to impress the fed. Before this job, he’d probably been a security officer, Kimberly decided. Any occupation that allowed him to wear a uniform.
    The kid had disappeared. Kimberly suspected that was also due to Trevor’s orders. He wanted this to be his show. She pinched the bridge of her nose and wished she were back at the plane crash.
    She asked for Trevor’s report on the arrest. He printed it out, she skimmed the particulars. Time, location,