Page 80

"Murder does not respect the sabbath, Roth. Let's go."

"Where am I going exactly?"

"Outskirts of Olympia. I'll thingy you the location thing."

"I don't have a car. Gotta go to the station first."

I could almost hear Sali roll her eyes as she let out a dramatic sigh. "Take. An. Uber."

"Take an Uber to a crime scene?" I sat up then, my feet hitting the floor with a thud. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Actually, yes, in fact. Clinically confirmed. Take an Uber—"

"Sali, is that Jagger?" Maggie's voice piped in the background.

"Mags. She needs to get here—"

I tapped speaker on the phone so Tatiana could hear the two of them.

"She doesn't need to take an Uber to scrape dirt off a slab of concrete—"

"Chain of custody!"

"You already fucked that up by illegally breaking and entering, by illegally traipsing all over the place, and illegally obtaining evidence. None of this is admissible in court. Scrape your own muck and bring it to her." Maggie's intense scolding had me stifling my laughter.

Tatiana covered her mouth, and we kept listening.

"It's not illegal! It's just…unethical!" Sali fought back, terribly.

"That's worse. That's so much worse."

"C'mon—Roth, let's go—"

"No." Rustling happened in the background until Maggie's voice grew clearer. "Hi, Jagger."

"For fuck's sake, Mags!"

I distinctly heard the sound of a hand colliding with a shoulder echo through the line.

"Hello, Detective Miller." I tried to hide the amusement from my voice.

"Can you meet us at the crime lab to run some materials?"

"Yeah. I can. Gotta call ahead on a Sunday though."

"Not that one. We have access to FBI resources."

"Uh…okay. I can meet you there."

"Sounds good." Maggie paused for a moment, then I heard her huff. "See you soon."

I hung up and looked over at Tati. "Fun's over. Gotta run."

"They sound pretty fun," she said, helping herself to finishing off the ice cream.

"Sali Miller is absolutely obnoxious. Brilliant, but obnoxious. She's so overwhelming." I leaned into my bedroom to grab my jeans off the chair, but stood in the doorway in order to keep chatting.

"You can handle it."