Page 27

Special Agent Gloria Chavez lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

She sighed with relief as the nicotine brought an instant rush of euphoria.

It probably wasn’t really the nicotine, and it probably wasn’t really euphoria either.

No drug worked instantly, and the most nicotine could do was relax you.

Well, as Gloria always said whenever her partner, Special Agent Etienne Desrouleaux, warned her that smoking would kill her almost as fast as it would kill her good looks, whatever.

Her good looks hadn’t been enough to catch his eye, and while she no longer pined over him the way she did when she first joined the Philadelphia Field Office, the stress of her job had changed her priorities quite a bit.

It wasn’t important to her to be hot anymore.

Besides, she still looked good. On those rare occasions, she wanted some companionship, she had no problem going to the local police bar and finding an off-duty cop who didn't mind that she smoked.

She chuckled and took another drag from the cigarette. Evidently, this is what she was thinking about today.

“That’s gonna kill you someday.”

She met Desrouleaux’s eyes and took another drag. “You don’t want to warn me about my looks first?”

Her partner laughed. “No, Gardner said she would no longer tolerate my misogynistic behavior.”

Gloria raised an eyebrow. “Well, I didn’t complain about you. Did someone else?”

“I think it might be because I called her a shrewish bitch with an asshole too tight to have a stick up it.”

Gloria's next drag was interrupted by laughter, which quickly turned into a coughing fit. She tamped the cigarette in the ashtray next to her and said, "Seriously?"

“God, I wish,” Desroulaux replied. “No, I think she overheard me warn you about your good looks the last time and took it to mean I thought you were only valuable for your pretty face. It will kill them, though. Trust me. I’ve seen it happen.”

Gloria shrugged. “Eh, who needs to be pretty? That why you came outside? To warn me to stop smoking?”

“No, I just wanted to get away from the craziness for a little while. With West about to be sentenced and his anonymous girlfriend poisoning Turk and beating Faith up, the office is… well, you know.”

“I think that has more to do with the shrewish bitch tightass,” Gloria said.

“That’s my point. She’s so obsessed with the field office’s image. That’s what I miss most about the Boss. It was all about bringing criminals to justice when he was in charge. He was a tightass too, but he had the right focus.”

“Well, the Messenger did kill him,” Gloria reminded Desrouleaux.

“So let’s go find her. Let’s stop doing damage control with the press and burying ourselves in paperwork and procedure. Let’s go on the hunt .” He sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m getting old and crabby.”

“ Getting ?”

He rolled his eyes and shoved her playfully. She laughed and patted his chest. “Come on. Smoke break’s over.”

“What are you talking about? I just got here.”

She shrugged. “Fair enough.”

She reached into her shirt pocket, but Desrouleaux was faster. He deftly removed the pack and tossed it into the trash can.

“What the hell?” Gloria said. “Seriously? Come on, man.”

“Chew gum instead.”

“Do you know how expensive cigarettes are?”

“I’ll buy you a cheesesteak.”

Gloria glared at him as they walked back into the building. “So I can kill myself with calories instead of nicotine?”

“Exactly. You can die of heart disease like a self-respecting American.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “If I’m quitting cold turkey, I’m going to stay with you twenty-four-seven so you can deal with the full fury of my bitchiness. If you think Gardner’s hard to deal with, just wait until—”

“Why exactly am I hard to deal with, Special Agent?”

Gloria swore inwardly and turned to see ASAC Tabitha Gardner behind them with her arms folded, wearing a frown that really was shrewish.

“It’s my fault, ASAC,” Desrouleaux said. “We were shooting the breeze outside, and I was grousing about the new procedures. Gloria was repeating something I said, not something she believes herself.”

“These aren’t new procedures,” Gardner said cattily.

“This is Bureau policy. I’m sorry to know that your predecessor didn’t feel that following policy was important, but this is the way we’re expected to operate.

” She made a frown that was almost a pout, a shockingly—or actually not so shockingly—immature expression.

“Why does everyone here have so much trouble with basic FBI policy?”

“Under SAC Monroe’s tenure, we were more focused on solving cases and delivering criminals to justice,” Desrouleaux replied coldly. He didn’t seem to have taken kindly to Gardner insulting the Boss.

Gardner flamed the color of a tomato. “I also want to solve cases and deliver criminals to justice. I just want to do it the right way. The way that doesn’t bring ridicule and animosity to the Bureau. Just…”

She ran her hands through her hair and sighed.

When she spoke again, she had regained her professional composure.

“I understand that this change has been difficult, especially for you and the other veteran agents. I appreciate all of you working hard to bring the field office in line with Bureau expectations, even when you disagree with those expectations.”

“Desrouleaux! Chavez!”

All three of them turned toward the voice. It belonged to Special Agent Rossum, a new arrival from the Atlanta field office. Rossum’s eyes were bright and wide, a clear sign that he was delivering momentous news about a case.

No, not a case. The case. Gloria and Desrouleaux were working the highest-profile case in the Bureau right now, that of the infamous Messenger. If Rossum was coming to them to deliver the news personally, then he must have information on that killer.

And he did.

“Philadelphia PD just called. They got a tip about a woman matching the Messenger’s description. She’s in an apartment in Chestnut Hill. They’re sending officers her way, but they called us as a courtesy.”

“Hell yeah!” Gloria cried.

“Rossum, I owe you one,” Desrouleaux added with a grin.

To Gardner’s credit, she didn’t protest while her two agents rushed off to apprehend the most infamous killer in Philadelphia since Franklin West. Not that she could have stopped them if she wanted to.

As soon as they were in the car—Gloria in the driver’s seat—Desrouleaux said, “I’m gonna make another courtesy call. There’s someone else who should know about this.”

“Fine by me,” Gloria said with a grin.

She couldn’t wait to see the look on Faith Bold’s face when she showed up to find the killer who had terrorized her for months in handcuffs.