"So you run against me and lose? What good does that do?"

"Job protection. After you beat me and win the election, there's no way you can fire me. I'd yell discrimination so loud the County Commissioners and their insurance company would come running with a bucket of cash. I'd sue your ass and the county and everyone else in sight for a zillion bucks."

"You've got it all figured out, haven't you? What makes you think I won't start telling tales?"

She picked at her finger and sucked on it. Dean could see a spot of blood appear. "I'm counting on the fact that you're a nice guy. I learned a long time ago that nice guys are predictable. They play by the rules. Nasty bitches like me eat them alive, but in your case I'll try to restrain myself. Besides, you kept your mouth shut the last time I screwed up."

"This may be a different matter. Do you know where Fitzgerald is?"

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"No. Nursing his wounds, I suspect. Don't worry about him."

"I do worry about him-at least what happened to him. You were the last person to talk to him. I'm not sure anyone has even seen him he visited you."

She laughed. "You think I killed Fitz, don't you?"

"The possibility has crossed my mind. I still don't know exactly what went on in your apartment."

She seemed to consider whether or not to answer. After fumbling in her pocket, she found a book of matches and lit the cigarette she had stuck behind her ear. "I'm taking another chance telling you, you know."

"Maybe I'm not such 'a nice guy'?"

"He was alive when he left my place."

"That's nice to know. But bleeding." She looked over at him. "There was too much blood for it to all be yours."

"I stabbed him-in the ass." She crossed her heart as she pulled to the side of the narrow road to let a Jeep pass. "Honest injun. You ought to see some poetic justice in that-he ragged you enough during the debate about your line-of-duty-shot-in-the-ass wound."

Dean just stared at her, not knowing how to respond to her matter-of-fact attitude. "What about the gun?" he finally asked.

"I wasn't sure stabbing him was enough and we needed to talk. He would have killed me if I'd given him half a chance. I had to let him know I meant business."

"You should have called the city cops. You can't just stab someone and not report it. You're a law officer."

"The bastard was trying to rape me, for god's sake! You saw what he did-he beat the shit out of me and dragged me into the bedroom!"




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