Free A Glimpse of Evil by Victoria Laurie

joking,” I said evenly. “You have to do something!”
    Harrison tossed his hands in the air. “I have no idea what or whom you’re talking about.”
    I took a deep breath and tried again. “Candice has noticed a change in your demeanor. She thinks you’re having second thoughts about the two of you and she’s really worried that you might be getting ready to break up with her.”
    “She what?”
    “You need to pop the question, and you need to do it pronto, because the last guy Candice suspected was about to break it off with her was dumped before he ever had a chance to say, ‘I think we should talk.’ ”
    The color drained out of Harrison’s face. “She’s going to break up with me ? Just because she thinks I might be ready to break up with her ?”
    “Yep.”
    “But . . . but . . . ,” he stammered. “I’ve just been waiting for the right time!”
    I made a big show of tapping my wristwatch. “I’d say that time is riiiight about now, sir.”
    Harrison sat back in his chair and stared at his desk. Finally, looking up at me, he said, “Okay.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”
    He nodded. “I’ll do it tonight.”
    “You look a little pale,” I remarked. “You okay?”
    “Yeah,” he said. “I mean, I’ve never asked anyone before.”
    “You haven’t?” That surprised me. Harrison was in his late thirties. I was sure he’d had at least one proposal in his life, if not a walk down that aisle. “Really? No one?”
    Harrison shook his head and let out an uncomfortable laugh. “I don’t even know what to say,” he admitted. “Should I put the ring in some champagne? Or take her out to dinner? Maybe I should rent a sailboat and take her out on the lake?”
    I made a face. “Dude,” I said. “Candice doesn’t need any of that. She’s pretty simple. Just sit her down, tell her she’s the one, and show her the ring.” I then had another thought. “You do have a ring, right?”
    The color returned to Harrison’s cheeks and he blushed. “Yes.”
    I sat forward eagerly. “Can I see it?”
    Harrison considered that for a second before he reached into his drawer and pulled out a small black box. With great care he opened the lid and held it out for me to see, and at that moment, Rodriguez opened the door and stuck his head in. “Oh!” he said, seeing Harrison and me with the ring between us. “I . . . uh . . . I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can see you’re busy.”
    He quickly closed the door and I fell into a fit of giggles. “Ahh,” I said as Harrison put the ring quickly away with a mortified look on his face. “I can’t wait to hear what rumors start swirling around the office after that!”

Chapter Four
    It turned out that the reason Rodriguez had come into Harrison’s office was that our boss had told him to. What Harrison hadn’t had a chance to tell me was that because there had been such a stink raised about using me to determine which cases to reopen, Harrison had decided to send me with Rodriguez to help locate the car that had hit the census worker.
    “It’s the only way to prove to these guys that they should take you seriously,” Harrison argued after telling me his decision. “If you lead Rodriguez right to that car, then there’s no way he or anyone else on the squad can doubt you. Especially since the previous investigators did such a thorough search of the area.”
    “You want us to go today?” I asked, looking again at my watch. It was already one thirty, and I needed to collect my thoughts before the lecture I was planning on giving to the agents later that afternoon.
    “That’s for the two of you to work out,” Harrison said. “But you’re right. It is a little late to make the trip up to Waco. If you want to wait until tomorrow morning, that’s fine with me.”
    I brightened. Here I’d thought I’d be stuck in the office for the next month doing the taxing work of sorting through case files all day. “Okay,” I agreed. “I’d love a