Free The Ten-Mile Trials by Elizabeth Gunn Page A

grown-up stuff . . . having a baby, getting shot. How’s your leg, by the way?’
    â€˜It still forecasts the weather. Otherwise, better all the time.’ He was with me the day we walked into that mess. He walked out, I didn’t. ‘So that’s why Ray was so grouchy all weekend. They probably had something planned. Wouldn’t you think he’d say something?’
    â€˜Not Ray. He’s a soldier. What’s he chasing, the Rutherford Strangler?’
    â€˜Worse. No, it’s too messy to tell you about right now. Go on, figure out which two guys in your section have to go back out on the street and which newbies down the line have to get laid off entirely. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t let anybody log any overtime. You hear me? Beginning today, overtime’s out.’
    â€˜Jesus. I leave for three lousy days and you turn into the Wicked Witch of the West.’
    â€˜Not me. Blame Governor Pawlenty. He’s the one that cut back on aid for cities and towns.’
    â€˜That isn’t his fault. Obama didn’t put enough zing in the stimulus.’
    â€˜Obama did the best he could,’ Rosie Doyle insisted from the doorway. ‘But the senate Republicans got fainting fits at the thought of giving money to anybody but bankers. Mitch McConnell, that’s who’s at fault.’
    â€˜Listen, if it wasn’t for Mitch McConnell,’ Ray Bailey said, walking in behind her, ‘those tax-and-spend Democrats would have given away the store.’
    â€˜Tax-and-spend Democrats my ass!’ Kevin had one foot in the hall, but came back in to help raise the noise level. ‘You think Cheney’s stupid war in Iraq was free?’
    We had been having this revolving-door conversation since February, and the end was nowhere in sight. The Bush administration had finally ended, and we had to pick somebody new to blame. It was tough, dirty work, but we were enfranchised Americans with grievances and we were going to keep at it till we got it right.
    But not today, at least not in my office. ‘Kevin, go away. Ray, sit down, we need to talk. Rosie, what do you need? The short version.’
    â€˜I hear you’re revising the schedule.’
    â€˜Yes. What would you want if you could have it, which you probably can’t?’
    â€˜See, this is the new Jake Hines administration style,’ Kevin said, walking out at last. ‘He’s a hammer, and all the world’s a nail.’
    Rosie made a little shushing gesture at his back, staying focused as usual on her own concerns. She said, very fast, ‘If we can’t log any more overtime, will somebody have to take weekends?’
    Was she eavesdropping on my brain? I’d been thinking that very thought. I hadn’t said it out loud because I didn’t see how we could tolerate being even more short-handed on two weekdays. ‘Maybe. You saying that’s what you want?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    Why would she . . .? Something about Bo, probably. To keep from hearing about that, I said quickly, ‘So noted. Anything else?’
    â€˜No.’ She looked at Ray. ‘BCA took the Mass card?’
    â€˜Yeah.’
    Rosie shook her head mournfully.
    â€˜I know,’ Ray said. ‘I hated to let it out of my sight, but what can you do? I told them I’d raise hell if they lost it. I made it clear that it’s the only thing we’ve got so far that’s worth anything.’
    â€˜What are you talking about?’ I asked them.
    Rosie said, ‘You know the victim’s prints haven’t turned up a match? He’s not coming up in any arrest records nationwide. We’re searching immigration now.’
    â€˜I heard.’
    Ray said, ‘And then we all thought the way they left the murder weapon there with him . . .’
    â€˜Looks like a pro hit,’ I said. ‘Does that surprise you in a drug