Free Acquainted With the Night by Erica Abbott Page B

having to manage the flood of work was somehow her fault. “I’ll need a box or something, I guess.”
    “Yeah, I got an empty copier box in there for you. If you need another one, let me know, but I don’t think there’s that much personal stuff. Just the bottom couple a drawers in the desk. All the files and stuff are locked up.”
    “Of course. Thanks for getting things ready.”
    “Sure thing.” He chewed on his lip a moment, then blurted, “I’m really sorry, y’know. About the Inspector. I really liked her.”
    Me, too, Alex thought. Everyone is sorry. “Thanks, Chad,” was all she could say.
    She went into CJ’s small office. Crammed into the room were desk, office chair, one visitor’s chair and a trio of filing cabinets that took up most of the space. Alex went over and got the empty box, then sat in CJ’s chair.
    She looked for a moment out CJ’s window. In the park on the other side of the parking lot the aspens weren’t budding yet, their pale trunks still stark against the slowly ripening grass. Soon they would be bright with green leaves that shimmered in the faintest summer breeze, before turning deep gold in the fall, a uniquely Colorado sight that had always lifted her heart.
    But not last autumn. Most of the last year had been so filled with pain that all the beauty had been crowded out, as if everything were blurred with tears. Would she ever be able to see the beauty around her again?
    She opened the drawers. In the bottom one was a small makeup case that held mascara, blusher and a compact, along with a mirror. There was also a hairbrush and a toothbrush, carefully capped, with a small tube of toothpaste. At the bottom of the case was a lone earring, the post broken. Alex dumped it all out onto the desk, staring at the earring for a moment.
    One earring, broken, lost from its mate. Useless.
    She pushed everything into the trashcan with a brutal sweep, even the case. If you wanted it, she thought angrily, you should have taken it with you. You shouldn’t have just left it behind.
    She opened the next drawer. It held a couple of file folders, and she put them on the desk to see if they were work files.
    The first folder was labeled Personal. Alex rifled through it, and found copies of CJ’s paperwork, insurance forms, leave requests and such. She put the file in the box to take it home and shred the contents.
    The second file was labeled Notes. She had just begun to open it when her cell phone rang. The number came up as Nicole’s cell phone.
    “Hi,” Alex said. “What’s up?”
    “Thank goodness I got you,” Nicole said briskly. “Listen, I’m stuck here at the office on some problem with a Motion to Compel. Is there any way you can pick Charlie up from after school care and take him home? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
    “It’s not a problem, Nic,” Alex said, dumping the other file folder into the box. “Do you want me to feed him?”
    “Oh, God, would you? That’d be great. They’ll send somebody out for sandwiches, and I can eat here if I don’t have to worry about him. Just don’t try to cook anything in my kitchen.”
    “Very funny. We’ll stop on the way home.”
    “Okay. Not too much junk. Try to negotiate a reasonably nutritious meal, please.”
    “I’ll do my best,” Alex agreed.
    She took CJ’s umbrella, and the spare jacket she had kept hanging on the back of the door, along with her gold pen and nameplate, putting them all in the box. She could finish going through the second file later—if there was something that belonged at the office, she could always bring it back.
    * * *
    Charlie frowned, his dark eyebrows drawing together. For a not-quite-ten-year-old, he looked gravely serious.
    “Can I have a cheeseburger?” he asked.
    “It’s ‘may I have a cheeseburger,’ and yes, you may. But you have to choose: soft drink or french fries. Not both.”
    She met his eyes in the rearview mirror from where he was securely strapped in