Blue moon - By Lori Handeland Page 0,28

Cadotte certainly hadn't been dazzled by my charm or my appearance. I wasn't wealthy, brilliant, or hot. What was he up to?

The questions swirled in my head as the mortification swirled in my gut. I'd shared an appallingly intimate moment with a stranger. How was I ever going to look Cadotte in the face again?

I wasn't sure I could, but I'd have to. He hadn't given me one speck of the information I'd asked for.

The memory of my moans and gyrations haunted me all the way to work, which only meant that I had a mood to match Zee's.

The phones were ringing like the church bells on Christmas Eve when I walked into the station.

Thankfully Zee triaged better than anyone I'd ever met. She put one call on bold, routed another to the fire department, a third to the clinic, and spoke to the fourth.

I'd never make it as a dispatcher. My crisis management skills were heavily weighted to action rather than reaction.

"Two Adam Four, do you copy?"

"Two Adam Four. I copy and am ten-forty-two.' '"

"My ass you're off duty," Zee muttered, though not over the radio for a change. She glanced at me.

"Henry's been to three fights already tonight. He's going to love this."

As everyone in the department knew, Henry - one of our second shift officers - loathed overtime. He had a young wife and no children - yet - though not for lack of trying.

"Ten-seventy-four that," Zee continued. "There's a ten-ten in progress at the Sportsman."

"Another one? What are people drinking? Okay, I'm ten-seventy-six to the Sportsman."

"This whole town has gone ape shit," Zee muttered. "You'd think rabid wolves and a school shooting would make people stay home and play nice. Instead, they're out drinking and driving and fighting."

She picked up the call on hold. "Yeah, she's here now." Zee listened. "I'll tell her."

After hanging up, she lit a new cigarette off the stub of her old one and took a deep drag, letting the smoke blow out of her nose on a sigh of contentment. Zee loved her cigarettes nearly as much as she loved me. Or maybe it was the other way around.

"Who's here?" I prompted when she continued to smoke and ignore me.

"Who the hell do you think? You see anyone else hanging around?"

Since I was accustomed to Zee's usual manner of conversation, I didn't even blink at her words or her tone. "Someone's looking for me?"

"Yeah. That spooky old fart the DNR hired. He's on his way. You're supposed to wait for him."

I flicked a finger at the phones. "Don't I have work to do?"

"Hell, yes. But Clyde said you deal with Dr. Death first."

"Peachy."

I glanced around the office. The second shift hadn't come back in yet. The rest of the third shift must have already gone out. Zee and I were the only lucky ones in the place. I hated waiting around with nothing to do. I stuck my hand in my pocket and my fingertips nicked the totem.

"I'll be in the evidence room," I said. I could at least put this back where it belonged and get Clyde off my ass.

As I walked by Zee, she put down her cigarette and sniffed the murky air. "Where you been?" she asked.

"Home. Where else?"

"You smell funny."

How she could tell with cigarette smoke still swirling around her snowy white hair I have no idea. But Zee had always had the nose of a bloodhound. I wondered what she'd be able to smell if her senses hadn't been depleted by nicotine.

I lifted my arm and sniffed underneath. "No, I don't."

"Aftershave," she announced.

I blushed. I couldn't help it.

Strange, though. I hadn't smelled any aftershave on Cadotte. Only that scent that was his alone - earth, air, forest, man.

"What are you up to, girl?"

Since I rarely had reason to blush, my heated cheeks must stand out like the flash of a searchlight on the night of a new moon. Zee glared at me suspiciously.

"Nothing but my job, Zee."

She snorted and I had a hard time not joining her. If my job involved letting William Cadotte put his mouth all over me, the number of applicants for my position would be greater than ravaging mosquitoes on a muggy summer night.

I escaped from the front office before Zee pried more out of me. Not that I was easy - prior evidence to the contrary - but Zee was even more bullheaded than I was. She'd pick at me until I cracked or