Blue moon - By Lori Handeland Page 0,34

chattering into her headphones. I could hear them from five feet away.

I glanced into Clyde's office. He was taking a call and, if the wide sweeps of his hands and the scowl on his face were any indication, he was in the middle of an argument.

"Jessie!" The dispatcher beckoned. "I need you to go out on a call."

"I'm off."

"Nuh-uh."

I raised a brow and glanced at her name tag. She wasn't wearing one. Zee must not think the kid would last through the day.

She waved a hand at the switchboard. "We just got slammed. There's a three-car pileup on the highway and a domestic disturbance on Grand. I sent everyone available; then another call came in." She bit her lip. "Clyde said if I disturbed him I should find another job."

I glanced into his office again. He was still arguing. He caught me staring and turned his back. Odd.

"Fine." I saw my blueberry bagel and cool soothing sheets slipping away, but there was nothing I could do about it. "Where and what?"

She beamed. "The university. One of the professors'offices was ransacked."

"Whose?" I asked, but I already knew.
Chapter 14
"Cadotte," she said. "William Cadotte."

One thing I did not need today was a face-to-face encounter with the man who'd had his tongue in my mouth last night.

"I'll take the domestic," I offered, which only proved how desperate I was.

Domestic disturbances were the most dangerous calls. You never knew what you were going to run into when love turned to hate. Besides, I'd never been very good at dealing with family squabbles, never having had one of my own.

The dispatcher shook her head, destroying my hopes. "One Adam Three is already there. One Adam One and Two are en route to the accident. Which leaves you."

I gave up. Sometimes fate was a malicious bitch.

Surrendering any delusion that I might get to sleep soon, I grabbed coffee at the Gas n' Go, then snagged a doughnut, too.

The route to the university was becoming familiar, as was the route to Cadotte's cubbyhole of an office.

Students, teachers, security milled aimlessly in the hall. There was no sign of the man himself.

The crowd parted for me like the proverbial Red Sea.

However, I wasn't feeling much like Moses. The land of milk and honey was my apartment, and it felt farther away right now than Egypt.

I likened myself to Pharaoh's soldiers. If I went through these people and into the belly of the sea, I was going to drown, but I had to go. Orders were orders and duty just that, as much now as they had been countless centuries before.

I paused on the threshold of the office. Cadotte sat at his desk, his forehead in his hands. Several colleagues hovered around, trying not to disturb the mess.

Cadotte glanced up, almost as if he'd sensed me there. Our gazes met. The air between us sizzled. I was in way over my head with William Cadotte.

"Jessie," he whispered, and stood.

If I hadn't come here before, I might have thought he was just a pig or a spacey egghead who had better things to do than clean. But I had come, and while the place had been full of stuff, the stuff had been in neat piles. Now it was spread to hell and gone in every corner and all across the floor.

"Everyone out," I ordered.

I couldn't stop staring at Cadotte. Though he appeared as exhausted as I was, he was still something to see. His hair stood on end, as if he'd run agitated fingers through the strands over and over again. His glasses were hooked in the pocket of his shirt, so I could see his dark eyes flare hot in an unusually pale face. He was pissed, and I couldn't say that I blamed him.

I'd been burglarized once. I still remembered how it had felt to know some stranger had invaded my place, touched my things, perhaps seen something private. I'd lost money, my CD player, but more important, I'd lost my sense of security for a long, long time.

The door closed and we were alone. "What happened?" 1 asked.

"I already went over this with Security."

"And I'll get that information. I want you to tell me."

He sat on the edge of the desk and I was reminded of how easily he moved - at home in his skin, confident with his body - he'd be attractive for the way he held himself alone. The handsome face, rippling muscles, and great big... brain were all gravy.

"I came in