my pocket. For an instant I could have sworn the thing was hot to the touch. But that was no doubt just my skin - still flushed and sensitive from Cadotte's assault.
He opened the door and paused, giving me a chance to study him. I found no hint of deception in his steady gaze. If he'd wanted the totem for himself, he wouldn't have given the thing back.
I let my eyes wander over the ransacked office. Hell, he'd have the perfect alibi right here. Pretend the totem was stolen, then keep it. I'd be the one taking the heat for letting him have the evidence in the first place.
"I'll see you tonight." He jerked his head toward the hall. "I've got a class."
"Sure. Tonight. I'll - um - order a pizza."
He smiled. "Pepperoni and black olives?"
"No way. Sausage, mushroom, and onion."
He tilted his head and his earring swung free, glittering gold like a harvest moon in a midnight sky. "How about half and half?"
I had a feeling I was agreeing to more than a pizza, but what the hell? "Deal," I said, and then he was gone.
I was left alone in his office with a whole bunch of questions.
Cadotte hadn't been the one to trash this place, so who had? Since nothing had been taken and nothing had been ruined, there wasn't much of a crime. I could call in a fingerprint tech, but we'd have to cross-reference everyone who had been in here.
I thought of all the students, all the teachers, all the staff. "Good luck," I muttered.
My radio crackled. "Jessie?"
Clyde's voice made me jump. What was he doing on the radio?
"Yeah?"
"What's going on out there?"
"Nothing much." I filled him in on what had happened.
"Tell me you got that evidence back from Cadotte, and that it's safely tucked away in the evidence room right now."
I tugged the totem from my pocket and twirled the stone round and round in my fingers. Why was everyone so damn concerned with this thing? It was a carved wolf, nothing more, nothing less.
Interesting, but not life-changing - no matter what Cadotte believed.
"Jessie!" Clyde snapped. "Where is that totem?"
I didn't like his tone. It made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle. I'd learned over the years to listen to those hairs. They always signaled trouble.
Of course they'd been standing up and dancing since Professor Cadotte had walked into my life. Maybe that was what was wrong with them now, but I didn't think so.
I folded the tiny wolf into my palm. "I got the totem back."
"Good."
Was his sigh of relief just a little too relieved? When had I stopped trusting Clyde? I wasn't quite sure.
"But it isn't in the evidence room."
"Why the hell not?"
Well, he had to find out sometime. Better now, when he was on one side of town and I was on the other.
"Because someone's been in there and everything having to do with Karen Larson's accident is gone."
"Everything?"
I took a deep breath, then did something I had never done before. I lied to my boss. "Everything."
I might be sorry later, but I didn't think so. I opened my hand and stared at the strange little wolf - no bigger than my thumbnail - that lay in my palm. Too many people were far too interested in this thing.
Until I found out why, maybe it would be better if they all believed the totem had disappeared.
As I listened to Clyde rant and rave, I pawed around on Cadotte's desk until I found what I needed. A piece of twine, probably used to bind books or papers, which fit perfectly through the tiny hole at the top of the wolf.
I still had a hard time believing someone was after this bit of rock. But since the other evidence had disappeared, I was going to make certain this didn't, too. I was going to keep it in the safest place I could think of - on me.
One knot later, I dropped the icon over my head and under my shirt. The totem slid into the hollow between my breasts, and if I didn't know better I'd swear it snuggled in close and went to sleep.
Which is what I did as soon as I got home. I should have gone in and filed a report on Cadotte's office, as well as one on the missing evidence. But since I didn't want to meet Clyde face-to-face right now, I turned off my radio, my cell phone, and