. . . 12 Hours and Counting . . .

The time for “the talk” didn’t come in the morning, either. Sex again, instead. Even before the alarm went off, she found him gently touching her back and leaving tiny cold spots with his kisses. He entered her again and soon she was clutching the sheets and thrusting herself back onto him with an animal rhythm.

He went back to his room later to dress, leaving her only with a long kiss at the door. She smiled after him, letting her head loll to one side. She couldn’t believe a man could be so smart. He had said nothing. Nothing at all. There was simply nothing for her to attach her fears to, nothing to worry about all day. He had voiced no expectations or concerns. The warm glow of the night was complete, and it was up to her to decide when she wanted to talk.

She concluded that the man was a genius. Chuckling to herself as she showered and dressed, she wondered if she might be in love.

#

After a gulped breakfast, they headed for the police station, not wanting to be late. They beat Verr and his partner by a long shot. At first, she was pleased when they didn’t show up right away. Better that the other team should be late, that gave them an advantage.

By the time the eight o’clock shift of cops arrived and they were still waiting in the conference room, however, she was furious. Uniforms walked by the open door with their coffee and donuts and casually gave them a look of mixed amusement and pity.

She saw two of them nudge one another and rudely point their way. One of them raised his eyebrows as he delivered a punch line. The other guffawed so violently that he coffee dribbled onto his pants. Setting the white Styrofoam cup on a desk, he continued to laugh as he brushed off his pants.

She got up and slammed the conference room door.

“This is intolerable. They plan to screw us good with this one.”

“Yep,” said Johansen. He leaned back in his chair and watched her stalk about the room. She noticed that he was leering and underneath she enjoyed it, but was too pissed off to let that come to the surface.

“What exactly does that relief order say?” she demanded for perhaps the twelfth time in the last hour.

He somehow had managed to keep from becoming ruffled throughout this entire affair. She knew it had a great deal to do with last night, with her. He positively looked like the coyote that had finally caught and eaten that damned road-runner. It both gratified her and slightly irritated her to know this.

“We are summarily relieved of this case,” he greatly paraphrased.

“What case?”

“The location and apprehension of suspects in the release of a new, hitherto unknown virus upon the internet.”

She paced again, nodding. “Okay, okay.”

“Okay what?”

“It didn’t say anything about the missing kid case.”

“So?”

“So they missed the meeting. We’re going to do something,” she said, grabbing up her purse and briefcase.

“What?”

“Screw them instead.”