Lacey stopped outside Savich’s office and leaned against the wall. It was too much and not nearly enough. She had to go to Boston again. She had to speak to Marlin Jones one more time. She had to make him tell her the truth, she had to. She looked up to see Hannah staring at her. “Why are you so pale? You look like someone’s punched you. Actually, you look like you’re coming down with the flu.”
She just shook her head. “I’m fine. It’s the case I’m working on. Things are inconclusive and I hate that.”
Hannah said, “Yes, that’s always a bitch, isn’t it? How’s your arm?”
“What? Oh, my arm’s fine.”
“How are you feeling after that hit-and-run driver nearly hit you the other day? That must have been pretty bad.”
“It was, but not as bad as this. I think it was just an accident, some drunk guy who probably was so scared that he nearly hit someone that he couldn’t wait to roar away from me. The cops said the three numbers I saw on the license plate didn’t lead anywhere. Too many possibilities. It could have happened to anybody. I was just the lucky one.”
“Did you hurt your arm again?”
“Just banged it up a bit more, no big deal.”
“Savich isn’t busy now, is he?”
“I don’t know.” She walked away, thinking about who had had access to all the crime details in San Francisco.
She sat at her desk and stared at the blank computer screen. She heard a sound and turned to see Hannah standing by the water cooler, frowning at her. It was more than a frown, and Lacey felt a brief burst of cold run through her. She forced herself back to the Radnich case, but there was nothing new there. Another murder and her old-woman theory hadn’t washed. The afternoon meeting was canceled because Savich had an emergency meeting with their assistant director, Jimmy Maitland. She was still puzzling over the newest developments in the Mississippi/Alabama cases, when she heard Savich behind her. “It’s after six. It’s time for you to hang it up. Let’s go work out.”
She stared up at him blankly. “Work out?”
“Yeah, I bet you haven’t moved from that desk since this afternoon. Come along. I won’t throw you around because you have this wimp excuse about your arm.”
She could barely walk. Nor could she talk. She was still using all her breath just to pull oxygen into her lungs. It was just as well because Hannah Paisley turned up just before they were ready to leave. She looked fit and strong, and just about every guy in the gym was staring at her. She was wearing a hot-pink leotard with a black top and black thong.
Savich gave Hannah a salute as he said, “Come on, Sherlock. I told you you’ve got to work on your breathing. More breath or you’ll collapse on me just the way you’re almost doing now.”
She eyed him and gasped out, “I’m going to kill you.”
“Good. An entire sentence. You’re getting it together again. You want to go shower?”
“I’d drown. I’d fall down, plug the drain, and that would be the end of it.”
“Then let’s walk home. A nice walk dries all the sweat.”
“I want to be carried. These legs aren’t going anywhere on their own.”
Hannah was standing behind Savich. She lightly touched her fingers to his bare arm. His skin glistened with sweat.
“Hello, Dillon, Sherlock.”
Lacey only nodded. She was still breathing hard.
“You’re looking good, Hannah,” Savich said. Lacey realized at that moment how clear it was to her that they’d slept together. They were both magnificently made, beautiful specimens. She could imagine how they’d look together, naked, all over each other. She forced herself to smile. To look the way the two of them did, they had to sweat a lot to build those sleek muscles. Lacey wasn’t too fond of sweating. She watched Savich squeeze Hannah’s biceps. “Not bad. Look at poor Sherlock here. She’s threatening to collapse on me all because she got her arm hurt and we had to spend the time on her legs.”
“She does look a bit on the edge. While she rests up, could you come coach me a minute on my bench presses?”
“Sorry, not tonight, Hannah. Sherlock has to get home, and I promised I’d drop her off.”
Hannah just nodded, smiled at both of them, and walked off, every man’s eyes, except Savich’s, on her butt.
“She’s very beautiful,” Lacey said, pleased she could talk without wondering if she was having a heart attack.
“Yes, I guess so,” Savich said. “Let’s go.”
They stopped for a half-veggie, half-sausage pizza at Dizzy Dan’s on Clayton Street.