Mind Prey

gonna tear the department to pieces if I have to.”
    Roux leaned back in her chair; Lester looked intent, and Lucas looked away.
    After a moment, Wolfe said, “You fuckers.”
     
    “B LACKMAIL,” W EATHER SAID that night. She was eating the back end of a lobster.
    “I suppose,” Lucas said. “She reserved the right to do whatever she wanted, but she won’t do anything. She’ll let it go.”
    “I don’t think I approve,” Weather said.
    “I could burn the papers, I suppose—if I could find them,” Lucas said. “Then we could call her up, tell her we’re sorry, and let her sue.”
    “You were pretty rough with her.”
    “Shit happens.” Lucas yawned, stretched, and smiled. “Just like the bumper sticker says.”
     
    “A RE YOU OKAY?” she asked. They’d gone into the living room and parked on the couch, Weather leaning back with her head on his shoulder.
    “I’m tired,” he said. “I’m so tired.”
    “I heard a cop was shot, that there had been a shooting, a surgical tech told me…” The words were tumbling out in an uncontrolled spate, and her body tensed against him. “I couldn’t believe it, I called Phil Orris over at Ramsey, you remember him, the orthopod…”
    “Yeah.”
    “He said, ‘No, no, it’s not Lucas, it’s a woman.’ I was like, thank you, Jesus, thank you. I was so glad this poor woman was shot, that it wasn’t you.”
    “She’s kind of messed up, Sherrill is,” Lucas said. “The bone’s broken.”
    “Better than you getting shot,” she said. “You’ve been shot enough.”
    They sat quietly for a second, then Lucas said, “I think we ought to get married.”
    She went absolutely still against him, and a second later, said, “So do I.”
    “I’ve got a ring for you,” he said.
    “I know, it’s been driving everybody crazy,” she said.
    He grinned, but she couldn’t see it. She was still facing away, the top of her head just under his nose.
    “Why don’t you go sit in the tub?” she suggested. “Then get in bed. You could use about fifteen hours of sleep.”
    “All right. Here, move away.” He pushed her off a bit, and dug in his pocket, found the ring. “I could never think of what to tell you when I gave it to you,” he said. “Except, I love you.”
    She put it on her finger, and it fit. “You could go on for a while,” she said. “But that’s certainly an excellent start.”
     
    L UCAS SAT IN the tub for fifteen minutes, but he was never any good at relaxing in hot water. He got out, toweled off, put on a robe, and wandered through the house, looking for Weather, to say good night. He found her on the telephone, and heard her say, “Guess what?”
    She was telling friends about the proposal, about the ring. He watched her for a moment, and her face was luminous, like Dunn’s had been at the hospital, glowing with a light of its own.
    He felt a sudden pang of fear: the moment was too perfect to last. He shook it off, walked into the kitchen, touched her hair, her cheek, kissed her chin.
    “Taking a nap,” he said.
    She dropped the phone to her lap. “Del is pissed,” she said. “He had until noon today, in the proposal pool. Some guy named Wood won six hundred and twenty dollars.”
    Lucas grinned. “Pretty romantic, huh?”
    “Go to bed,” she said. He walked back toward the bedroom, stopped, and listened.
    He heard her punch new numbers into the phone, and heard her say again, “Guess what?”
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