Page 9 of So Dark

His phone buzzed. He pulled it from his coat pocket and sighed. “Son of a bitch.”

“The Boss?”

“Yeah. You want to do me a favor and shoot my phone so I have an excuse not to return his call?”

She covered her mouth so the Boss wouldn’t hear her laugh when Michael answered.

“Prince, I have a case for you.”

“Of course you do,” Michael said glumly.

“Yeah, yeah, your life’s so hard. It’s in Nelchina, Alaska.”

“Alaska?”

“Yeah. You know, the really big state next to Canada?”

“Yeah, I…” Michael sighed. “Forget it. When do we leave?”

“As soon as you get your ass to the airport and purchase a flight. Screenshot the ticket and send it to me to expense it.”

“You got it.” He looked at Faith. “Should I take Bold?”

“No. Bold should take some goddamned time off so she doesn’t end up looking like me when she’s my age. But since she won’t, and since I need her to not be around her apartment for a while, yes. Take her. Oh yeah, her neighbor was killed. Same freak who left her a message at the electronics store.”

“I heard.”

“You heard? Is she there?”

“Hi, Boss,” Faith said.

The Boss sighed. “Should I plan to expense tickets for you and Turk too?”

She looked down at Turk and smiled. “What do you say, Turk? Wanna catch a bad guy?”

Turk barked enthusiastically. Faith grinned and said, “He says yes.”

The Boss sighed again. “It’s like raising kids only more stressful. All right. Get your asses to the airport.”

He hung up, and Michael groused, “He’s paying for first class then. That’s his price for pulling me away from—”

“Coffee,” Faith interrupted. “Remember? I bought you coffee, so I don’t need to hear it.”

Michael tapped on his phone for a minute, then said, "Well, he'll hear about it when he rips me a new one for the first-class tickets I just bought from Alaska Airlines."

Her eyes widened. “Jesus! Those are like five thousand dollars each!”

“No, just five thousand total. I’ll be fine. Besides, if the Anchorage guys are the ones that want us, the Boss will probably make them pay.” He stood. “Take the coffee to go. The flight leaves in an hour.”

Faith grinned and followed Michael outside. She felt a little guilty for her excitement, but this was the best thing that could have happened to her right now. She didn’t have to think about all of the crap in her life right now. She could focus on the case and leave all of the rest for later.

A little voice inside her head reminded her that she was only delaying the inevitable. Sooner or later, she’d have to deal with the issues she was running from now.

But not tonight. For now, that was enough.

CHAPTER FOUR

It was a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Anchorage to Nelchina, the small town where the victim lived. The two of them had slept on the flight. When they woke, the Boss had sent them the details of the case, and Faith reviewed them now as Michael drove the rental truck.

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