Deviations by Mike Markel

with
the Hagerty murder?”
    “That’s right,” I said. “We closed the Hagerty
case. The money changing hands was kinda like professional courtesy. Weston was
buying legitimacy from Hagerty’s organization, and Henley Pharmaceuticals was
buying access to Weston—plus some nice tax breaks—as a way to open a research
facility here in a really red state with cheap land.”
    “And you didn’t refer the case to the federal
prosecutor here in Montana?”
    “I didn’t really have time to—”
    “Okay, you went on leave of absence immediately
after the Hagerty case was resolved, and Chief Arnold apparently didn’t refer
the case.” The chief paused. “All right,” he said. “I want the three of us to
go out to the crime scene in a half hour, okay?”
    “Sounds good,” I said.
    “Ryan, you want to help Seagate get set up in the
bullpen?”
    “You bet,” Ryan said.
    * * * *
    Back at our desks, Ryan
said, “Sorry about the boxes.” He started to lift one of them. “Let me bring
them into the break room.”
    “No, don’t,” I said. “I’ll take care of that
myself.” When we worked together before, I’d let him hold a door or two, but I
didn’t want him treating me like anything other than his partner now.
Especially now that I was officially Damaged Goods.
    “So,” he said, his smile glowing, “I’m so glad you
decided to come back, Karen. How’re you feeling?”
    “Tell you the truth, Ryan, it’s more like Chief
Murtaugh decided I’d come back. Him and the bank holding my mortgage. Those
two, together.”
    “Well, whatever, it’s sure good to see you again.”
He had a great smile. “Haven’t heard from you since you left.”
    I looked down at my hands. I was gripping the back
of my chair. “Yeah, well, you know how it is. I was gone. You were real busy.”
I tried to smile. “You had a new partner, new cases.” Yeah, that was it: he was
busy. Also, I was passed out most of the time.
    “Still …” he said, letting it trail off.
    “So, catch me up. Kali and the baby, they doing
okay?”
    “Yeah, they’re fine. The baby’s walking now. I put
those plugs in the light sockets. Got that accordion fence to block off the top
of the stairs. You remember that stuff?”
    Tommy was zipping around at about a year, getting
into everything. He’d tear off toward the little fence as fast as he could. I
swear he knew it was a game, knew I’d be right behind him to scoop him up by
the waist, lift him up over my head. We’d both be laughing. Seemed like twenty
or thirty times a day, at least. “Yeah, I do remember that.” Where I was last
night? Not quite sure. “And the new baby? When’s it due?”
    “It’s going to be a little boy. Three weeks,
tomorrow, that’s the date.”
    “Kali doing okay?”
    “She better be.” He smiled. “Three more to go
after him.”
    I leaned over and touched his arm. “That’s great,
Ryan. I’m so happy for you.” My eyes were a little wet, but I held it together.

 
     
    Chapter 6
    The three of us got out of the
chief’s gray Buick. We were parked a few feet from the yellow crime-scene tape
attached to stakes driven into the dirt, forming a circle fifty feet across. In
the middle of the circle was the white plastic tent Forensic Services had set
up yesterday afternoon when they photographed and recovered Weston’s body.
    Prairie Industrial Park opened six years ago on a two-hundred
acre parcel of dirt and scrub weeds on the west side of town. Less than a
half-mile from the satellite hospital of St. Alban’s Regional Medical Center,
it already had seven buildings full of medical offices, as well as three with
high-end tech and service businesses. The roads snaking between the buildings
were shiny and black, all bordered with neat curbs and green sod and new
saplings staked to withstand the ferocious spring winds.
    I looked around in a three-sixty. There weren’t
any buildings within a couple hundred yards that would have been occupied