F³ A Detective

“I thought you said you weren’t a marriage counselor,” Ellie still whispered so as to not wake Ginny.

“I’m not. I don’t have any formal psychological training, but I’ve spent a lot of time watching all kinds of people, trying to read them. I’m a private detective, old school.” I pointed to the Chandler paperback in the seat pocket. “Before all the fancy tech, detectives read people and used instinct. I’ve dealt with a lot of unhappy spouses telling me their problems. Some wanted to know if there was someone else in the picture, most were after dirt, leverage for a divorce.”

F³ Things Already Said

It only took three readings of Noir Cat in The Fedora to put Ginny to sleep.

 

“I see that,” I pointed at Nikki, clearly fighting a grin. “You like it. Come on, admit it.”

For answer, she tossed her head, using her hair to shade half her face. “Careful, Sam, a femme fatale will say anything to lure you in.” She picked up a cookie and bit the head off, hat and all.

“See! I told you decapitating gingerbread men was going to happen no matter what.”

She rolled her eyes at me.

F³ Unnatural Storm

            Nat and I dove our cloud boards into the wide, diffuse eye. Had this been a hurricane, we would have been in deep shit, but the wind speed was much lower. The technical classification by the weather circus put it at a depression/storm. Storm riders classified it as annoying instead of pain in the ass.

F³ Slow Business

It was a slow day, meaning that a few hours went by both without any clients or people attempting to kill me. Not only that, the prank callers had decided I wasn’t worth their time, so I got to enjoy the rare pleasure of reading an interesting history on the rituals of the Early Christian church. Since the majority of my cases tied to Christian mythology in some form, it was good to have this stuff at my command.

The giggles from the outer office, though, broke my concentration, especially when it turned to uproarious laughter. I was about to see what Jessie and Jen were laughing at when my cell rang.