The Minotaur Sampler, Volume 2--New Books to Make Your Heart Race by Brian Klingborg

Author:Brian Klingborg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

CHAPTER FOUR

ANNALISA STRODE INTO THE STATION WITH A SINGLE MISSION: TO GET A CUP OF COFFEE INTO HER SYSTEM BEFORE SHE HAD TO BRIEF THE COMMANDER ON THE HARPER CASE. Her plan fell apart when she spied Harry O’Hara camped in front of the coffee pot, hiding a laugh behind a mug that read OFFICIAL BADASS. O’Hara was forty-six and just divorced from his third wife. Rumor had it he was already auditioning for number four. “Something funny, O’Hara?” she asked as his titter became a full-blown guffaw. Behind her, O’Hara’s regular partner, Sam Gunderson, started to chuckle, too. O’Hara began a cheerful whistle of “Here Comes the Bride” as Nick materialized behind her. That’s when Annalisa noticed a cheap white veil adorning her chair. Someone had also put a bouquet of gas station flowers on her desk.

“Heard you two got hitched,” O’Hara said in a singsong voice. “Guess old Nicky Boy wanted a second go-round on your carousel, huh, Vega?”

“Cute,” Annalisa said as she picked up the flowers and dumped them into the nearest basket. “So original, too.” She forced O’Hara aside and poured herself a cup of coffee that had to be four hours old at this point. It tasted like it had been brewed in a pothole. “Whatever your issues are, O’Hara, please cancel my subscription, okay?”

“Just wishing our new happy couple all the best. I bet we have some fried rice in the fridge we could throw if you’re interested.”

“Hey, what’s your problem, man?” Nick lunged in O’Hara’s direction.

“Can’t take a joke, Carelli? You got to protect the little woman now?”

Nick looked like he might actually take a swing. Annalisa yanked him back by the tail of his sport coat. “Knock it off, Carelli.”

“Me? You’re mad at me?”

Zimmer appeared from her office across the room and called out to them sharply. “Vega, Carelli. In my office now.”

“Uh-oh. Honeymoon’s over,” O’Hara said. “Again.”

Nick glowered at him and followed Annalisa as she threaded her way through the bullpen. “If you’d let me deck him once, this would all be over,” he muttered to her as they walked.

“No, it would just make me into some big button they could push whenever they wanted to make you go cuckoo.”

Zimmer, who was waiting for them in the doorway, squinted at the guys still enjoying their joke across the room. “Do we have some sort of problem here?”

Nick glanced back and opened his mouth, ready to snitch. “No,” Annalisa said, heading him off. “No problem.”

“Good. Get inside.”

Commander Lynn Zimmer had earned the nickname the Hammer back in her patrol days, and Annalisa always thought there must be some story about her coldcocking a perp with a Craftsman titanium, but she knew better than to ask Zimmer herself. Instead, she’d asked Pops a few years ago, as he had helped train Zimmer, and he’d laughed so hard his belly shook the table. “No, not that she wouldn’t have taken a swing with whatever tools were handy. You can see a scar on her

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