Kiss of Shadows [Claiming Series, #4]

- 1 -

Police sergeant Carolyn Harrington stared at her captain with utter disbelief. He was a large man with one of those Irish mugs that seemed to perpetually smile, even when it was totally inappropriate to. Like now. "I'm suspended?"

"Not suspended. Indefinite medical leave, Caro."

          "I'm fine! There's nothing wrong with me."

          "Except for seeing things that are impossible."

          She glared at him, grinding her teeth. Captain Malloy was usually a good boss. Until today she had even liked him. "I saw what I saw."

          "That's the problem, isn't it," he said kindly. "Men don't get lifted into the air and impaled on the horns of a stuffed elk head by invisible forces. Just doesn't happen."

          "I saw it happen. You explain how he got there."

          Malloy shook his head. "I'm sure we'll figure it out. In the meantime, you were involved in a shoot-out last week and that can have unpredictable effects. Delayed shock, that sort of thing."

          "Captain..."

          But he shook his head sternly. "Take the time, Caro. I don't want anything to keep you from getting promoted to detective next month."

          That effectively silenced her, although it didn't prevent her from grinding her teeth some more. She'd worked hard for that promotion. If he was going to hold that over her head, she'd better do as told.

          But she didn't have to like it.

          At least he didn't ask for her badge and her service pistol. She grabbed a few things from her desk, then headed over to Robbery-Homicide to talk to her friend and mentor, Detective Mavis Burke.

          "I'm out of here," she told Mavis, a striking woman in her forties with short, steely hair and equally steely eyes.

          "Not suspension?"

          "Medical leave. Indefinite."

          Mavis waved a hand as if to reassure her. "After that shooting last week."

          "Mav, I never even had to draw my gun."

          "That's not the point. You go running around here talking about that guy being impaled, your credibility will be shot. Understand? So you're going to take this leave with all the grace you can muster, and you can probably come back in a week or so if you just don't talk about this anymore."

          "I know what I saw."

          Mavis's eyes softened a shade. "I believe you. I believe that you saw it. I believe you didn't imagine it. But we're cops, Caro. We don't handle that kind of stuff, not as part of our jobs and not as part of our worldview. You need to stop talking about it."

          "Great. I see a guy murdered and have to shut up about how it happened."

          "Only around here," Mavis said. She pulled open a desk drawer and hunted around a bit, then handed a business card to Caro.

          "Peres Investigations?" Caro asked.

          "Asher Peres handles the kinds of things we don't. The kinds of things we can't. He's on the weird side, evidently suffers from some medical problem that makes it impossible for him to tolerate daylight, but he's never let me down yet. You talk to him about this, Caro. He won't think you're crazy."