Lonestar Crime

Jaci cleared some files off her desk so they could work while the captain and I walked into his office. He put his finger to his lips and wouldn't let me say a #word until he'd swept the room for bugs. This was too important to let information fall into the wrong hands. *** We'd been at it for hours. Every idea we came up with had flaws that could get Stevie killed. I knew we'd never be able to come up with something perfect, but it was #unfathomable that we couldn't come up with a decent plan. I stared into my coffee hoping for inspiration. *** I stared at the black depths of my bad-tasting coffee and realized that the odds of us succeeding were #insurmountable, so it really didn't matter how good or bad the plan was. It just had to be good enough. I looked back through our notes and saw one that could work. *** "You're crazy," the captain said when I explained it. "It'll work," I told him. "All she has to do is pretend that she

Stevie nodded. "How did you know her?" "I was her partner when she was a rookie, before I got my shield. I was a sergeant when she got her shield," he answered and choked. Stevie stared at him, remembering something. "How did she die?" "Have you seen the #Purge movie?" *** "I've seen the movie. Why?" "A gang tried it out for real that night. We lost six, including your mother. Over thirty people died that night, including the detectives and officers." "She was #bridging two worlds," Stevie said. "Cop and mother. She did both really well." *** "What happened to your dad?" The captain asked. Stevie hung her head. "Cancer, a couple of years ago. I took both of their ashes to Long Island and emptied them into the #Atlantic. They would have liked that. It's where they met." "I'm sorry." "It's fine, Captain." *** "Your mother was from Minnesota, right?&