Beyond Blue by Austin S. Camacho

Linda,” Stone said. “Maybe you’re in it too.”
    Linda leaned forward, elbows on the table, arms crossed. “Can it. If you thought I was dirty I’d be in jail now. Sure, if I go back to work I know what’s in store for me. But they’re not going to look too hard for a gal who they think screwed up and left an office door unlocked. What’s to stop me from just taking my kid and grabbing a Greyhound forVegas?”
    â€œThey will be looking for you,” Stone said. “They’ll hunt you down, because they probably think you’ve got this.”
    Stone pulled the thin green ledger from his briefcase and dropped it on the maple tabletop. He could not miss the change that his casual action caused in Linda. She sat back, as if he had placed a tarantula in front of her. Her eyes grew to silver dollars and her mouth fell slightly open.
    â€œYou took the ledger,” she said in hushed tones, and her skin flushed a hot pink.
    â€œYes, and at first look, this looks pretty incriminating,” Stone said with a smug expression. “All the writing is in a very feminine hand. Should we have a handwriting analyst see if it matches yours?”
    â€œYeah, it’s all me,” Linda said. “But hang on here. Cops sure don’t take stuff like that away from a place when they had no warrant to get in. Now I really got to know who you guys are. A rival gang, maybe?”
    Rico Steele pushed the heel of his left palm against Stone’s temple, giving his partner a playful push that tipped him to the side a bit. “Why you want to be a hard ass about this, Stone? We need her cooperation, so let’s just bring her in.”
    â€œIn to what?” Linda asked. “What am I mixed up in here? Who the hell are you guys?”
    With a broad smile Rico leaned an elbow on the table himself. “Look, we’re private investigators. We don’t worry about what the cops will do, and don’t care much about organized crime as such. We work for an agency that cares about cops. Your boss seems to be in the unpleasant habit of doing bad things to cops in court.”
    â€œYeah, he’s really got a hard on for the police,” Linda said, and then looked up like a guilty child. “I mean, he’s got something against them. He only seems to work defending the bad guys, and I think he may have falsified evidence and testimony and stuff.”
    Steele chuckled. “Yeah, I get it. Anyhow, we want to puthim out of business. If it hurts the mob at the same time, well, so much the better. And it will be a lot easier to put Jerome down for good with your insider knowledge of the operation.”
    Linda had curled her lips in, making her “I’m thinking” face, when Sherry entered carrying a tray. In addition to the sugar bowl and creamer Stone noticed steam rising from four cups of coffee, not three. As Sherry set the tray beside the ledger book, she said, “You want to help them, dear. They’re the good guys. Really.”
    Linda squeezed Sherry’s hand, and Sherry sat at the end of the table. While everyone fixed their coffee the way they wanted it, Linda said, “I’m not worried about me. I can take care of myself. But I worry about little Danny. I know the police couldn’t protect him. Can you guys keep him safe?”
    â€œI personally guarantee it,” Stone said in a solemn voice. “For P.I.s we maintain a pretty low profile, and we have safe houses and other operatives who can create our own temporary witness protection program.”
    â€œAnd you saw what we did to those freaks in Jerome’s office,” Steele added.
    â€œYeah,” Linda said. “You guys can sure kick ass, I’ll give you that.” Her eyes went to Sherry, and she ducked her head again, as if caught swearing by her teacher. That guilt ran pretty deep.
    â€œCatholic school?” Stone asked.
    â€œYeah. How did