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Qui
"That good or that bad?"
Qui
"She's a real piece of work," Qui
"Why would she want to do that?" Sta
"Yeah, but she's… " Qui
Sta
Qui
Sta
"A little of both."
Sta
"So how hot is she in person, Stacey? On the standard one-to-ten scale."
Qui
"You, my man, are lying." Sta
"Get your kielbasa off my work space." Qui
"Did you make it with her or something, Stacey? What's going on?" His face was wide with wonder now.
"God. Of course not." Qui
"District Eighteen, Detective Stacey Qui
"My head still hurts."
Sta
"I… uh… " The woman seemed confused. "This isn't Stacey Qui
"No. It's his partner, Stanley Oleskiewicz, but here he comes right now." He handed Qui
"Her who?"
"Horny Helen." Sta
"This is Qui
"Hi. It's Audie. Was that really your partner?"
"Unfortunately. How's the goose egg this morning?"
"Sore. Uh, I got another letter."
So this was a business call. Qui
The whole thing had ended rather awkwardly last night-she had refused to get checked out at the emergency room and left him standing in the middle of her building's underground parking garage. Not that he expected her to invite him up, but still…
"Did you read it?"
"I just finished reading it. It's awful."
"We'll be right over."
"No!" Audie nearly shouted. "Look, I'm sorry, Qui
"Fingerprints, Miss Adams."
"Huh?"
"I need the original letter so we can look for fingerprints. That's why I wanted to come over."
The line was silent for a moment.
"Oh."
"But we can hash out that other part later." Qui
"Yeah."
"Are your coworkers there?"
"Yeah, but-"
"Great. Keep everybody around. We'll be there in about fifteen minutes."
Audie's outfit fell somewhere between the proper pink suit jacket and the soccer uniform, Qui
Audie's hair was loose and wavy around her face, and she wore just a hint of a rich shade of lipstick. At the end of her long and shapely legs were pretty clear-polished toes in a pair of black leather sandals.
She nervously greeted Qui
"Five my pimply Polish ass," Sta
Qui
Qui
Obviously, it had been the original Homey Helen's office-all over the walls of the reception area were photographs of Audie's mother posing with celebrities. There was Helen Adams with Mother Teresa. Helen Adams with Margaret Thatcher, Nancy Reagan, and Princess Diana.
In each of the photos, Helen Adams wore pink and looked poised, polished, and perfect.
Qui
"Thank you, ma'am," Sta
Qui
"Oh, thank you, Detective," Marjorie said graciously, motioning to the sitting area. "Shall we all get comfortable?"
The group chatted casually for several minutes and then Marjorie explained how the Homey Helen office worked. Regular mail was delivered about ten every morning and went directly to her desk, where she sorted it. As managing director of Homey Helen Enterprises, Marjorie ran the office, handled all the fan mail forwarded from the Ba
"She's been the backbone of the business since the begi
Marjorie nodded demurely. "I was the business major and Helen was the English major-I was the brawn and she was the beauty."
Qui
"At any rate," Marjorie continued, "we've managed to stumble along quite well this last year, everything considered." She smiled sadly at Audie, and Qui
"I was quite pleased that Audie decided to keep it going, and I'm sure the sentiment is shared by her millions of readers."
Audie gri
"So you've been the first person to see all the letters, Miss Stoddard?" Sta
"Yes, although Griffin helps me go through the mail if it's particularly busy. I think he might have found one or two of them, didn't you?"
Griffin crossed a purple velvet leg over the opposite knee and jiggled his foot nervously.