A few more hours to chalk up to the Romulus account wouldn’t hurt.

The phone rang through, and someone picked it up. Jennifer explained who she was, and why she was calling, and the young man at the other end replied, “I’m just a programmer, man, but hold on a sec, I’ll get the supervisor.”

This was going better than she had any reason to expect.

Five minutes later, she hung up the phone, still blinking in pleased surprise. Not only had she confirmed that she had been hired by someone with the authority to do so, but the supervisor of accounting had laughed, and told her he’d seen the account with her name on it opened just before quitting time.

She pinched herself, just to make certain this wasn’t some kind of dream.

Then again—

She sobered, suddenly. There were usually reasons for things going this well, early in a case. It meant that the case itself was going to be a bitch.

Well, if it’s going to be that bad, I’d better get on it tomorrow early, while my luck is still running. She closed down computer and modem, picked up her purse, and headed back out. And meanwhile, I’d better make a good grocery run, because I bet I won’t have time for one once this heats up.

As she passed him in the living room, Grandfather looked up, and gave her one of his Patented Inscrutable Expressions.

Now what in the hell was that all about? she wondered. With him, it could be anything from toilet paper on my shoe to the fact that I’m about to walk into a trap and he doesn’t feel like telling me about it.

As she closed the front door behind her and headed for the truck, the shrill klee-klee-klee of a bird screamed out above her head. She looked up.

There was her Spirit Animal, a kestrel, sitting on the phone line above her head. The little falcon, a female by her markings, stared down at Jennifer and screamed again.

“That’s easy for you to say,” Jennifer retorted, inserting her key into the lock. “You don’t have to live with him!”

CHAPTER FIVE