LITMIR.BIZ

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her boyfriend would do anything to get their hands on money for drugs.”

      “Suppose I pick him up and bring him to New York for you?”

      She hesitated. “You’d…do that?”

      “Sure. I’ll photocopy my ID and fax it to the school. You can call them and verify who I am. Rory will recognize me.”

      “It would be the thrill of his life,” she confessed. “He’s talked about nothing except you since you met at the premiere of my film last month.”

      “I liked him, too. He’s honest.”

      “I taught him that honesty was the most important part of character,” she said. “I’ve been lied to so much in my life that I value nothing more,” she added quietly.

      “I know how you feel. Well, I’d planned to leave here on the nineteenth. Tell me how to get to the military academy,” he added, “and the address of your apartment and what time you want us there. And I’ll do the rest!”

      JUDD WAS HIGHLY AMUSED at Cash’s animation and changed mood after the older man spoke with Tippy.

      “You don’t smile much these days,” Judd said. “Nice to see that you remembered how.”

      “Tippy’s brother’s at military school,” Cash said. “I’m going to pick him up on the way and drive him there.”

      “Will your truck make it all the way to New York?” Judd chided, recalling the big black pickup that Cash drove around town. It was a nice one—but inexpensive—and it had some wear on it.

      Cash looked oddly hesitant. “I have a car,” he said. “It’s garaged in Houston. I don’t drive it a lot, but I maintain it. It was for emergencies.”

      “Now you’ve got me curious,” Judd said. “What sort of car?”

      “It’s just a car,” Cash said, shrugging, too embarrassed to tell Judd what sort of car it really was. He never talked about his finances. “Nothing fancy. Listen, are you sure you can handle the work here while I’m gone?”

      “I was a Texas Ranger.”

      Cash grinned. “Yeah, but this is a hard job…!”

      He moved out of the way just in time to avoid retribution.

      “You wait,” Judd threatened with dancing eyes. “I’ll hire you the ugliest secretary east of the Brazos River!”

      “You would,” Cash sighed. “Well, at least get me somebody who isn’t so skittish, would you?”

      “Why exactly did she quit?”

      Cash sighed. “The punk rocker was upset about not being allowed into my filing cabinet. I didn’t want to tell her about my baby python being in there temporarily, so I told her I kept top secret flying-saucer material in there.”

      “That’s when she upended the trash can over your head,” Judd guessed.

      Cash shook his head. “No, that was afterward. I told her the filing cabinet was locked for a purpose, and that she’d better stay out of it. I went out to talk to one of the patrol officers. While I was gone, she got a nail file and forced the lock. Mikey, the python, had squeezed out of the cage and was sitting up on top of the file folders when she pulled out the drawer. She screamed like a banshee and when I went running back to see what was the matter, she threw a pair of handcuffs at me! She accused me of booby-trapping the cabinet to upset her.”

      “That explains the scream I heard,” Judd agreed. “I told you it wasn’t a good idea to keep Mikey’s cage in the filing cabinet.”

      “It was just for today. Bill Harris only gave him to me this morning and I didn’t have time to take him home. I put him in there until I got off work, so he wouldn’t frighten anybody who came into the office and saw him. I’m certainly taking him home this afternoon,” he said indignantly, “to make sure he doesn’t get traumatized any more than he already is!”

      “The acting mayor’s niece is afraid of snakes. Imagine that,” Judd mused.

      “It does strain the imagination,” Cash had to agree.

      “You didn’t give her a reason to sue us, I hope?” his friend persisted.

      Cash shook his head. “I just mentioned that I had Mikey’s dad in the other filing cabinet and asked if she’d like to meet him. That’s when she quit.” He smiled pleasantly.

      “If you fire people, the city has to pay them unemployment. If they quit voluntarily, you don’t. So I helped her quit voluntarily,” he added with a grin.

      “You villain,” Judd said, trying not to laugh.

      “It’s not my fault. She had a king-sized crush on me. She thought if her uncle got her this job, she could hike up her skirt and throw out her chest and seduce me,” he said irritably. He frowned. “Maybe I should have filed a sexual harassment suit.”

      “Oh, that would go over well with Ben Brady,” Judd said tongue in cheek.

      “I’m tired of being chased around my desk by secretaries.”

      “They’re called administrative assistants,” Judd said helpfully. “Not secretaries.”

      “Give me a break!”

      “That’s why I want you to go to New York.”

      “I’ve got a pet to take care of,” Cash protested.

      “You can take Mikey back over to Bill Harris before you leave town. He won’t mind taking care of your baby while you’re gone. You need a break. Honest.”

      Cash sighed and slid his big hands into his pockets. “For once, I agree with you.” He hesitated. “If her uncle calls and asks why she left…”

      “I won’t say a word about the snake. I’ll just tell him that you were having mental problems from being followed around by aliens all day,” Judd said complacently.

      Cash gave him a dirty look and went back to work.

      LATE THE NEXT DAY, Cash presented himself in the commandant’s office at the Cannae Military Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The name of the school was amusing to him, denoting as it did the monstrous defeat of mighty Rome at the hands of the Carthaginian guerilla, Hannibal.

      The commandant, Gareth Marist, was known to him. He’d served with the man years before during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq.

      They shook hands like brothers, which they were, under the skin. Few men had ever had to endure what these two had when they’d gone in behind enemy lines. Marist had escaped. Cash had not.

      “Rory told me all about you,” Gareth said, “before I realized who you were. Sit down, sit down! It’s good to see you again. You’re working in law enforcement now, I believe?”

      Cash nodded, dropping gracefully into a chair across the desk from the uniformed man, who was about his age, but taller and with a receding hairline. “I’m police chief of a small town in Texas.”

      “It’s hard to give up the military life,” Gareth told him. “I couldn’t. So I got this appointment, which was great for me. I love helping mold the soldiers of the future. Young Rory has a lot of potential, by the way,” he added. “He’s very intelligent, and not rattled by boys twice his size. Even the bullies leave him alone,” he chuckled.

      Cash grinned. “He’s not afraid to speak his mind, that’s for sure.”

      “And his sister,” Gareth said, with a long whistle. “If I weren’t a happily married man with two delightful children, I’d be crawling on my knees after Tippy Moore. She really is beautiful, and she loves that kid,” he volunteered. “When she first brought him here, she was scared to death. There had been some trouble with her mother, but she downplayed it. She showed me papers

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