Irish Throwdown (What Happens In Vegas Book 4) by Matt Lincoln (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

you all headed home early today and came in a few hours early tomorrow. That way, we can get a fresh start on the case with the results in hand.”

I listened as Nelson dismissed us two hours early. On a typical day, we worked an ordinary nine-to-five at the office, but it wasn’t unusual for us to have to come in early or stay late, depending on the case we happened to be working on. We didn’t have much left to do aside from wait for the results, so it made sense for us to go home instead of just sitting around twiddling our thumbs. Honestly, I wasn’t upset about it. Hearing that I was under suspicion of being involved in Prudence Evans’ death had rattled me. Fortunately, Miranda and Naomi had alleviated my fears when they’d informed us that most of the perps had died of overdoses. That made it almost entirely certain that Prudence had just died as a side effect of the drug and not from anything I did during my brief tussle with her.

I began gathering up my things and flinched as pain lanced up my arm and over my shoulder. The cause of the pain wasn’t the cut I’d received earlier that day but rather from the old bullet wound in my arm from a few months ago. During our last major case, I’d been shot in the shoulder by a suspect while helping Charlie look for his missing niece. As a result, I’d suffered some nerve damage. At first, the doctors were hopeful about a full recovery, but as time went on and I continued to have pain and mobility issues, my prospects looked grim. Every day, it seemed more and more likely that the damage would be permanent.

Recently, I’d noticed that the injury would hurt any time I used that arm to do anything more strenuous than holding a pencil or lifting a coffee cup. Since it was my dominant hand and the one I used to hold a gun, I found myself in pain more and more frequently.

“Hey,” Fiona suddenly appeared at my desk, and I quickly relaxed my expression before she could notice. I hadn’t told anyone I was still having issues with my shoulder. I didn’t want them to think I couldn’t do my job anymore, so I’d just kept quiet. It wasn’t like it bothered me very frequently, so I was sure I’d be able to keep it secret if I just kept my mouth shut any time I had a flare-up.

“Hey,” I smiled back. “You ready to go?”

“I am,” she replied. “I think it’ll do everyone some good to step away from the case for a little while. We’ve all been running at full speed since we heard the details. We’re liable to make mistakes if we keep this up.”

“That’s a good point,” I agreed as I stood up from my desk. “Though it’s hard not to get worked up when it involves so many innocent people.”

“I know what you mean,” Fiona sighed. “All crime is bad, of course. But it’s so scary to think that normal people just minding their own business could be suddenly pulled into a crime because they happened to catch a cold. Why would someone do something like this?”

“To create pandemonium?” I shrugged. “That seems like the most likely conclusion, anyway. Why else would someone go around spiking medicine if it wasn’t just to inflict terror?”

“Yeah,” Fiona nodded. “But what’s the real reason? It’s easy to say that terrorists do things to cause terror, but there’s always some ulterior motive. Every group has something driving them: religion, anger toward the government, or hatred toward a specific race or gender. There’s always something, so what is this guy trying to achieve by hurting all these random people?”

“It can’t be racially or sexually motivated,” I frowned. “If it was, they would be specifically targeting churches or women’s support groups or something. Whoever did this didn’t care who was impacted, as evidenced by the fact that the victims all ranged in age, gender, and socio-economic status. We can probably rule out the idea that he’s after either rich or poor people, too.”

“Don’t forget that drug addicts were the first ones targeted,” Fiona countered. “The majority of the victims in the first cases were indigent or living on the poverty level. I’m not sure what that means, but it must be significant, right?”

“It’s bizarre,” I agreed as I racked my brain for an answer. Fiona was right that there must be some ulterior motive here, but I couldn’t figure out what it could be.

“Nevermind,” Fiona suddenly snapped. “I was just saying that we need to step away from the case before we burn ourselves out. Let’s get some rest, and we can re-examine everything tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I smiled. I realized everyone had already left the office by that point. “Let’s get going then.”

We headed out of the office and down the elevator in companionable silence. I’d noticed since the beginning that silences had never been awkward between the two of us, only comfortable.

“Hey,” Fiona beamed at me once we were in the parking lot. “What do you want to do for Halloween? It’s just a few days away.”

I knitted my brows together as I considered her question. Most holidays in Las Vegas could get pretty wild. Halloween could get especially crazy when you factored in people wandering the streets in disguise, partaking in drugs and alcohol as freely as in candy. It was sure to be a good party, but I wasn’t sure if it was the kind of thing I’d really enjoy.

“I might just stay in,” I shrugged. “Watch some scary movies and eat some candy.”

“Aw,” Fiona pouted at my answer. “That’s so boring. Come out with me. It’ll be so much fun, and I really don’t want to go by myself.”

She looked really excited by the prospect, and I just couldn’t find it in me to say no. Fiona had come a long way from the