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a fleece pullover. She was accompanied by Sergeant Nancy Medina, a slender, five-foot-nine blonde still in her dark blue APD uniform.
    Gina rushed over and gave Charlie a bear hug, followed by a kiss on the cheek. “I’m so glad you’re not hurt, Charles, and you too, Gordon. Nancy showed me the video of what happened in the shop on the way over here. It all went down so quickly.”
    Charlie looked over at Nancy, who gave him a sheepish expression. “DuPree e-mailed the video to me after he found out I knew Lola Tso,” she said.
    â€œThat’s what Gina mentioned earlier. What can you tell us about her?”
    â€œI’ll give you what I can, then you and Gordon fill me in on the details of what went down before and after the incident. Maybe you know something I can pass along to the unit working the case.”
    â€œWe’ve got chairs in the office and instant Starbucks Italian Roast—decaf if you want,” Gordon said, motioning toward the small office at the front end of the hall, past the door to the storage room. “Ladies.”
    Charlie and Gordon brought them up to date on the pawning of the squash blossom, the attempt to buy it back, and all the rest, including the graveyard encounter outside To’hajiilee. Nancy whistled softly, then sat back. She looked over at Gina, then shook her head slowly before taking a sip of decaf from a foam cup. “How do you guys get into shit like this, time after time?”
    â€œI met a Navy A-4 pilot when I was working in a homeless kitchen in Denver. He’d served during Vietnam, and he’d been shot down twice by SAMs. He told me they started calling him magnet ass. Guess we’re kind of like that,” Gordon said.
    â€œYeah. Trouble just seems to find us,” Charlie added.
    â€œAt least we manage to come out on top,” Gordon said with a grin.
    â€œSo far,” Gina replied, rolling her eyes.
    â€œEnough about us, what about Lola Tso? There was an address on her driver’s license and in our transaction records, so officers should have paid her a visit hours ago. She got that necklace from someone, maybe the silversmith’s killer, and that makes her a liability,” Charlie concluded.
    â€œDuPree sent officers to that address, but she wasn’t at home and they couldn’t find a neighbor who admitted to knowing her or recognizing a photo. They left someone to watch the place and DuPree is trying to track down the landlord,” Nancy said.
    â€œShe may have moved out months ago. People are always changing apartments without updating MVD,” Gina pointed out. “And with cell phones, it’s harder to find out what carrier someone has. DuPree has someone checking state databases, right?”
    Nancy nodded. “Unfortunately, everything points back to that apartment. He’s going to get a warrant tomorrow morning and enter the place one way or the other if she doesn’t show up.”
    â€œAny chance Lola left town?” Gordon asked.
    â€œNot by commercial carriers. DuPree is thorough,” Nancy replied. “There’s an ATL, attempt to locate, out on her black Ford Focus, but she could be two states away by now if she headed out of the city after pawning that necklace.”
    â€œSo, Nancy. How do you know Lola?” Charlie asked, looking over to see Gina’s reaction.
    Gina just grinned.
    â€œLola and I were hookers back then.”
    â€œWhoa. I thought you were on the vice squad, not the mattress,” Gordon said, trying but failing to look shocked.
    â€œYeah, I posed as a hooker, dumbass, busting the johns. Lola was the real deal, though I was never around when she was doing the nasty or getting busted. We worked the sidewalks and bars on East Central and got to know each other a little,” Nancy explained. “She was eighteen then, but had already been hooking for about a year when we met.”
    â€œWas she still working when you