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going to
be there to make sure she stayed behind the camera.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “You just filled out the paperwork a few days
ago.” I called into the dining room from the kitchen. “Have they
even had time to get you on the list?”
    I was already dressed and was brewing a fresh
pot of coffee by the time Felicity had taken down the address of
the scene and started slipping into some clothes herself. Now, I
was removing the lids from a pair of oversized travel mugs while my
wife gathered together the photographic equipment she thought she
might need.
    “Aye, would seem so,” Felicity replied, her
words were forced squeakily through a deep yawn.
    “Tired?”
    “I’ve only had about an hour of sleep. What
do you think?”
    “What time did you get in?”
    “I didn’t get here until almost one
forty-five,” she replied.
    “Why so late?”
    “The shoot ran late, then I took a wrong turn
getting back to the highway, so that took forever. It was a bad
night all around.”
    “Sorry to hear that.”
    “How about yours?”
    “Uneventful. Took the dogs to the park,
answered some email then looked at the news.”
    “You seemed pretty zonked when I came to bed.
I tried not to wake you.”
    “You didn’t,” I called back to her. “I was
going to wait up but finally called it a night around
eleven-fifteen or so.”
    “You…” the rest of the sentence was nothing
more than a squeaky garble as she yawned again.
    “What?”
    “You didn’t have to wait up,” she said in a
far more intelligible fashion.
    “I missed you.”
    “How sweet.”
    “Okay, it’s a little early, so before this
gets any mushier, what’s up with this call?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean I thought this whole thing was
supposed to be for the specialized stuff.”
    “Or emergencies.”
    “You never told me that part.”
    “I didn’t?”
    “No.”
    “Must have slipped my mind then.”
    “Yeah,” I grunted. “So this is an
emergency?”
    “Apparently.”
    “How so?”
    “Flu epidemic.”
    “Yeah, that’s old news. What does it have to
do with this?”
    “Crime scene technicians get the flu
too.”
    “All of them?” I asked with a note of
disbelief.
    “The ones who know how to use a camera it
seems. There’s a bit more to it than taking a few point-and-shoot
snapshots you know.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “ Anyway, Ben said they were
short-staffed across the board.”
    “But, still, it’s a bit quick to be calling
you out, don’t you think?” I pressed. “Didn’t they have anyone more
experienced on the list?”
    “Aye, this is really getting under your skin,
isn’t it then?”
    “No.”
    “ Cac capaill, ” she
mumbled.
    “I heard that,” I said in reply to her
under-the-breath Gaelic epithet. “And, where I come from we say
‘bullshit’.”
    “Horse shit works too.”
    “Okay. Yeah, so I’m not excited about it. But
you already knew that. Even so, that didn’t answer my
question.”
    “You mean about experience? I guess. Maybe,”
she replied, and I could almost hear the shrug in her voice. “Ben
said he called four others before he got to me. I can’t help it
that I’m the only one who answered the phone.”
    “You didn’t.” I corrected her over my
shoulder as I carefully filled the travel mugs. “I did.”
    “Minor detail.”
    “Oh yeah? Next time I’ll just let the machine
get it.”
    “I’ll only hit you harder.”
    “Yeah, you would, wouldn’t you?”
    “Aye.”
    I plopped a trio of raw sugar cubes into one
of the mugs then screwed the lid tightly onto it before continuing.
“So you’re telling me no one else answered?”
    “That’s what Ben said.”
    “Lucky you.”
    “Aye. Lucky me.”
    I stepped through the doorway and nudged
Felicity’s arm with the metal and plastic vessel. She looked up
from the street guide she was intently studying and turned her head
toward me.
    “Here,” I said. “This might help get rid of
the accent.”
    She looked at me and simply shook