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curious look as he whistled. “I wonder if
Mr. Fly boy is the one that caused this?”
    Before he could think further, the seventh message quickly came on.
Again it was Raven’s parents with another plea for her to call.
    The eighth message cut into his thoughts. “I’m going out of town this
weekend. He’s finally taken the step. See you Monday,” the woman said.
    The voice was the same as the one earlier. Don turned to Fred. “What
was her name?”
    Don had stopped for a red light. Once the light turned green, he was
still deep in thought as he looked at Fred waiting for his answer.
    ”Cathy, I think,” Fred said.
    The ninth message started quickly. “Raven, it is Tad here. You
avoiding me? Give me a call. I’m staying at the Hilton.”
    Horns blared from behind as Don was startled for a moment. He quickly
pulled in front of a taxi and narrowly avoided getting sideswiped. “Finally, a
name,” he said.
    Fred just looked around, wondering if he were going to live to see
tomorrow, given Don’s inattentive driving.
    The tenth and last message said it all. “I’ve warned you,” was all the
woman said. It sounded very threatening.
    After that there was dead air with no more messages. Don popped the
tape out and then turned to Fred. “I’ll have to turn this in and have the
messages transcribed. This may help us catch whoever did that to her.”
    “Sure sounds like someone had it in for her,” Fred added.
    “I’ll drop you off at the Hilton while I go to VanBuren’s office,” Don
said.
    “Shouldn’t we work together?
    Don shrugged. “We can cover more territory this way.”
    Besides, Don just wanted to be alone for a while. He was tired and
didn’t really want to talk to Fred. They were both working with a handicap of a
few hours sleep. Once he got rid of Fred, he planned to stop in at the first
convenience store for another large cup of caffeine.

Chapter 6
     
    While Don drove, he kept yawning. He turned to Fred, whose head
continued to bob while his eyes were shut. Don envied him and would have given
anything to be able to shut his eyes for just five minutes. Don quickly lit a
cigarette and inhaled. He had to do something to stay awake. His eyes were
blurring over as he kept wiping them, hoping to ward off the sleep he so
desperately wanted.
    Don was thankful the Hilton wasn’t that far away. Watching Fred catch
a little shut-eye was too much for him to bear. He was glad to be rid of his
partner for a little while. He pulled up to the entrance and then poked Fred.
He secretly felt a tinge of pleasure waking him, wanting him to suffer just
like he was.
    “Hey, wake up,” Don said, hitting Fred in the arm.
    “What, what!”
    It took Fred a short while to get his bearings. When he realized where
they were, he slowly opened the door, but before getting out he turned to Don.
    “You sure we should separate?”
    All Don knew was that he needed some time apart from Fred. To have him
sit in the passenger seat, sleeping while he drove, was enough to make any sane
man angry. Besides, it did make sense to separate under these circumstances.
Don didn’t need to be with Fred when interviewing the suspected boyfriend, and
Don could handle going to Raven VanBuren’s employer and talking to them about
Raven and what she did for Senator Maxfield.
    “Just do it and get out. I’ll meet you back at VanBuren’s place.” Don
said.
    “How am I going to get there?” Fred said as he hung onto the squad
door while looking in at Don.
    “Take a cab.”
    Fred would have liked to complain, but instead he slammed the car door
shut as Don sped away from the cub.
    Don had passed a convenience store a few blocks away and was anxious
to get back there. Traffic was light, so he was able to speed and get back to
it in short order. Don quickly pulled into the parking lot and entered the
store, where he bought one of those energy drinks and a large cup of coffee.
Once out of the store, he quickly drank the energy drink and