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mine and typed my order into the little device she carried. The cooks would have my food ready shortly and I’d be able to wolf it down before I went and spoke to Paxton Himura.
    After the order was in the computer system, she looked up and smiled at me. I liked the way the corners of her eyes tilted up when she smiled. It softened her angular features. She was a cute kid, a little on the thin side, though. Her mixed background lent an exotic look that allowed her to work in the Pharaoh without any of the tourists suspecting that she wasn’t of Middle Eastern decent.
    I’d met Teagan’s parents in a chance encounter at a computer software store the year before. Her mother was an African American distance runner from Kenya and her father was a Caucasian ultramarathoner from New Orleans who went to Africa seeking additional coaching for the Olympics. They’d met and fallen in love, producing young Miss Thibodaux a few years later.
    “So,” she interrupted my thoughts, “can I hear about your latest case?”
    “You know I can’t discuss it with you, Teagan.”
    “But it’s me , Zach. I won’t tell a soul, promise.”
    “Ah shit, kid. Yeah, okay. There was a murder at one of the sex clubs last night.”
    She wiggled her butt back on the bench so she could lean down closer to the table. “I heard that one of the city councilmen got caught up in some bad stuff down there last night,” Teagan whispered conspiratorially. “Was he killed?”
    Teagan lived in Little Wood, which gave her plenty of opportunity to pick up gossip from the community. Gossip from the streets tended to be good intel that a cop typically couldn’t get. It wasn’t the nicest of neighborhoods, but it’s what she could afford while going to school full time and working at the Pharaoh.
    I’d already figured out why that idiot who got laser burns at the Diva looked familiar. He was a first-term city councilman named Jefferson, and apparently his wife didn’t know he liked to get a little droid strange on the side. Wonder what bullshit story he told her about being out all night.
    “No, the councilman wasn’t killed,” I replied. “It was somebody else.”
    “Anybody special?”
    “Nah, just some store owner from Leonidas. Wrong place, wrong time.”
    She leaned back, obviously disappointed that the gossip wasn’t juicy. “That sucks.”
    I smirked. “Sucks that it wasn’t somebody special or that a man got murdered for no particular reason?”
    “Both. Could you imagine the media circus that would create if somebody like that got killed?”
    “Yeah, but I can also imagine the shitstorm that would brew up down at city hall,” I countered. “I don’t want to get anywhere near something like that.”
    “ Hmpf ,” she pouted. “You’re no fun, Zach.”
    We had a good relationship. Two or three years ago, if she’d said how entertaining a high-profile murder would have been, I might have gotten pissed off about the misplaced values of the city’s youth. Now, I took it in stride. Regardless of how much she’d grown since I first met her, Teagan was a college kid; of course, the national media rolling into town in force would be exciting for her.
    I glanced around the Pharaoh; the place was almost empty except for me. “How’s school?” I inquired, changing the subject.
    “It’s going okay, you know. I get to begin shadowing teachers this semester and then I’ll graduate a few months after that.”
    I tapped the table idly. “You gonna stay in New Orleans or are you going somewhere with a future?”
    “I’m working on my future.” She stared at a spot over my shoulder.
    I turned around; there wasn’t anyone there. “What is it?” I asked, rotating back around.
    She shook her head. “I’m gonna stay here if I can get a job in the district.”
    “Really? I would have thought you’d want to get away from the city; away from all of the troubles here.”
    She sighed. “I have my reasons. I like the city; my parents