He let her hand go, instantly missing the contact. “Can you ask one of them to walk you to yourcar?”
She nodded. “That’s a good idea. I plan to submit my application for the emergency concealed carry permit before I go intoday.”
That’s when Joaquin saw the clock. “Mierda.”
He was due at the paper in the I-Team meeting in ten minutes. “I’ve got to run, but there’s a spare key in the drawer beneath the fruit bowl that you can have. You’ve got my number. Call if you need anything. Sorry to run out onyou.”
“Go. I’ll befine.”
He stepped into a pair of boots, grabbed his camera bag. “See youlater.”
She gave a little wave. “Hasta lavista.”
Thatwascute.
He grinned. “Now you’re speaking mylanguage.”
He drove down alleys, through parking lots, and on the streets, making it to the paper with one minute to spare. He worked off his breakfast with a sprint up three flights of stairs to the newsroom, where he found the I-Team staff already heading toward the conference room. He set his camera bag down on his desk, grabbed a notepad and pen, and fell in withthem.
“Glad you could make it,” Matt said in a low voice. “What happened lastnight?”
Joaquin shook hishead.
“Oookay.” Matt let itgo.
Joaquin took a seat at the conference table next to Anna Hughes, who usually worked in news for the city section. She had wanted a seat on the I-Team for a long time and had dressed for the occasion in a dark blue pantsuit with her dark hair pulled back in a tidy bun. “Hey, Anna. Good to see you here. Did you getdrafted?”
She gave him an unconvincing smile that told him she was nervous. “Tom asked me to fill in for Sophie until Kat gets back from maternityleave.”
“Hey, Anna.” Cate waved to her from across the table, her gaze fixing on Joaquin. “Seen Mialately?”
Joaquin didn’t like the way she’d said that, something in her voice and the way she looked at him putting him onalert.
Tom walked in, pencil behind each ear, stack of newspapers in his hands. He glanced around the table. “Hughes is joining us for a few weeks until James gets back from maternity leave. I think you all know her, so we can skip the meet-and-greet.”
“Thanks for having me here,” Annasaid.
“What do you have for us,Hughes?”
Tom was putting her in the hot seat on her firstday?
Anna sat up a little straighter. “A manager at one of Brighton’s Section Eight housing units invited police to practice K9 property searches and insisted that all the residents allow the police to enter their homes despite the fact that they didn’t have search warrants. I have a half-dozen residents on the record saying their apartments were searched against their will and an admission from the Brighton PD that they didn’t have warrants. They say they thought it was all just an exercise andvoluntary.”
“Right. Voluntary.” Tom clearly approved of this scoop. “Did they find drugs, make anyarrests?”
“No. No illegal drugs, noarrests.”
“What does the city government have to say aboutit?”
“The manager of the units told me that people who have nothing to hide shouldn’t object to their property beingsearched.”
“Whoa.” Alex gaped at Anna. “Okay now. That’sbullshit.”
Syd looked up from her control sheet. “How much room do youneed?”
“I can do it in ten to twelve inches. I would love it if we could get a photo of one of these residents, maybe some shots of how the police left theirapartments.”
Tom looked to Joaquin. “Ramirez?”