“So one made up for the other?”
“I guess.” He looked at her and grinned. “Like my new threads?”
“I do,” said Mary. “Did they boot you upstairs? Are you now the police commissioner of Campbell County?”
“Actually, I’m not with Campbell County anymore.”
“You’re kidding. What are you doing now?”
Shyly, he pulled a new badge from his pocket. It had the seal of the state of North Carolina on it and read State Bureau of Investigation.
“You’re SBI now?” asked Mary.
He nodded. “I got a nice call from the Honorable Ann Chandler herself. She thanked me for my service and said that if I ever wanted to take my talents to the statewide level, a position was waiting.”
“Galloway, that’s wonderful.” Mary stretched to kiss his cheek. “Congratulations!’
“Thanks. I cleaned out my desk, and I’m heading east.”
“To Raleigh?”
He shook his head. “Actually, I’ll be in the Charlotte office.” They fell into step together. “So where are you going?”
“Back to Asheville.”
“The governor didn’t fire you?”
“No, she gave me a raise.”
“How come? Ecotron went to Virginia.”
“She still got a hell of a lot of political mileage out of closing down an international sex trafficking operation.”
“So North Carolina gay folks can now just twist in the wind?”
“No, she’s still committed to gay rights. But I think she finally realized that you have to get the statutes changed first. Raleigh leads, everybody else has to follow.”
“Campbell County won’t follow willingly,” said Galloway.
“Yeah, but that’s not my problem,” said Mary.
They walked on. Both had parked on the street, under a huge elm tree. Galloway’s green Mustang was nudged up behind Mary’s black Miata.
“Well,” she said as she threw her briefcase in the passenger seat of the car. “I guess this is it.”
“Only if you want it to be,” said Galloway.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Charlotte is one hundred and twenty-two miles from Asheville. Two hours travel time—unless you’re an SBI officer in that Mustang, in which case it’s about an hour and a half.”
Mary raised an eyebrow. “So—you’re saying you’d like to see me again?”
He took her hand, in a courtly, old-fashioned way. “Yes, Mary Crow. I, Victor Alejandro Galloway, would very much like to see you again. As soon as possible, in fact.”
She looked at him. Though he was not the man she thought she’d wind up with, she couldn’t help but remember what she’d just told Penny Morse. It’s seldom things work out the way you want. Maybe in this case, things might work out for the better.
She smiled. “You doing anything this afternoon?”
He shook his head.
“Then follow me.”
“Are you going on 74?”
“I am.”
“I hear it has some nasty curves.”
“It sure does,” she replied looking at him over her shoulder. “But I bet you’re the kind of guy who can figure out exactly how to drive them.”
About the Author
Sallie Bissell is a native of Nashville, Tennessee, and a graduate of George Peabody College. Bissell introduced her character Mary Crow in her first adult novel, In the Forest of Harm, soon to be re-issued by Midnight Ink. Deadliest of Sins is Bissell’s sixth Mary Crow book. Bissell is a Shamus Award nominee and her work has been translated into six foreign languages. She currently divides her time between Nashville and Asheville, North Carolina, where she enjoys tennis and an occasional horseback ride.
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