“Good job, bud,” Auggie forced out through a suddenly tight throat, yanking out his phone.
Billy, in command a second ago, looked confused. “What?”
Aug hit go on Hawk, not even fucking believing their dirty-cop sitch might be tied to Clyde Fucking Higgins.
“You know those dirty cops we’ve been looking into?” Aug asked.
“Yeah,” Billy answered.
“I think you just blew that wide open and saved an undercover officer doing it.”
“Aug, you got me,” Hawk said in his ear.
“And Billy and I got something for you,” Auggie replied.
Hawk said nothing.
Auggie did.
“Call everyone in.”
He took a deep breath.
And finished…
“And get word to Lieutenant Fortune her cover is blown.”
* * *
Elvira
The boys weren’t there. They were busy doing a lot of other things.
So it was down to Elvira, when it showed in the mail, to put it in its proper place.
It was different from the others.
But she liked it best.
She set it at Auggie’s workstation.
It looked like a plaque.
But it was more a frame.
And on the front of it, in white letters on a purple background, it said, HAPPINESS IS…
And next to that was a selfie picture, with Auggie’s arm going long to take it, of Aug, Pepper and Juno scrunched all together, grinning at the camera while holding up ice cream cones.
Elvira adjusted it just so and hoped she was around when Aug came in and first saw it.
That boy needed some goodness.
And she was happy as a clam he’d finally found it.
She moved to the front of the workstations, and for obvious reasons, the room was empty.
She looked along the row two down from the top.
Where Zane, Marques and Billy had their stations, all three together.
She smiled to herself, clicked on her heels to her office and got out her phone.
She made her call.
And when it was answered, she said, “Lottie, girl, I been thinking…”