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"And there she is! Hey, you've got that CI you've been trying to get a hold of leaving you multiple messages. It's like you two are playing phone tag or something." Lillianne, the young secretary for the squad, trailed Clare as she walked into the office, coffee in hand and a smile that quickly disappeared. 

"Thanks, Lilly, I'll make sure to call him back."

Clare made her way over to her desk, plopping down on the chair as a stack of unfinished reports and a beachy screensaver greeted her. She was behind on her work, no doubt, but it seemed that as of late, crime was increasing at a higher rate than most within their precinct. Her sergeant, Chris Reynolds, knew this, and he did his best to relieve the workload for his crew. But there was only so much he could do, specially with a squad that was constantly short-staffed.

Her shift had just started, but to Clare, it might as well have been noon. She pulled herself forward on the chair and leaned to one side to put her stuff away in a drawer, the coffee still in hand as she took one last sip before placing it on her desk, the red lipstick stain on the cup marking it as her own. Clare then typed up the password and logged in. She had left her Outlook open and she noticed she had a lot more e-mails than before. Messages from a few of her co-workers as well as those mass e-mails meant for the entire department. Even though it took a bit of commitment, Clare liked to declutter her inbox on the regular. She could leave the important messages behind so she knew what she had to do next, sort of like a to-do list. As she started the process of deleting e-mails, her phone rang.
[center][h1]***[/h1][/center]"If these people were trying to make it look like a suicide, then they certainly failed," Detective Lucy Harrison knelt down next to the body, one gloved hand pulling back the victim's sleeve to check out the expensive watch on his wrist. "He's hot for being older, too bad he's dead or I would have invited him over to play with my handcuffs." Clare and Lucy where well out of earshot, the boys in blue mostly keeping to the taped perimeter as the two women did their job inside the abandoned warehouse.

"You're desperate," Clare laughed, kneeling down opposite her partner and closest friend. She bit her lip for a second before deciding to tell Lucy the news. "So, I may need you to take this one alone tonight...I'm going out with Ethan this evening. I know, you don't have to say it, but hear me out. We talked this morning at the Starbucks and it went really well. Besides, it's just one date; it's not like we're running off like two crazed lovers."

"But there's something about him..."

"No, you're wrong. Besides, [I]I'm[/I] the one that's going out with him. Just because you never liked him doesn't mean I have to deprive myself of that beautiful man meat of his."

Lucy suppressed her laughter, shaking her head. "Now who's the desperate one?. Let's get to work then, if I'm doing this shit alone tonight you're going to bust your ass until the last minute."

"You're the boss," Clare replied, reaching for a pair of gloves in her back pocket.