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Sienna, Jericho, and Lana hid in Kate’s office while Kate went to the undamaged part of the lab and pretended to extract the DNA evidence from the lump that had once been the shards of glass from Mrs. LePlante’s mirror.
When she heard the scuff of a heel on the floor, she whirled around. “DA Roth, you scared me,” Kate said, hopefully loud enough for Sienna to hear.
“My apologies,” he said softly and pulled out a wicked-looking gun. “Give me the glass shards.”
“Why would you want them, and why pull a gun on me?”
“I think you know, Ms. Quinn.”
“Know what?”
“That I was the one who strangled Marie LePlante.”
“But why?”
“She was going to ruin my bid for governor. She was going to break the news to the press that I was having an affair with her. I couldn’t let her do it. Carrie would have left me, and my reputation would be in tatters. My damn platform was family values for Christ’s sake. Now give me the damn glass shards.”
“It won’t do you any good.”
“Why is that?”
“There is no evidence for me to extract.”
“What? You—”
Sienna burst out of her office and said, “Freeze, Roth.”
Roth whirled around, swearing viciously, but he had no choice but to relinquish the gun. As soon as he did, Jericho hauled back his fist and hit him flush in the face, knocking him to the ground.
“That’s for Kate,” was all he said.
* * *
Kate sat on Jericho’s bed with a bucket of ice. She took Jericho’s hand and put it into the frosty cubes.
“Damn, that’s cold.”
She looked up at him. “Thanks for punching out Roth, but there was no need.”
“Yes, there was,” he growled.
She was silent for a moment. “You’re a good man. You’ll make a good DA, Jericho.”
“This is starting to sound like goodbye.”
“You fulfilled your half of the bargain, and we both agreed that fooling around with your employee while being a DDA was pushing it but fooling around with an employee when you’re the DA would be even worse.”
He sighed. “That’s right, I did, but Kate…”
She put her fingers over his lips. “No. It’s the way it has to be. After this terrible scandal, the DA’s office will have to redeem itself. It would be bad for your reputation.”
“You fulfilled your half of the bargain, too, Kate, so that means you get your souvenir.”
He reached over to the nightstand and picked up the cuff links.
“Jericho, no. They mean too much to you.”
He took her hand, opened her fingers, and placed them on her palm. Then he rolled her hand closed.
