"Okay, I'll be right up," I sighed with a misgiving glance at the PITS boys. If anything happens to her, next time we'll be shooting each other, I thought at them, and headed up to Winters' office. I had a pretty good idea what she wanted to talk about, and why she didn't want to do it on the phone.
    "Close the door?" she glanced up at me as I entered. "I didn't want to talk about this where anyone else could hear. I talked with the newspapers, they're perfectly willing to let the whole thing disappear, but they still want to do background stories. They'll obviously have a different slant, but that still leaves us in a lot of trouble where you're concerned. The state senate are going to need a briefing, I mean I know you managed to keep all this quiet through Ellis, and maybe we can hold it off until they appoint just one person, and you can tell him, but I need to know everything you know. I got a bunch of stuff from Scott, but I need everything you've figured out so far so I can put it in the briefing."
    I frowned at her, more than a little put off by her tone and the phrasing she had used. "Wouldn't it be easier if I wrote the briefing?"
    She shrugged. "I got people breathing down my neck right now, I got to pass it along to someone."
    "People from the senate, or people from the press?" If the latter, we could stall them. The former would be more difficult to deal with.
    "People from the senate."
    "I'll go talk to them," I decided, somewhat impulsively. Better to have the information pass through fewer layers, there would be less of a chance for misunderstanding in what was, after all, a complicated situation. And whatever questions they might have, I could decide then whether answer them or not. I didn't know yet which it would be.
    "All right. I have an appointment with them at eight o'clock tonight. You want to show up instead of me and spill the whole thing? Fine."
    "You can come along if you want."
    "It's a scene I don't really want to be near, more paperwork that I'll have to deal with," she excused herself. "Good news for you, though. Maybe."
    "What's that?"
    "I got something across my desk, I'm out of your hair in a week. Reilly's coming back."
    "Oh." I didn't manage to sound very enthused; she raised an eyebrow.
    "I thought you'd be happy about that."
    "No, that's... that's great." I forced a little smile. I'd gotten used to Winters, respected her and even liked her a little. No sense crying over it now, though, I figured. Maybe over the past few weeks he'd figured out I was right.
    "Are you going to keep gluing yourself to Spanner until we get a statement out of her?" Winters inquired.
    "Yeah, I think that would be a good idea."
    "Why don't you head down, then, I'll send someone to take an official statement from her. Okay?"
    I nodded, headed for the office door.
    "Oh, one other thing."
    "Yeah?" I paused, half-turned and froze.
    "If you were wondering what happened to that other pistol, I took it."
    Oh, shit, I had time to think.
    She shot me.
    I'm such an idiot.

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