The Whispering Room. Amanda Stevens

I just don’t like snakes.”

      “Who the hell does?”

      “No, I mean…I’ve got a real phobia about them,” she admitted reluctantly.

      A slow grin spread across Mitchell’s face. “Well, I’ll be damned. Detective Theroux has a weakness after all. Who would’ve thunk it?”

      Evangeline’s answering smile was forced. “Okay, so now you know my secret. Snakes are my kryptonite. No need to let that get around, is there?”

      Mitchell kept right on smiling. He was definitely enjoying himself. “Oh, hell no. We wouldn’t want anyone thinking you’re human, now would we?”

      “I’m serious, Mitchell. It’s like you said earlier. It’s different for a man. Different set of rules. But for someone like me…you know I’d never hear the end of it.”

      Plus, it wouldn’t be above some of the guys to plant rubber snakes in her desk. Or even real ones, for that matter. She could just imagine the kick they’d get out of her reaction. Some of the more juvenile cops lived for that kind of crap.

      “Now don’t you worry, Evie girl. I’ve got your back on this one,” Mitchell said, but he was still grinning from ear to ear and she had a bad feeling it was only a matter of time before word got out.

      “So why don’t I trust you?”

      “Beats me.” His amusement faded and his expression turned serious. “Hey, no joke, you don’t look so hot.”

      She swatted a mosquito from her face. “I just need a little air. What do you say we get out of here and go knock on some doors?”

      Three

      As they stepped out on the porch, the humidity almost took Evangeline’s breath away. There wasn’t a lick of breeze, and the palm fronds and banana trees in the side yard stood motionless in the heat.

      Her striped cotton blouse clung to her back as she stood in the warm shade of the porch, and her clammy black pants felt as if they weighed a ton. She thought of the shower she’d have when she got home. Cold at first, then hot enough to scrub away the dark, smelly nightmare inside that house.

      Her gaze lit on an unmarked gray sedan parked across the street. Two men in dark suits and dark glasses leaned against the front fender as they watched the house.

      Evangeline poked Mitchell’s arm, her nod toward the newcomers almost imperceptible.

      He followed her gaze and she felt him tense. “Feds.” His voice dripped scorn, the same oozing tone he might have used to designate a boil or a blister.

      Evangeline swore under her breath. “What are they doing here? This is a homicide investigation.”

      NOPD rarely crossed paths with federal law enforcement because typically the big boys went after a different kind of prey. Plus, even though they tried to deny it, certain agents from a certain bureau had a nasty habit of looking down their noses at the locals, and their altruistic superiority bred a fair amount of antagonism among the rank and file.

      “Not too hard to figure why they’re gracing us with their presence,” Mitchell said. “The victim is Sonny Betts’s attorney. Looks to me like the Fibbies are still trying to nail his rusty hide.”

      Evangeline made a face. “I don’t give a damn what they’re trying to do. Our jurisdiction, our case. They try to muscle their way in, I say we go wompwomp on their smug asses.”

      “Mighty big words for such a little girl,” Mitchell teased.

      But Evangeline barely heard him. Her gaze was still on the men across the street. They were both tall with broad shoulders, polished loafers and closely clipped dark hair. She might have found their similar appearance comical if she hadn’t been so annoyed by their presence.

      One of them suddenly took off his sunglasses and his gaze locked with hers. He said something to the man at his side, but his gaze never left Evangeline and she decided real fast that she would sooner pass out dead from heat stroke than break eye contact. No way would she let that arrogant so-and-so think he’d intimidated her.

      His suit coat was unbuttoned and the whiteness of his shirt was almost blinding in the bright sunlight. Evangeline guessed him at six-one or-two, maybe one hundred seventy pounds. A little taller than Johnny and probably at least ten years older.

      As he continued to stare at her, she was tempted to walk across the street and suggest a little come-to-Jesus meeting with him.

      Instead, she folded her arms and stared back at him.

      If he took her openly hostile demeanor as a challenge, so be it.

      

      Special Agent Declan Nash had recognized her straightaway when she came out of the house.

      Detective Evangeline Theroux looked much the way she did in the candid shot he had in his office. The blond hair and the pretty face—those things he’d expected, along with the wide blue eyes, which, even from across the street, he could tell were intense.

      What he found surprising was her size.

      From his vantage, she looked tiny. So slight, in fact, he wondered if a strong puff of wind might give her a problem. He knew from her file that she was five feet four inches tall and weighed one hundred and twenty pounds, though he thought the latter was an exaggeration because she looked much smaller to him.

      But in spite of her petite frame, there was an air of toughness about her—in the way she carried herself and in the way she interacted with her fellow cops.

      And in the way she challenged him, Nash admitted. She exuded confidence and he admired that about her.

      In fact, as he’d studied her file, he’d come to the conclusion that, under other circumstances, Detective Theroux was someone he would very much like to know.

      Nash respected people who did their jobs well, and Theroux had one of the highest arrest records in the department. Her evaluations were stellar, her commendations glowing. From all accounts, she was a strong asset to the New Orleans Police Department.

      But of her personal life, Nash knew very little, only that she was Johnny Theroux’s widow.

      And that was all he needed to know.

      That was why he was here, after all.

      Beside him his partner, Tom Draiden, made a wisecrack, but Nash ignored him. He didn’t want to lose concentration or break eye contact because he suspected if he looked away first, Detective Theroux would view it as some sort of triumph on her end and a sign of weakness on his.

      Considering her hostile stance, she seemed to labor under the misconception that she was in a position of power, and Nash didn’t think fostering that impression would be advantageous to either of them.

      “That her?” Tom asked.

      “Yeah.”

      “Damn, that is one fine-ass Sarah Jane.”

      “Very professional observation,” Nash said dryly.

      “Well, yeah, but you might have at least warned me about the eye candy.”

      “I guess I didn’t notice.”

      “What the hell? Check her out, man.”

      “Seems to me you’re doing enough checking for the both of us,” Nash said.

      Tom smirked. “No harm in that, is there?”

      “I don’t know. Maybe you should ask Laura.”

      “You’re a real buzz kill, Nash. You know that?”

      “So I’ve been told.”

      “So what’s our strategy?” Tom drawled.

      He’d been born and raised