Killer Career by Morgan Mandel

her devil-work all night.”
    “What about the Anderson brief? Isn’t it due Monday? We can’t
let Sheila down.”
    Dade had been slaving over the contested case for months. Without
proper representation, Sheila Anderson wouldn’t stand a chance.
    Slipping out of her nightshirt, Julie rushed to the closet. “Listen,
I’ll be right over. Thank God, I’ve got my laptop here. I cleaned
some of the extra files out of it last week, but it’s got the
forms, plus some of my proposed decisions. I’m sure there’s other
odds and ends you can use. We’ll manage.”
    Jensen’s class flew out of her mind, along with Dade’s prior cold
treatment of her, as driving to the Loop, she cursed the bottleneck
on the expressway. She’d rather ride in comfort on the train, but
she had a feeling by the time Nora’s mess was straightened out,
there wouldn’t be any trains running. Dade had worked extra hard on
the Anderson case. She couldn’t let his efforts go to waste.
    She’d like to strangle Nora.
     
    * * *
     
    When Julie reached the office, Dade stood in front of her at the
door, balancing two large plastic bags. She juggled her laptop, a
grocery bag and her purse.
    Without speaking, they headed into his office. The bag rattled, as
with a clatter, Dade unloaded five cardboard boxes onto the desk.
    “New hard drives,” he said. “I got them at CDW as soon as it
opened.”
    He reached into the bottom desk drawer. “At least the bitch missed
the tool kit,” he said. “Also, thank God, I brought the Anderson
file home with me last night or that, too, would be history.”
    Julie rummaged in her bag. “I’ve got my tool kit, too. Also, some
program discs and extra CDs. We’ll get this sorted out yet,
partner.”
    “Damn, I wish I had that laptop. I should have taken it home with
me.”
    “There’s no way you could have predicted this. Do you want to get
started on my computer?”
    “No, that’s only a temporary fix. My brief’s not the only thing
to get ready. The rest of the office has to be in working order or
we’ll have bedlam.”
    “You’re right. An ordinary Monday’s bad enough without this
kind of chaos.”
    The buzzer rang by the front door. Dade sighed. “That’s got to be
the cops. I’ll let them in.”
    Two gray haired officers appeared. One pulled out plastic gloves for
picking up items. It took forty minutes for them to inspect the
damage and write a report.
    “I’ll take this with, if you don’t mind,” the one said. He
pocketed the note in a plastic bag.
    Dade nodded. “Be my guest.”
    “We’ll mosey on over to this little lady’s place and see what
she has to say for herself. Don’t you be talking to her in the
meantime.”
    Dade grimaced. “No problem there. We have enough to occupy our
time.”
    After the officers had left, Julie and Dade retired to his office to
begin their task. He lifted a hard drive out of the top box and held
it up. “Have you ever installed one of these babies?”
    “No, but my fingers are smaller, so I’ll give it a try. You read
the instructions.”
    He spread the paper and read aloud, as Julie, tiny screwdriver in
hand, tackled the installation. The inner workings of the computer
were so compact, she had to be extremely careful not to destroy
anything on the mainframe and make matters worse.
    After an hour of concerted effort, she said, “Okay, one’s done.
Let’s try it.”
    The machine started, but they had more work ahead of them before the
hard drive could perform. Julie handed over her restore disc, which
Dade inserted into the CD drive. Another hour later, the programs
which had originally been loaded on Dade’s computer were installed
and the familiar Windows logo and icons appeared. She shifted her
weight as they waited for the printer drivers to finish installing.
    “Here, stick these in. It’s from my top cases,” Julie said,
pulling out five rewrite disks from her bag.
    After the files were transferred, Dade said, “Well, my work’s