Oracle Seeing (The Phoenix Files Book 2) by Morgan Kelley Page A

have to get you a serial killer for Christmas, Grandpa. That makes my shopping so much easier. Fruit of the month club it is.”
    He pointed at her, and she winked. It always did his heart good when she called him that. They weren’t blood, but he’d adopt that girl in a heartbeat.
    She was touched in the head, but damn good at her job.
    “People are already afraid, and they don’t need you stirring the shit pot, Bish. You need to play this one low key.”
    “I play everything low key. As a matter of fact…tomorrow, I’ll be in the field doing some investigating, and I’m going to be doing it in jeans and sensible shoes. I can’t go chasing down a killer like this. I’ll break my freaking neck.”
    “The rules…”
    “Blow, Silas. Cut me a break. I’m likely not sleeping tonight, I’m eating your leftovers, and I’m thinking that naked table dancing in Mexico with a bunch of drug cartel guys would be more fun than what’s coming.”
    “Oh, good Lord! Where do you get your imagination?”
    She snorted.
    Bishop grew up in a house full of men.
    That said it all.
    “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s been twenty three seconds since my last dirty thought.”
    The man behind the desk took out a flask and chugged some of the amber liquid inside.
    It made her laugh.
    “Yeah, that’s about right. Day one of a case, and you’re drinking in your office, but me wearing sensible shoes is out in left field?”
    He chugged again.
    “I’m telling Roxy.”
    “Go ahead, and then I’m telling her that the night you told her you had a blind date to get her off your ass, you were eating ice cream in your truck. ALONE .”
    What was wrong with that? Ice cream could be a girl’s best friend, especially when you didn’t have the heart to chase down another man.
    She stared at him. “You wouldn’t.”
    “I would. I saw you. There was no man around—unless you were hanging with Ben and his BFF Jerry.”
    “They don’t give me shit when I show up late,” she said, laughing. “Oh, and they like the threesome. It’s all that licking.”
    He chugged again, and she couldn’t help but laugh. She loved making the old man nuts.
    It was like a game.
    “I’m going to ignore that, and I won’t tell if you don’t,” he offered.
    She shook his hand. “Deal.”
    “I wish your father was here. If he was, he’d get lucky. That man could solve anything.”
    Yeah, except who shot him through his damn window in his own home. No one could figure that one out.
    Including her.
    “Well, it’s not luck, Silas. It’s called skill. Dad had a shitload, and I lucked out and inherited it. Hang in there, cut me a break, and just try not to get all spaz-y when you see the news.”
    “Why? What are you going to do?”
    “I told you. I’m wearing jeans tomorrow and a t-shirt with some guy smoking a joint.”
    With that, she headed out.
    “Bishop! Get your ass back in here! You better be yanking my chain! I’ll ground your ass!”
    She kept going, all the while laughing. She loved stirring up the mayor. It made her day.
    She liked it even more because he was family.
    He’d have her back.
    But she was still going to have fun with it. That’s just how Bishop played the game.
     
    For now, she was heading home, going to pop the top on a beer, and chill with some autopsy reports.
    Yeah, she didn’t need a man.
     
    She had her career.
     
    Or that’s what she told herself until this mess got away from her.
     
     
    Then she’d have neither.
     
     
     
                             * * *   O R A C L E   * * *
     
     
     
     
     
    He watched him.
    It was easy to find him too.
    He lived not far from the judge in the rich part of town. So many of the entitled people, who called themselves representatives of the law, lived there.
    The judge.
    The lawyers.
    The people who thought they had the right to play with people’s lives.
    Well, the time had come to make them pay. The judge had screamed his brains