A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1)(120)

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” Clearly.

“Not boyfriend. Boyfriends.”

She stopped and lowered her sunglasses so she could give him just enough of a glare to spur him to finish his story.

“Agent Fields got called back to the Albuquerque office. And the marshals’ work here was done.”

“Done?”

“The fugitive was apprehended last night in Santa Fe after robbing a convenience store and falling asleep in the getaway car. While it was still in the parking lot!” He snorted, then pointed to his eye but gesturing to hers. “That’s pretty.”

Somehow, she’d managed to get a black eye. She didn’t even remember how, and then Zee suggested it was from the concussion of the shot. Sun didn’t think it worked that way, but who was she to argue?

Zee was on mandatory leave pending an investigation into the shooting, but she’d shown up to file her report. Quincy gestured a greeting, his smile a tad awestruck.

Sun understood. Any woman who could take out a target at night, in a highly stressful situation, at fifty yards, and avoid killing her boss deserved a fair amount of respect.

“Get me that file, will you?”

He put his booted feet on his desk and crossed them at the ankles. “Well, now, that’s not really my job, is it?”

She ignored him and walked to her office.

He put his feet down and jumped up. “Okay! I’m on it, boss!” After a moment, he added, “Which file would that be?”

“The one on the fugitive, Ramses Rojas.”

Anita walked to her office door, her curly blond hair pulled into a messy bun that made her look younger than her thirty-plus years. “There’s a Mrs. Sorenson here to see you.”

Sun groaned. “This again?”

“She has a chicken.”

“Oh.” Sun hopped up to look into the lobby. “She does indeed.”

Quincy handed her the file she’d asked for. “Why does she get to call it a chicken?”

“Did you know that Anita is a fifth-degree black belt in a secret form of martial arts that’s so deadly it’s banned in every country in the world and she can kill you with cheese spread?”

He studied the tiny lady for a solid minute, then walked away.

Anita giggled. “Should I let her back?”

“Yeah, put her in the interview room.”

“Oh, and there’s a Mr. Madrid, too.”

“Wonderful. Put him in the other interview room.”

“We only have the one.”

“Okay, the supply closet, then.”

“You got it.”

But much to Sun’s surprise, they insisted on seeing her together.

Mrs. Sorenson, a sixtysomething with neon-red hair, held on to Puff Daddy like she’d been reunited with the love of her life. Which she very well could have been.

“He was just lost,” she said, laughing nervously.

Mr. Madrid chimed in. “Yeah, and Ida . . .” He glanced past the giant rooster in her arms. “May I call you Ida?”

She almost blushed. “Of course.”

Sun fought the muscles in her eyes, whose knee-jerk reaction was to roll like a heroin addict mid-high.

“Ida thought I took him, but I would never.”

Honestly, she could hardly look at the man. He was covered in more cuts and bruises than an MMA fighter. It took everything in her not to crack up.

Quincy was not suffering from the same malady. Even though he was in the observation room, she could hear him laughing through the two-way.

She turned around to glare at him, then turned back to what could be a potential problem for a long time to come. They lived across the street from one another and were always arguing. That was not a problem. It was when they filed formal complaints and pressed charges and then suddenly dropped the whole thing a few days, or weeks, later.

And it was getting ridiculous.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Sorenson, but once the complaint is filed, it has to be taken to court.”

They both gaped at her.

“It’s never worked that way before,” she said.

“I know. It’s a new law. If a complaint is filed, the suspect must be arrested, and it must go to trial. You’ll, of course, be called in to testify, and you can tell them it was all a mistake when you do. But by then, wow, I can’t imagine the legal bills you’re going to rack up, Mr. Madrid. I wish there was some way—”

“Well, there has to be,” Ida said. “I don’t want Ike—may I call you Ike?”

He nodded and ducked with a grin.

Seriously? They’d been squabbling all these years and they were just now getting to know each other on a first-name basis?

“I don’t want Ike to have to go through that.”

Sun took out her handcuffs and stood. “Can you please stand and put your hands behind your back, Mr. Madrid?”

“What?” Ida jumped to her feet, upsetting Puff Daddy. His massive wings flapped several times, and feathers of all shapes and sizes went airborne.

That was when Sun could hear both Quincy’s and Zee’s laughter through the two-way. And that was when she gave in to her eye muscles and let them roll.

“I’ll refuse to testify against him!” Ida said.

“Well, there’s only one way you can do that, but—”