Felt like more than i could handle on my first day so instead i decided to take a walkabout reacquainting myself with the offices before my colleagues arrived our bureau occupied the entire upper floor of what was once a large house on robertson boulevard a little way up from pico my workspace was the master bedroom at the very back walking up the hall from there i first passed tinsford natalie’s office tinsford was generally known as whisper and his room embodied the understated tone of that name this office was small and windowless furnished with a battered oak desk barely larger than a writing table you’d expect to find in a junior high classroom there were two straight back wooden chairs one for tinsford and another to accommodate any visitor or client who found their way to him he rarely spoke to more than one person at a time because he said too many minds muddied the water the tabletop was bare which was unusual as far back as i could remember whisper would have a single sheet of paper centered on his desk it was always a different leaf with writing that seemed to say something pedestrian but most often held deeper meanings there were no pictures on the walls no file cabinet or carpet his office was like a monk’s cell where some ageless cleric considered the scriptures one verse sometimes just one word at a time a little ways up and across the hall saul lynx’s office was three times the size of whispers and a quarter that of mine his desk was mahogany and kidney-shaped saul had a blue loveseat and a padded leaf green chair for clients a burgundy swivel chair sat behind the burnished desk which was crowded with knick-knacks and photographs of his negro wife and their multi-racial children there were at least 200 books on the shelves next to the window he had five maple filing cabinets a huge standing globe of the world and a small work table with an overhead lamp where he mapped out his investigative campaigns saul’s office was cluttered but neat his tabletop and desk were most often disheveled because saul was usually in a hurry to get out in the street where detectives like us went up against the jobs we took on but that monday morning everything was in its proper place almost as if he’d left for a vacation i wandered from the back offices up to the repurposed foyer where niska redmond’s desk sat niska was our secretary receptionist and office manager a few years earlier tinsford got her father out of a jam and she went to work for him when i had my windfall and decided to start the wren’s l detective agency she came along with her boss the caramel cream biracial young woman was perfect for our needs she was a night school junior at cal state friendly and completely reliable she knew all our quirks and needs temperaments and habits niska was that rare worker who did the job without direction and was more than capable of thinking on her own i sat down at her sleek cherrywood desk facing the front door to our offices taking in a deep breath i noted how it felt good being alone and unhurried everything was fine so i’m not quite sure why the darkness entered my mind four years before i’d been drunk for the first time in many years driving barefoot down the pacific coast highway at night far above the rocky undergrowth along the shore i tried to pass a tractor trailer met oncoming traffic and was forced off the pavement onto the soft shoulder which then gave way to nothingness some hours later mouse under the direction of the witch mama joe found me the coma lasted for weeks but i was still aware under that pall feeling as if i had crossed far beyond the border of expiry the moments of a wasted life littered the floor around my…

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