Chapter 1 The basement office was starting to get to him. He looked around and wondered if this was his life now as he could smell the dankness with the musty scent that was in the hallways as well. He was one of the best the newspapers had called him. They had said he was the one to get the case closed. That was how his supervisors had put out the call to every station in the country. He was an asset to be used. He felt like a used tissue or one of the handkerchiefs that the older generation used over and over.He felt like he was used. There was no getting around that fact. He was burning out quickly between the two things he was currently doing. Things were getting rough. Things were getting lonely as well. He knew what he wanted out of life, but a detective who could hunt any clue and find the most hidden facts couldn't figure out how to get a girlfriend. He knew he had problems. He just didn’t know how to work aro

  Gigi flew out of her seat and after him. She was through the doors and almost to his car before he was. She leveled a stare at him that made him want to laugh. "Where the hell do you think you are going?" she demanded as she nearly wobbled from the high heels, she was wearing and stomping her foot so hard. Max had to believe no one had ever turned her down for a night of fun. He could see why but that wasn't what he wanted. He didn't want the shiny showpiece that everyone around him might have wanted. He knew her type. The bunnies, as they had been nicknamed, only wanted to be with a cop or someone in law enforcement. He wanted someone who wanted to be with him. It didn't seem like that would be all that hard to find, but someone it was."I told you that I don't think this is working out. I was rather nice in the restaurant, and I think pretty clear. I don't like wasting time, though." Max said."How do you know what I can do for you?" she a

     When he looked at the file he had picked up, he didn’t recognize the name on it. He then opened it and saw the first report. A name he knew from the past was there. He shook his head and tried to clear it. He must be projecting this somehow. He had thought of her earlier in the night. That had been a first in a long time. Though he ignored the thoughts most of the time. He could find something to distract himself easily. This was the one person he never wanted to think of again. This was the one person he hated on the planet. This was the woman who had taken his life away from him.This woman was dead.The pictures were her. She hadn’t changed that much. It was easy to see her again still in his mind. He looked at the name again. She must have gotten married because the name was different on this one file. His department

     Tossing and turning all night when he woke up, he didn’t want to get out of his bed. However, he knew that he had a class in an hour. He rolled out of bed and looked down to the ground, and picked up the towel on the floor. He then moved to the bathroom to begin his morning shaving. Though he normally would get a cup of coffee first, he was already going to be dragging throughout the day. It was pointless to start off with the coffee, he thought.After he cut himself three times, he gave up. Luckily it didn’t look all that bad. He then removed a shirt from the hanger and grabbed a tee shirt and a pair of boxers. As he started to dress, he took the pair of pants that were in the front of the house, which he had not worn the day before. He then looked at his shirt and saw that he had buttoned everything wrong. He shook his head an

    When the building was cleared for everyone to get their things, a campus-wide alert was sent out as to why people would be late to their classes. Max went into the building and took the stairs up to the hall and then back down to the basement. He overheard the Dean of the department talking about how some of the classes would be changing over the next year.The admin would be reaching out to all the students affected. Max knew what that meant. People would be out three years of work or so. He felt bad for the students. He was wondering what things were going to be cut. He figured it would be something like his classes. The admin had vetoed all the things that he had wanted to do. Though he tried over and over to get his new ideas passed through, nothing seemed to work. He wasn’t good at politics.As Max went to his office and opened it and saw there was no d