“Yeah, sure you were,” she said, eyes narrowed. “I heard about an undercover operation, but I didn’t see anything coming out of your efforts. I got all the evidence for you, Detective Raven. Oh yeah, you guys did a great job—once I cracked it.”

Well, okay, she had done a lot and she had given them a day’s warning, he’d hand her that. And she had uncovered more evidence than they had, dammit. He decided to give the devil her due. “Well, maybe you did okay. It was federal racketeering for the bastards. The Attorney General brought them all down. There were big names among their clients, lots of money.”

“It was the children that got to me. They were stolen from all over the world. They weren’t physically hurt, actually, they were just prisoners with anything they wanted—so long as they did exactly what they were told.”

“They were all returned to their families.”

“Yes, but their lives will be messed up in the short term at the very least. Poor kids.”

“All right, so why didn’t you pull a Pulitzer?”

“Olsen Tynes at The New York Times broke that big political scandal about Governor Welles in Louisiana. Since the Times is Northern liberal, and the governor was Southern conservative, they poured everything into nailing him.”

“So you’re telling me you’re philosophical about that?”

“What do you want me to do? Go blow up The New York Times?”

“The least you could have done was not date that moron New York Times reporter you caught in bed with another woman. Me, I’d have gotten right in this Tynes guy’s face, made sure he knew who should have carried off the prize.”

She grinned at him. “Thank you, Detective Raven. I feel all sorts of warm and breathy getting advice from such an alpha male.”

“Breathy?”

“Do you know, I’m beginning to think you’re becoming resigned to me hanging around you.”

“Not in this lifetime. Well, you’re not as bad as I thought you’d be. Look, now we’re heading into the hills of Virginia, horse country, that’s where Justice Xavier-Foxx lives. I can’t imagine how she can help us, but who knows?”

“Did you know Justice Holmes said the nine Justices were like nine scorpions trapped in a bottle?”

He grinned at her, shrugged. “Well, all the Justices are in the same small area for hours on end. Maybe she heard something, saw something. I will live in hope until the contrary is shoved in my face. Did Holmes really say that?”

She nodded. “Okay, let me fill you in. As you know, she’ll go down in the history books as the first black woman appointed to the Supreme Court. She was at the top of her class at Stanford, law review, all extremely accomplished for a black woman back in the sixties—pretty remarkable. She wanted to clerk for Justice Raines, a noted conservative on the Court. She was recommended by two top Federal Appeals Court judges, none of which mattered since only men were taken by both parties, and still are, for the most part. You’ll appreciate this—she has three women law clerks out of ten in the total count of thirty-six.

“She’s much like my stepfather, usually votes conservative—pro death penalty and against attempts to increase prisoners’ rights. Like him she can go the other way as well—she’s very much a proponent of women’s rights, rabidly against sexual discrimination, and pro abortion, except partial birth abortion, which she is very much against.

“Her husband trains horses, races them, has quite a stud program. She uses a hyphenated name—Elizabeth Xavier-Foxx. It’s interesting, isn’t it, how the two women Justices have kept their maiden names? I guess it gives them more heft, like they really were somebody before they got married.

“Even though she’s black and a woman, there were attempts to derail her confirmation, the excuse being that there was lots of money on her husband’s side, with perhaps the taint of corruption.”

“What was the accusation? That she’d be influenced unduly whenever there was a case about federal horse racketeering?”

Callie laughed. “Nah, it was just politics as usual.”

“What do you know about her confirmation?”

“Well, after some huffs and puffs because she wasn’t staunchly pro abortion all the way, and she was—gasp—pro death penalty, the Senate confirmed her. They knew it was an historic moment. No one was willing to try to shoot her down. She’s expecting us?”

“Oh yeah. Do you like her?”

“Yes, I do. She’s got lots of class; her husband stands behind her like this huge silent power, as if daring anyone to come after her. I personally don’t believe he’s guilty of anything other than not being a Democrat.”