"I guess he's seen the article, too," Jeffers muttered.

If there was any doubt, it was quickly dissipated when they walked into

Martinez's office.

The front page of today's paper was spread across the captain's desk.

He closed the door before he turned to the men.

His face was like a dark thundercloud just before it unleashed the

rain.

Martinez pointed to the newspaper.

"How did this get out?"

In reply, both men shrugged almost in unison.

Jeffers's expression was one of total innocence.

"They didn't get it from me."

Graham leaned a shoulder against the wall next to the door.

Martinez knew better than to think he had anything to do with it.

There was no love lost between him,aud the news media.

He thought of them as little better than vultures, circling carrion.

"Could have been anyone in the neighborhood after we circulated the

flyers."

It was the most plausible explanation, but Martinez was far from happy about it.

"The lamebrain who wrote this Out her name in the article."

He looked from one man to the other.

"You know what that means."

Jeffers nodded.

"She's going to need protection."

The captain's expression grew grimmer.

"Yes, and we're shorthanded as it is."

The city was in the midst of contract renegotiations with the police force.

Talks had been suspended twice already and some of his men were calling in with what the press whimsically referred to as "the blue flu."

It left him understaffed and overstressed.

Graham nodded, thinking of his own caseload.

"Tell me something I don't know."

Martinez'S eyes shifted to Graham.

"All right, I'm assigning you to protect her." if he winced in response, he was sure no one noticed.

Graham looked toward his partner.

"What about Jeffers?"

Both men were good, but Martinez believed that Redhawk had the edge.

He'd had from the very first.

Maybe he'd seen one too many Westerns as a kid, but there was something

of the hunter about Redhawk that made Martinez feel m' ore confident

giving him the assignment.

"Jeffers'll touch base with you and relieve you periodically. I've got other priorities for him."

He paused, vainly attempting to read the detective's expression.

He thought he caught an undercurrent of some kind.

"Something about this case you don't like?"

The slight movement of Graham's head was almost imperceptible.

"No."

Martinez nodded once.

"All right, then, it's settled. As of now, you're to consider yourself

Cassidy's guardian angel.

Jeffers glanced at Graham and laughed.

"It's damn hard picturing this ape with wings."

Graham turned only his eyes.

"How would you like to be fitted for a harp?"

Jeffers got the message.

He raised his hands chest level in mock surrender, then looked at his

superior.

"You know, if it's a small-time hood, the guy might have already left town."

Martinez had already considered that.

"Yeah, or he might be looking to eliminate the only witness that he

thinks can finger him. We can't take that chance. Vice just connected

the dead man to a major drug cartel that's trying to establish itself

here."

Jeffers looked more surprised than Graham.

The dead man had been one of the city's vermin, a small-timer running afoul of the law since he'd been a minor.

"That weasel?"

Martinez shrugged indifferently.

he pawns are always expendable."

He turned toward Graham, his mind already on the next case.

He had an even score on his desk to choose from, all of which should have been solved "yesterday."

"If nothing happens in about two weeks, one way or the other, we'll back off."

His eyes held Graham's pointedly.

Damn, he wished he knew what was going on behind those dark eyes.

"I'd rather be overcautious than lose another citizen."

Graham knew what he was referring to.

The Saunders case.

It had been entirely different from this one.

The witness to a domestic-violence incident that had claimed the lives of two family members had been killed by the prime suspect's brother after the witness had picked out the former from a lineup.

The police hadn't thought to give the witness protection, since the

suspect was behind bars.