Chapter 12

On my second day in San Francisco, I worked out of a small cubicle¹ near Jamilla Hughes’ desk at the Hall of Justice. I attended a couple of her briefings on the Golden Gate Park murders, which were thorough and highly professional. She was impressive.  Everything about the murder case was weird² and wrongheaded, though. No one had a fix on it yet; no one had a good idea, at least none that I’d heard so far. The only thing we knew for sure was that people were being murdered in particularly horrible ways. It happens more and more frequently these days.
Around noon, I got a call on my cell phone. ‘Just checking in,’ the Mastermind said. ‘How is San Francisco, Alex? Lovely city. Will you leave your heart there? Do you think it’s a good place to die?  ‘Or how about Inspector³ Hughes? Do you like her? She’s very pretty, isn’t she? Just your type. Are you going to fuck Jamilla? Better hurry then. Tempus fugit.’ He hung up.
I went back to work. Lost myself for a couple of hours. Began to make some minor⁴ progress.
Around four o’clock, I was staring out at the start of rush hour San Francisco-style - pretty mild, actually - while I talked to Kyle Craig.  He was still at Quantico, but he was definitely heavily involved in the case.
Kyle was in a position to choose the cases he became personally connected with, and he told me this was going to be one of them.  We’d be working together again. I looked forward to it.
I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Jamilla approaching. She had her leather jacket half-on and was struggling into the second sleeve. Going somewhere?’Hold on, Kyle/I said into the receiver.
‘We have to go/ she said, ‘to San Luis Obispo. The/re going to exhume⁵ a body. I think it’s related.’
I told Kyle that I had to leave right away. He wished me happy hunting. Jamilla and I took the elevator down to the parking garage beneath the Hall of Justice. The more I saw of her work, the more I was impressed; not just by her savvy⁶, but by her enthusiasm for the job. A lot of detectives lose that after a couple of years. She obviously hadn’t. Are you going to fuck Jamilla? Better hurry then.  ‘Are you always this pumped up?’ I asked her once we were inside her blue Saab and heading out toward Highway 101.  ‘Yeah. Pretty much,’ she said. ‘I like the work. It’s tough, but interesting, honest most of the time. I could do without the violence.’ ‘This case in particular. The hangings give me the creeps.’ She looked over at me. ‘Speaking of life-threatening situations, you’d better buckle⁷ up. We’ve got a hike ahead of us, and I used to drive funny cars as a hobby. Don’t be fooled by the Saab.’ She wasn’t kidding. According to the road signs, it was about 235 miles to San Luis Obispo. Heavy rain peppered the car most of the way. She still got us there by eight-thirty.
‘In one piece, too.’ She nodded and winked⁸ as we whisked off the highway at the San Luis Obispo exit.
It looked like an idyllic⁹ spot, but we were there to exhume the corpse¹⁰ of a young girl. She had been hung and her blood had been drained.

1 cubicle   

n.大房间中隔出的小室

参考例句：

• She studies in a cubicle in the school library.她在学校图书馆的小自习室里学习。
• A technical sergeant hunches in a cubicle.一位技术军士在一间小屋里弯腰坐着。

2 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

3 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

4 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

5 exhume   

v.掘出，挖掘

参考例句：

• His remains have been exhumed from a cemetery in Queens,New York City.他的遗体被从纽约市皇后区的墓地里挖了出来。
• When the police exhume the corpse,they discover trace of poison in it.警方掘出尸体，发现有中毒的痕迹。

6 savvy   

v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的

参考例句：

• She was a pretty savvy woman.她是个见过世面的漂亮女人。
• Where's your savvy?你的常识到哪里去了？

7 buckle   

n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲

参考例句：

• The two ends buckle at the back.带子两端在背后扣起来。
• She found it hard to buckle down.她很难专心做一件事情。

8 winked   

v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮

参考例句：

• He winked at her and she knew he was thinking the same thing that she was. 他冲她眨了眨眼，她便知道他的想法和她一样。
• He winked his eyes at her and left the classroom. 他向她眨巴一下眼睛走出了教室。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 idyllic   

adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的

参考例句：

• These scenes had an idyllic air.这种情景多少有点田园气氛。
• Many people living in big cities yearn for an idyllic country life.现在的很多都市人向往那种田园化的生活。

10 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。