I MADE THE ONE-HOUR DRIVE back to the Hall of Justice in forty-five minutes, took the stairs from the lobby to the third floor, and strode into the squad¹ room looking for Jacobi.

  The forty-by-forty-foot open space was lit with flickering² overhead fluorescent³ tubing, making the night crew hunched⁴ over their desks look like they’d just crawled out of their graves. A few old guys lifted their eyes, said, “Howsit goin’, Sarge?” as I made my way to Jacobi’s glassed-in corner office, with its view of the on-ramp to the 280 freeway.

  My partner, Richard Conklin, was already there; thirty years old, six feet two inches of all-American hunk, one of his long legs resting on the edge of Jacobi’s junkyard of a desk.

  I pulled out the other chair, bashed my knee, swore loudly and emphatically as Jacobi sniggered, “Nice talk, Boxer⁵.” I sat down, thinking how this had been a functional⁶ workspace when Jacobi’s office had been mine. I took off my baseball cap and shook out my hair, hoping to hell that the guys wouldn’t smell tequila on my breath.

  “What kind of lead?” I asked without preamble⁷.

  “It’s a tip kind of lead,” Jacobi said. “Anonymous caller using a prepaid cell phone - untraceable, naturally. Caller said he’d seen the Campion kid entering a house on Russian Hill the night he disappeared. The house is home to a prostitute.”

  As Jacobi made room on his desk for the prostitute’s rap sheet, I thought about Michael Campion’s life at the time he’d disappeared.

  There’d been no dates for Michael, no parties, no sports. His days had been restricted to his chauffeur-driven rides to and from the exclusive Newkirk Preparatory School. So it didn’t sound exactly crazy that he’d visited a prostitute. He’d probably paid off his driver and escaped the plush-lined prison of his parents’ love for an hour or two.

点击收听单词发音  

1 squad
n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组
参考例句：
The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。 A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

2 flickering
adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的
参考例句：
The crisp autumn wind is flickering away. 清爽的秋风正在吹拂。 The lights keep flickering. 灯光忽明忽暗。

3 fluorescent
adj.荧光的，发出荧光的
参考例句：
They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。 This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

4 hunched
（常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的
参考例句：
He sat with his shoulders hunched up. 他耸起双肩坐着。 Stephen hunched down to light a cigarette. 斯蒂芬弓着身子点燃一支烟。

5 boxer
n.制箱者，拳击手
参考例句：
The boxer gave his opponent a punch on the nose.这个拳击手朝他对手的鼻子上猛击一拳。 He moved lightly on his toes like a boxer.他像拳击手一样踮着脚轻盈移动。

6 functional
adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的
参考例句：
The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。 The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

7 preamble
n.前言；序文
参考例句：
He spoke without preamble.他没有开场白地讲起来。 The controversy has arisen over the text of the preamble to the unification treaty.针对统一条约的序文出现了争论。

8 afterward
adv.后来；以后
参考例句：
Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。 Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

9 credible
adj.可信任的，可靠的
参考例句：
The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。 Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

10 dime
n.（指美国、加拿大的钱币）一角
参考例句：
A dime is a tenth of a dollar.一角银币是十分之一美元。 The liberty torch is on the back of the dime.自由火炬在一角硬币的反面。