ackie’s white-gloved teenaged perps were incapable of speaking one at a time, and it was making him dizzy.

Bless your heart, he thought grimly. I’ll bless your heart, ­Rodriguez. I’ll bless it real good.

“Girls!” He hadn’t meant to shout, but his head was pounding, and they wouldn’t stop talking, and, damn it, he was an officer of the law!

All four of them shut their mouths and stared at him, owl-eyed.

Quick, he thought. Say something… official.

“Now, what’s this about accomplices? And fifty-thousand-dollar pearls?”

There was a moment of utter silence, and then:

“They’re not worth fifty thousand dollars.”

“You’re not worth fifty thousand dollars!”

“I hardly think you’re in a position to—”

“Enough!” Mackie tried his luck a second time. He could do this. He could take control of the situation.

Unfortunately, that was the exact moment that the lock picker seemed to come to the same conclusion. “Tell me, Officer,” she said shrewdly, “do you even know what we were arrested for?”