Sometime just before dawn, the lion died from blood loss.Joe crawled out of the crevice, but as he pulled himself into the larger part of the cave a r...ound gray rock rolled out of the crevice and broke in half on the cavern floor. Inside the rock was hollow, but the inside wall was lined with sparkling crystals. In the light of the fire it looked like the hollow rock contained its own fire as the firelight reflected off of some crystals and refracted as it passed through other crystals.Joe built. The first I knew of Linda arriving home was the sound of the front door opening and my wife calling out my name.“Mike? Ah, there you are.” Linda said as she eased her way inside. She kicked off her shoes and flopped down on the couch next to me. “Am I glad to be home.”“Got a lot of work done, dear?” I asked her innocently. Linda wasn’t to know that I had induced her to go to the office on a Sunday so that I could have some private time alone with Kara.“Yeah, it was pretty productive really.”. That’s actually a pretty big screw up on their part.”“Why would they do it?”“I’m guessing because BLS filed a motion to consolidate the cases. Remember, we had talked about doing that, but after I talked with Nelson, Reed, and Pulver, we decided against it because it would make things more difficult for Nelson. Well, the motion hasn’t been argued yet. I’m guessing that the insurance company lawyers saw the motion and assumed, wrongly, that we weren’t going to oppose it because we hadn’t filed a. ”“You can do that?” Linda asks him.He smiles. “It helps to have contacts with the right people. To be in a position to pull some strings. And I think I’m going to have a vested interest in pulling those strings.”Linda had turned her head to look at me, but now she gives her full attention back to Irving. “What?” she says.“This talent for knowing when people are lying is, well, remarkable,” he tells her. “And potentially an asset of considerable value to a law firm that specializes in criminal.