As I walked towards my assignment, I crossed paths with a black cat. Cats are the only living thing that can sense my presence. Most agents don’t like them, as they prefer being anonymous and don’t welcome the attention from these furry felines, but I had no such hang-ups.

“Hey, little fella,” I called softly, and he came up immediately, nuzzling my ankle. I gave him a good scratch behind the ears and kept walking.

The ambulance beat me there. I slid up the banister into apartment 2-B, slipping past a paramedic carrying a defibrillator.

Another paramedic knelt beside a girl who lay unconscious on the kitchen floor. She was lovely, if you liked blondes. He spoke without looking up: “Another f’ing overdose.”

The paramedic with the defibrillator walked over and began working on the girl. “Poor thing,” he sighed. “She’s just a kid.”

I sat on top of a bookshelf waiting for the girl on the floor to untangle herself from this mortal coil. Knowing I had some time to kill, I decided to play a game of solitaire.