Killers of a Certain Age (Killers of a Certain Age, #1)

by Deanna Raybourn

We don’t murder on our days off any more than a thoracic surgeon will cut your rib cage open for kicks. We have standards.

He reaches into the briefcase at his elbow and opens a file. It is dark blue with a small logo of falling stars surrounded by a gold motto: Fiat justitia ruat caelum. Billie has just enough Latin to translate the motto and she smiles to herself. Let justice be done though the heavens fall.

We don’t make killers. We simply find them and point them in the right direction. We know what you are.”

“Scholars do not agree on the etymology of the word ‘sphinx,’ but I prefer the theory that says it is from the Greek ‘sphingo,’ meaning ‘to squeeze.’ Because sphinxes are lionesses and that is how lionesses kill. They asphyxiate their prey, choking the life from them without mercy, not because they are evil or bad but because they are hunters, and that is what hunters do.”

“Subtle,” she said. “Natalie, I am tired, I am covered in mud that is at least seventy percent dead people, and I am hungry. Do not test me.”

“True leadership, Miss Webster, is not about trusting yourself. It is about trusting your team.”