Читать книгу Married Or Not? - Brenda Jackson - Страница 13

Seven

“Hey, Hogan, you’ve got a visitor.”

Greg looked up from the file he was working on and saw Sherri Masterson standing just inside the bull pen area of the station, looking a little lost. He stood, once again irritated by his body’s instant reaction to her.

Today she wore some kind of flowery dress. Greg forced himself to concentrate on why she was here while he strode over to where she waited.

Greg stuck out his hand, “Mornin’, Ms. Masterson. Thank you for coming in. I know last night was very traumatic for you. Did you sleep well?”

His innocent question caused her to turn a fascinating red and she looked away from him. Now what was that about? Had she spent the night with her boyfriend? He didn’t know why, but that thought bothered him.

“Mmm, yes, I slept all right…and please call me Sherri.”

“Sure. And I’m Greg.” He took her elbow and felt her stiffen. He immediately stepped away. “I’ve set up one of the rooms for us so we can have some privacy.”

And she blushed again. What was her problem? He tried not to come across as intimidating, but she was definitely nervous around him.

He cleared his throat. “Would you like some coffee?”

She smiled. “Is it as bad as I’ve heard police station coffee generally is?”

He grinned. “Naw. We just want people to think that. Otherwise, we’d take most of Starbucks’ business away.”

She chuckled and he relaxed a little. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as bad as he’d feared. His biggest concern was that she might be picking up his strong attraction to her. He was a professional and he didn’t want anything to get in the way of obtaining this woman’s help in solving a murder.

“Yes, thank you. I’ll take some coffee.”

He opened a door and motioned to the table. “Have a seat and I’ll be right back.”

He closed the door behind him and took a big breath. He was being absolutely ridiculous. Maybe he should get his partner to do the interview. No, that wouldn’t work because he would somehow have to explain why he couldn’t do it.

He poured two mugs of coffee and headed back to the interview room.

“Here you are,” he said, setting one of the mugs in front of her and sitting down across the table. “I’d like you to write out your statement for me. If anything came to mind since we spoke, please let me know.”

She sipped her coffee. “Okay.”

He watched her write. She was a lefty. When she finally looked up, she caught him staring at her. He quickly blinked and smiled.

“Finished?”

“I think so. I can’t think of anything else.”

She handed him the paper and he put it aside. He opened a file and pulled out a photograph. “Have you ever seen this man before?”

Sherri took the picture and studied it. This wasn’t a mug shot. The man was smiling into the camera, his arms around two small children.

She looked up. “You know, I think he may have been in the restaurant last night.”

“Really?”

“I wouldn’t swear to it, but his smile reminds me of a man we passed as the hostess led us to a table. In fact, my friend teased me about it.” She looked back down. “I didn’t pay all that much attention to him, though. He left before we did. Is he important to this case?”

“He’s the victim in this case.”

“Oh, no!” She sounded horrified. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “I spoke with his family this morning and they gave me this photograph.”

“Are these his children?”

“One is. The other one is his nephew. We wanted to see if he’d been in the restaurant that night. His wife said he had a meeting to go to, although he didn’t say where.”

“I’m so sorry for his family.”

“Was he alone when you saw him?”

She thought about his question before finally saying, “He was when we passed him. After that I had my back to him. All I know was that he wasn’t there when we passed that table on the way out.”

“We interviewed several people, including your friend, who were at the restaurant last night. You seem to be the only person who actually saw the two men run from behind the restaurant.”

She shivered.

He moved his hand so that it rested on hers. “They have no idea who you are. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

She looked at his hand. He noted that his hand swallowed hers. She didn’t pull away so he left it there. She looked back at him. “But they saw me very clearly. They saw my car.”

“Unless they have someone in their pocket who can run a DMV check on you, they won’t bother you.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Next, I’d like you to look at some of these mug shots to see if you recognize anyone. We’re still investigating his possible contacts and hoping you see someone here that you recognize.”

He opened the book and she blinked. “That’s a lot of people. And I never saw their faces.”

“There may be something that might trigger a memory…a tilt of a head, the shape of a jaw, that sort of thing. I’ll leave you to look and will be back a little later.”

He checked on her from time to time, but in the end she didn’t recognize anyone.

“I’m so sorry. I know I’m not being much help,” she said.

“Actually, you are. We know these guys weren’t involved.”

“We can hope. I should have been more aware.”

Greg looked at his watch. “It’s almost lunchtime. Would you care to go get something to eat? That is, if you don’t have other plans.”

She stood and stretched, causing her top to ride up and bare her midriff. Greg looked away but he was too late to stop his reaction to the sight. He had a sudden desire to kiss her right there.

“Actually, lunch sounds good. I sort of skipped breakfast this morning.”

“Great.” He opened the door and ushered her out of the room.

He drove them to one of the cafés where he generally ate lunch. It was a little hole-in-the-wall place that served the best hamburgers in town.

Once inside and seated, Sherri looked around the room in wonder. “I never knew this place was here.”

He grinned. “Another top secret among law-enforcement guys. They’re open all the time and there have been times when it was the only place where we could get something to eat.”

“Do they have trouble with people dealing drugs late at night? I’ve heard that the places that stay open all night tend to attract them.”

“No. They’ve made it clear to the people who come in that the place is frequented by off-duty as well as on-duty cops. Seems to work.”

Once they gave their order, Greg leaned on his folded arms and asked, “Tell me a little about yourself.”

She looked at him in surprise, obviously startled by the question. “Didn’t you get all that information from me last night?”

He grinned. “This isn’t about the case, Sherri. I’ve tried my darnedest to hide the fact that I’m attracted to you but I can’t seem to be detached where you’re concerned. This is just for my own information.”

Her cheeks flamed. “Oh.”

He lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “Of course, it may be all one-sided, so if you’d rather not—”

“Uh, no. It isn’t at all one-sided.”

He settled back in the booth with a grin and said, “Good. Let’s hear it.”

“My life is very ordinary. I’ve been in school most of my life, it seems. Right now I’m taking a course in computer software and technical writing.”

“How about family?”

She shook her head. “No family. Parents died when I was fourteen. The aunt who took over caring for me died of cancer last year.”

“You’ve had some tough breaks.”

“Since I can’t do anything about the past, I do my best to look forward to the future.”

Their food arrived and they concentrated on their meal. Once they finished, Sherri looked at him and said, “Your turn.”

He looked at her quizzically for a moment and then nodded. “What do you want to know?”

“How old you are…are you married…what about family? Those things. Oh, and why you decided to go into law enforcement.”

“Are you sure you aren’t writing my biography?”

“Depends on how interesting it might be.”

“Oh. In that case, you’ll be bored right away, so I’m safe.”

He paused. He didn’t like talking about himself. Hated it, in fact. However, if he wanted to spend time with Sherri…which he definitely did…he’d better give her some idea of who he was.

“Let’s see. I’m twenty-seven years old, never been married, got a degree and immediately went into the Police Academy.”

“Did you go to college here in Austin?”

Okay, no hedging. “Actually I, uh, no, I didn’t. I graduated from Harvard.”

Her eyebrows went up. “Really?”

“Yep.”

“Are you originally from the East Coast?”

“I have to admit I’m not a native Texan, but I got here as soon as I could.”

She laughed, which was what he wanted. “Have you traveled much during those twenty-seven years?”

“Some,” he replied.

“What made you come to Texas?”

“Because my great-grandmother lives here.”

“So what made you want to be a detective?”

“You know, there are times when I’ve wondered about that, myself. I guess I like the idea of being on the side of the good guys. I like challenges, solving puzzles, that sort of thing.” He glanced at his watch and said, “Which reminds me that I need to get back to work.”

They slipped out of the booth and he took her hand as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Uh-oh, Hogan, better slow down.

He paid for their lunch and they went outside. “I’ve got to admit, I’d rather run and play.”

She glanced up at him and stole his breath away. He’d never been so strongly attracted to anyone. What was going on with him, anyway?

They drove back to the station in silence. Once there, he walked her to her car. He opened the door and said, “I’d like to see you again, Sherri.”

Her green eyes sparkled. “I’d like that.”

“Okay, how about next Friday? We can grab a bite to eat, maybe catch a movie if you’d like.” And he would do his best not to seduce her. Unless, of course, she wanted him to.

“That sounds like fun.”

He leaned down and gave her a chaste kiss. Anyway, it was supposed to be chaste, but when she responded so beautifully he might have lingered a little longer than he had intended. He straightened and placed his hands behind his back. At least he hadn’t grabbed her.

She got into her car. “Friday, then.”

“Around seven.”

“See you.”

He watched her drive away and already felt the loss of her company. Oh, brother, he had it bad. He’d known her less than twenty-four hours and he didn’t want to let her out of his sight. Ever.