Читать книгу Cavanaugh In The Rough - Marie Ferrarella - Страница 12

Chapter 3

It was totally unexpected. Striding across the former department store toward Suzie, Chris was just in time to see it.

To see her smile.

She turned around just as he reached her, and the smile on her lips was nothing short of dazzling. It actually seemed to light up the area.

“Wait right there, boys,” Suzie said as she left the two teens and joined him. “Detective O’Bannon will probably want to talk to you before he lets you leave.”

Reaching the crime scene investigator, Chris turned his back to the teenagers so that they weren’t able to overhear his conversation with her. He couldn’t help noticing that she seemed exceptionally pleased with herself. It piqued his curiosity.

“You’ve made yourself at home with my witnesses,” he noted.

“Crime scene witnesses,” Suzie corrected. “And I think I’ve got everything that you might want.”

He couldn’t contain the grin that curved his lips. “No question about that.”

Suzie’s eyes narrowed, telling him she didn’t find him witty, nor was she flattered. “I was talking about the crime scene.”

“Okay, we’ll go with that for now,” Chris agreed. “And what is it you’ve got that I wasn’t able to get?” he challenged gamely.

Suzie deliberately started small. “I have their names and addresses—”

He waved dismissively. “Already got that,” he told her.

She hated being cut off like this. He could have the decency to hear her out. “I wasn’t finished,” she informed him.

Chris inclined his head as if to tender an apology. “Sorry, go ahead.”

“I have their names and addresses,” she repeated, “so that we can send them their cell phones once our computer technician takes a look at them.”

He thought of the mind-numbing selfies that were probably on both cell phones. “And she’d want to do that because?”

Obviously, she was going to have to spell this all out for him, Suzie thought. The preening homicide detective wasn’t quite as brilliant as he thought himself to be. “Because our teen voyeurs and would-be enterprising thieves might not have gotten into the party while it was going on, but they were tenacious enough to find a window that wasn’t covered, and they took videos of the people attending. It might amount to nothing,” she said, “but then again...”

“It might be something,” Chris agreed, instantly hopping on her bandwagon. He looked over her shoulder at the teens waiting to be released, and frowned. “They didn’t tell me they took videos of the party attendees with their phones.”

The look on Suzie’s face said he should have figured that part out for himself because it was so obvious. “They’re teenagers with smart phones. They take videos of everything at this age.”

Rather than appearing annoyed the way she’d expected him to, there was admiration in the detective’s eyes. It took her aback.

“You’re good,” he told her.

He expected her to preen a little, because it was her due, given the circumstances. But she wound up surprising him by merely shrugging her shoulders. “Just doing my job.”

In his opinion, what she’d just done could make his job a whole lot easier. “If we didn’t have an audience, I’d kiss you,” he declared, looking at the two cell phones she produced. She was holding them gingerly with a handkerchief.

“Then lucky for you we have an audience, because otherwise I’d be forced to deck you,” Suzie responded, offering him a spasmodic smile at the end of her statement.

The corners of her mouth went down again as she became serious. Sealing each phone, one at a time, into an evidence bag, Suzie carefully wrote down the time, date and which youth it belonged to.

Finished, she held the transparent bags out to Chris. “Drop these off with the lab tech after you take these boys to their school.”

Rather than grow irritated that the woman he had tried and failed to pick up last night was issuing orders to him, Chris took it all in stride. “You do have a take-charge personality, don’t you?”

Suzie waited for him to challenge her. When he didn’t, she said simply, “Again, just doing what needs to be done.”

Chris was about to say something further to her but she turned away, shifting her attention to the next thing on the list: taking close-ups of the dead woman, as well as the area around her. The victim might not have been killed in this exact place, but there could be some sort of clue accidentally left behind that would lead them to identify where the woman had been murdered.

Chris knew when he was being dismissed. For now, because he wanted to get the cell phones logged into evidence and then to the computer lab as soon as possible, he let it go.

“C’mon, guys. Teacher’s issuing you a hall pass,” he told the two teenagers. “Looks like you’ll be going to school, after all.”

Allen and his friend exchanged glances as they were being herded out of the former department store. Bill nodded in response to Allen’s unspoken question. Two minds with a single thought: ditching school.

“Hey, if it’s all the same to you, can you just drop us off at the Golden Gate Plaza?” Allen asked, referring to the largest shopping mall in Aurora.

“During school hours?” Chris asked, dramatically putting his hand to his chest. “Now what kind of an officer of the law would I be if I aided and abetted your hooky playing?” he asked. “You’re going to school, boys,” he told them cheerfully. “And I’m taking you there.”

The duo grumbled quietly—until they reached Chris’s car, a Lincoln Continental from a by-gone era when fins still meant something. The car was large, and provided the protection of a tank.

“Hey, is this yours?” Bill asked, as he and Allen stopped next to the vehicle Chris had brought them to.

Chris looked at the duo as if he was dealing with a pair of living brain donors. “No, when I saw you two running, I stole someone else’s ride so I could cut you off in an impressive car. Of course this is mine,” he said in irritation as he unlocked the doors.

Neither teenager seemed to be insulted by the sarcastic response. Allen ran his hand along the panel closest to him. “I guess I didn’t notice what an outstanding piece of craftsmanship this was.”

Chris noted that the teen was all but drooling on his car. He anticipated the next question that either boy was going to ask and headed it off. “I got the car by saving up every spare dime and working really, really hard. I think that the two of you should stop fixating on my ride and start figuring out what you’re going to tell your parents.”

Bill looked at him as if he had just begun speaking in a foreign language that the teenager couldn’t quite grasp. “Our parents?”

Digging deep, Chris searched for even simpler words to use as he explained. “Well, yeah, because after I drop you off, I’m going to make it a point to pay a visit to your parents. I think they’re entitled to know how you’re spending your school nights.”

“Yesterday wasn’t a school night,” Bill protested. “It was a Sunday.”

The teen wasn’t following him, Chris thought. Definitely not the shiniest apple on the tree. “But today’s a school day, isn’t it?”

Bill still didn’t look as if he understood where this was going. “Huh?”

Chris shook his head as he turned into the high school parking lot. “See, if you studied more and lurked less, you’d understand what I’m talking about. Look sharp, guys,” he told them, pointing to the building on the right. “School’s up ahead.”

It grew very quiet in his car as he pulled into a parking space that had a time limit of twenty minutes printed right above it.

* * *

“Can you put a rush on it?” Chris asked the slender, pretty computer technician less than half an hour after depositing the teenagers at the school.

Valri Cavanaugh frowned ever so slightly as she looked down at the two bagged cell phones that had just been placed on her desk. Raising her eyes to her cousin’s, she said, “You do realize that just because your middle name is Cavanaugh doesn’t mean you automatically go to the head of the line, right?”

“Right,” he agreed, then went on to enumerate the reasons he felt he could ask his cousin to put a rush on lifting videos from the two phones. “This goes to the head of the line because it might show us who killed a perfectly innocent young woman who looked enough like you to be your sister. Because the teenaged boys who own these devices are even now having withdrawal symptoms, enduring traumatic separations from their cell phones, and we all know they would have rather given up a kidney. And last but not least, because I’m trying to impress this really cute crime scene investigator with my crime solving powers.” Finished, he took in a deep breath, then said, “For all the above reasons, I need you and your really clever expertise to lift and enhance the videos on these phones”

This was not Valri’s first rodeo—nor was it her first sweet-talking relative. Growing up with her brothers had made her all but immune to this sort of charismatic persuasion. “What you need, Detective O’Bannon,” she informed him, “is help.”

Chris was all innocence as he replied, “That’s what I’m asking for.”

Valri wouldn’t budge. “Really serious help.”

“Still on the same page,” Chris told her.

“Serious mental help, Christian,” she emphasized, feeling as if she still wasn’t getting through to him.

“Haven’t had your morning tea yet, have you?” Chris asked sympathetically. He knew that his cousin was partial to tea, unlike the rest of his clan, who all but ran on black coffee.

“Haven’t had my breakfast yet,” Valri complained in a weak moment. “I came in early to try to catch up on my backlog.”

And that was clearly not happening, she thought, looking accusingly at the sealed cell phones on her desk. It was just a matter of time before she gave in and she knew it.

“Well, if you do this—” he nodded at the evidence bags “—it’ll be that much less backlog you’ll have to deal with.”

Valri blew out a breath. She’d made a valiant attempt, but now had to give up. The less time she spent resisting, the more she would have for the rest of her work.

“All right, I’ll do it,” she declared. “It’ll be worth it just to get you out of my hair.”

Chris sifted a long, silky blond strand through his fingers. “And such lovely hair it is, too.”

Valri pulled the strand away from him. “You can cut the blarney, Chris. I already agreed to process the cell phones.”

He pretended to look stunned. “Valri, I’m surprised at you. We don’t avail ourselves of ‘blarney.’ That’s for the Irish. Our ancestors came from Scotland.”

Valri sighed. The man had a wonderful baritone voice that made the most trivial information sound important. But even so, it was time to get him out of her lab.

“You know, the longer you talk,” she told him, “the longer it’s going to take for me to go through all this.”

“Consider me gone,” Chris announced, already heading for the door. “Oh, and don’t forget to make copies of those party videos,” he reminded her. “Uncle Sean’s going to want to take a look at them himself. You know how hands-on he is.”

“As opposed to being all handsy,” Valri countered, looking at her cousin knowingly.

Rather than pretend not to understand what she was talking about, Chris grinned. “We all have our calling,” he said, and then winked. “But between you and me, my hands never go anywhere they’re not invited.”

“Just go!” Valri ordered, pointing to the doorway with a laugh.

“Like I was never here,” he replied and made himself scarce.

* * *

“Miss me?” Chris asked late that afternoon, stepping into Suzie’s work area.

Lost in thought as she’d been, she stifled a gasp. The detective had caught her by surprise and it took an effort not to show it. Suzie didn’t like revealing any sort of vulnerability, and to be caught off guard or unprepared was to be vulnerable, in her book.

Collecting herself, she answered with a careless, “Not even for a second.” Then suggested, “Try being gone longer.”

“Maybe next time,” he promised.

Although she wanted to ignore him, she couldn’t. It wasn’t just that his presence seemed to fill up the room, even one as large as the lab. He’d brought something with him, as well.

“What’s that?” she asked, nodding at the tablet he had just dropped on her desk.

“That is your very own copy of Aurora’s wild nightlife,” he told her.

“I thought I was already looking at it,” Suzie deadpanned.

Chris inclined his head. “Touché,” he replied, then, playing along, said, “This is the video version. Or more specifically, a copy of what our very own wizard of a computer technician managed to get off the Three Stooges Minus One’s cell phone videos of the so-called ‘floating’ party that they couldn’t crash—thanks to you,” he added, because, after all, if Suzie hadn’t asked the right questions and found out about the videos the teenagers had made, they wouldn’t have this potential lead.

“Nice save,” Suzie allowed, amused despite herself. “But you don’t have to worry about hurting my feelings if you don’t mention my part in securing the videos. I’m not in this for the credit.”

Chris leaned casually against her desk, every inch the consummate laid-back detective. “What are you in this for?” he asked.

She could feel his eyes pinning her down even if she deliberately didn’t look up and make eye contact. “A regular paycheck at the end of the week,” she told him dismissively.

“Uh-uh,” Chris said.

He leaned down in front of her, getting in her face and making it impossible for her to avoid eye contact with him. His gaze felt as if it could delve right into her soul and she really resented the invasion.

“That isn’t it, either,” he told her confidently.

“Then what is?” she asked, doing her best not to allow her temper to flare.

Suzie braced herself to listen to the detective spin his outlandish theories. At the very least, she expected to hear him spout some grandiose rhetoric. But it was her turn to be surprised by him.

“I don’t know yet,” Chris told her honestly. “But I’m working on it. I’ll let you know when I come up with an answer.”

Suzie frowned. She didn’t have time to waste watching this too-handsome-for-his-own-good detective trying to mesmerize her. She had work to do and so did he.

“Your time would be better spent coming up with answers regarding our dead woman,” she said in a no-nonsense tone.

Our.

Her slip of the tongue was not lost on Chris. The grin on his lips told her so before he uttered a word. “Our first joint venture. We should savor this.”

“What I’d savor,” she informed him, “is some peace and quiet so I can work. Specifically, some time away from you.”

The expression that came over Chris’s face was one of doubt. “Now, if we spend time apart, how are we going to work on this case together?” he asked, conveying that what she’d just said lacked logic.

Suzie had only one word to give him in response to his question. “Productively.”

With that, she went back to doing her work, but that lasted for only a few moments. A minute at best. Though she tried to block out his presence, he still managed to get to her.

He was standing exactly where he had been, watching her so intently that she could literally feel his eyes on her skin. It caused her powers of concentration to deteriorate until they finally became nonexistent.

Unable to stand it, she looked up and glared at him. “What do you want, O’Bannon?” she muttered. It took everything she had not to shout the question at him. The man was making her crazy.

Chris never hesitated as he answered her. “Dinner.”

She clenched her jaw. “You can buy it in any supermarket,” she informed him coldly.

He sidestepped the roadblocks she was throwing up as if they weren’t there.

“With you.”

This time Suzie was the one who didn’t hesitate for a second. “Not at any price. Now please go before I take out my manual on workplace harassment and start underlining passages to get you banned from my lab.”

“It’s the crime scene lab, not yours,” he reminded her pleasantly, taking a page out of her book. And then Chris inclined his head. “Until the next time.”

“There is no next time,” she countered, steaming even though she refused to look up again.

“Don’t forget we’re working this case together,” he told her cheerfully.

He thought he heard Suzie say “Damn” under her breath as he left the lab.

Chris smiled to himself.