“You thinking of applying here?” Kane asked her once she had the club director’s list in her hands and they had walked out of the clubhouse.
Surrendering the list to her partner, Kelly looked at him, her expression clearly indicating that he had to be kidding. She wouldn’t have been caught dead associating with people who acted superior to anyone who didn’t bring in a seven-figure salary. Being around a group such as that was her idea of hell.
“What makes you ask something like that?”
“The way you were playing up to the guy, I figured you were trying to create a favorable impression so you could ask to fill out one of their applications.” Kane’s disapproving expression made it crystal clear what he thought of belonging to a club such as that.
After reaching the sedan, Kelly got in. “I was playing up to him, as you so eloquently put it, to get that list without having to go plead our case in front of some ADA who then would have to get a judge to sign off on the warrant. Making nice with the director was the faster route to take,” she pointed out.
Kane put on his seat belt and put the key in the ignition, but he left it there for a minute. He wasn’t finished just yet.
“What’s the problem with getting an ADA and a judge to back us up? Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you people have both in your extended stable of family members? You could have a warrant sent to your email faster than it takes to talk about it.”
Kelly frowned as she raised her eyes to his. She was trying to control the sudden surge of temper she was experiencing. Generally easygoing to a fault, she found that this new partner could get to her faster than even her brothers could, doing their worst—and that was saying quite a lot.
“Just because they’re in the family doesn’t automatically mean that we can use family to bend the rules,” she informed him.
“Right,” he answered loftily. Kane didn’t believe that any more than he believed the Golden Gate Bridge was for sale. About to start the car, he spared her another glance. She didn’t belong here. She was too pretty, too distracting. He wasn’t some rutting pig, but he was human after all.
Right now, Cavanaugh looked as if she could shoot darts from her eyes—with him as the target. “Wait, you’re serious?”
“Damn straight I am. Just because the power is there doesn’t mean it’s there to abuse.”
Looking more amused than convinced, Kane said, “I guess I stand corrected.”
Her easygoing disposition didn’t mean she had been born yesterday. Kelly read between her partner’s lines. “But not convinced.”
Kane shrugged. The old adage about Rome not being built in a day crossed his mind. “I’ll get there,” he told her cavalierly.
Kelly took what she could get. “Fair enough, I guess. Let’s find out just how many of these people coveted Osborn’s paintings.”
“‘Coveted’?” he echoed. Shaking his head, Kane started the vehicle. “You’re invoking biblical terms now?”
She took no offense at his tone. “Think of it as broadening your educational base.”
“My base is just fine, thanks,” Kane informed her. Kelly noticed that for once he didn’t sound curt. Was she making progress? Or was it just an oversight on his part?
“There’s always room for improvement,” she maintained. Then, just in case he took that as a personal criticism, she added quickly, “For everyone.”
He awarded her a long, scrutinizing look before looking back at the road.
“Some more than others,” he agreed, and she knew he was referring to her.
A freshly minted, snappy comeback hovered on her lips, straining to be released. But they weren’t going to get anywhere if this exchange degenerated into one-upmanship. One of them had to be the bigger person and just back off.
Kelly blew out a breath.
In this case, she supposed that for the sake of progress and future harmony, it was going to have to be her.
* * *
The list of Osborn’s so-called friends included ten names. Three of the people were currently on the premises.
“They actually track their members when they’re on the club grounds,” Kelly had marveled in mild disbelief.
One of the members could be found in the dining area—specifically at the bar, while the other two were on the immaculately kept golf course, apparently trying to lower their handicaps.
“Since we’re here, might as well talk to them first,” Kane decided.
* * *
An hour later they were back in Kane’s sedan, none the wiser or further along in their investigation than when they had first arrived at the club.
“Seven more to go,” Kelly said with a sigh, dropping into the passenger seat and closing her door. “Who knows? We might get lucky. Seven’s a lucky number, right?”
“So now you’re superstitious?” Kane asked as he started his car again.
“What I am is trying to stay positive. Approaching this with a negative attitude isn’t going to get us anywhere. Although I have to say that talking to those people makes me feel as if I need to take a shower.”
She looked at her partner’s almost rigid profile, wondering if the man ever relaxed. He had exceptional bone structure, but right now she was looking at a museum statue, not a flesh-and-blood man.
“I never knew that men were capable of being as catty and vindictive as women,” she confided, trying to get some sort of a response from Kane. Getting him to act human required far more work than she’d anticipated.
“It all depends on their maturity level,” he commented, guiding the vehicle through the grounds and heading for the exit. “The men we talked to had a combined emotional age of about sixteen. Possibly less.”
“I guess having a lot of money doesn’t always buy you peace of mind. Sometimes all it buys you is acrimony,” she theorized.
Kane looked at her sharply. “Back up. What did you just say?”
“What? You weren’t listening?” Kelly cried, pretending to be both surprised and offended. “And here I thought you hung on my every word.”
Kane snorted. “More like I could hang you for uttering too many words,” he replied before repeating his question. “Now what did you just say?”
To be honest, she wasn’t really sure what she had said exactly. Certainly not something that should have had him reacting this way. She tried to think and came up with something. “That I didn’t know men could be as vindictive as women.”
He waved away the words as if they were solid entities. “No, after that.”
Her thoughts seemed to run together. “That these men were full of acrimony. I’m paraphrasing it, but—”
But Kane shook his head impatiently. “Before that,” he instructed.
She wondered if he was coming unglued or if he was just trying to make her crazy. After again reviewing her earlier words, she came up empty. With a shrug, she told him, “I really don’t know what you’re referring to.”
He tried to catch the sentence himself, but failed. “Something about money—”
It almost came back to her. “That it was supposed to buy peace of mind?” It was more of a question to check if that was the phrase he was trying to recover.
For a split second, Kane lit up like a veritable Christmas tree. By the time he said, “Right!” his face had returned to its regular, somber expression.
“O-kay,” she drew out, having no idea what her partner was driving at. “And this particular little set of words is important to you because...?” She waited for Kane to fill in the blank space.
“Because it made me realize that we need to look at Osborn’s financials,” Kane told her.
She nodded, game. “Anything in particular that we’re looking for?”
“We’re going to see if Osborn is as financially secure as he’d like the world to believe he is.” Enthusiasm surging through him, Kane took the turn a little too sharply. Kelly braced her hand against the glove compartment to keep from sliding on to the car’s floor.
She stared at Kane for a minute, and then it was as if she could suddenly tap into his train of thought. Now it made sense. “You’re thinking Osborn orchestrated his own home invasion because he needed the insurance money he’d get for the paintings if he claimed they were stolen.”
The moment she said the words out loud, she was convinced this actually could be a viable possibility.
“It’s true what they say,” Kelly said. “Desperate men do desperate things. The thief gets to fence the paintings and the antique pistol, while Osborn gets to collect on the insurance money. As far as he can see, Osborn probably views this as a win-win situation.”
Even though it was his theory, Kane wasn’t entirely sold on it. There was a sticking point that bothered him.
“Osborn did look genuinely angry about being robbed and tied up.” He reviewed another point from a different angle. “I supposed that for a large lump sum of money a lot of people would be more than willing to put on a believable act.”
Her partner sounded as if he was arguing with himself. She was tempted to ask if he was engaged in a private fight, or if it was it open to everyone, but at the last minute, she thought it might be useful to get the plan of action straightened out.
“So we don’t talk to the rest of his so-called country-club buddies?”
Kane glared at her as if he couldn’t figure out where she had gotten that idea. “We’ll still talk to them, but the more options we consider, the better our odds of solving this thing.”
Kelly nodded, doing her best to remain positive. “That sounds good to me.”
“Oh, good, now that I have your blessing we can proceed.”
She allowed annoyance to slip over her features. There was no point in trying to keep it all in. She’d probably wind up getting an ulcer if she kept going this route. So she gave Kane a piece of her mind, something she wouldn’t have considered doing before.
“You know, up until just now, I was beginning to really admire you,” she told Kane.
Getting her to keep talking, Kane felt he might get some further insight into the way her mind worked. It was never too late to try something new—and giving her a partial kid-glove treatment was definitely something new for him.
“And now?” he challenged.
He could be really arrogant if he wanted to be, Kelly thought. And he obviously wanted to be this time around. “And now all I can say is you’re lucky we’re not standing by the edge of a pool because you’d find yourself suddenly needing a change of clothes.”
He inclined his head as if he was taking all of this in, unfazed. “And you’d find yourself on the wrong end of a murder charge.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you pushed me into a pool, you’d be guilty of homicide.”
She stared at him. How did he figure that? “I don’t follow your—”
“I can’t swim,” he told her in a flat voice.
“You’re a Californian,” she reminded him. “Of course you can swim.”
Damn but she could be obtusely stubborn if she wanted to be, he thought. “Contrary to what you seem to believe, Californians are not born with gills and water wings attached to their bodies. Nor are they born with the ability to immediately tread water.”
“You really can’t swim,” she marveled in compete disbelief.
Since she had been the one he’d used as an unwitting sounding board, he felt he had to cut her just a tiny bit of slack. So he repeated it one more time. “I really can’t swim.”
“Why didn’t you ever learn?” she asked, still having trouble processing the idea that someone who lived in an area where he could go swimming year-round hadn’t learned how to swim. Her father had been adamant that she and all her siblings learn by the time they went to kindergarten.
“Can we just drop this?” he said. It was not a request.
“Okay,” she allowed. “But if you ever decide you want to learn how to do a few simple things that’ll keep you afloat, I’d be more than happy to teach you. It could save your life someday,” she added on.
The look he shot her as he took a right turn told her that the man obviously thought he’d be a fool to put his life in her hands by taking her up on her offer.
Out loud he said, “I’ll get back to you on that.” His tone indicated it would be slightly ahead of when hell was scheduled to freeze over and become a skating pond.
* * *
Three hours later, back in the squad room and slowly going cross-eyed, she heard Kane bite off a few choice words. Looking up from the computer search she was conducting, Kelly took a semiwild guess as to the source of his less than jovial mutterings.
“I take it that the financial angle didn’t pay off the way you thought it might?” she asked.
“Not really,” he admitted. “Osborn made a few bad investments and his accounts have gone down some in the last year, but nothing major. Certainly nothing that would compel the man to suddenly mastermind stealing his own paintings.”
She could see that Kane appeared somewhat disappointed about this last turn of events. “Well, it was a good idea,” she told him, then added, “Too bad it didn’t pan out.”
The sentiment she expressed had Kane laughing rather drily. There was no humor in his voice or in his eyes.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” he said in disgust.
Now he was just throwing phrases around for the sake of throwing them, she thought. “And there’s a connection there how?”
“None,” he admitted after a beat. “I’m beginning to babble like you.” He seemed rather appalled at the mere suggestion he was behaving in a similar manner.
She smiled brightly at him. So he was reachable.
“Knew there was hope for you,” she told Kane. “Feel like taking a break from all this—” she gestured at the laptops on their desks “—and talk to some snobbish rich people?” Although, she added silently, she’d welcome another kind of break with this strong, silent type. A break that had nothing to do with law enforcement and everything to do with getting to know her partner better. Intimately better.
Knock it off, Kelly, she ordered herself. They had a case to solve, not an itch to scratch.
He sighed and got to his feet. Her invitation sounded anything but promising, much less interesting. But right now no other options were on the table.
“Might as well. This isn’t getting us anywhere,” he grumbled, nodding at the computer screen and the records he’d managed to access.
Kelly never lost a step as she hustled to keep up with him.
Questioning the rest of the people on the list they had obtained from the country-club director proved to be just as frustrating and fruitless as the rest of their day had been.
“Did the CSI people come up with anything yet?” Kane asked her after the seventh interview had gone the way of the other six they had conducted, marathon-style.
She tried to find a comfortable spot in the passenger seat. “Not that I know of,” she said, feeling very tread worn. It took her a second to realize what was bothering her about his question—she really was pretty tired. “And wouldn’t they call you about that and not me? After all, you’re the primary on this case,” she pointed out.
“And you’re the relative,” he countered. “And that usually trumps anything else.”
She knew he was referring to the fact that the head of the day crime scene investigation unit was Sean Cavanaugh, another one of her newly discovered granduncles as well as the chief of detectives’ older brother. At times, that might seem a little daunting if not downright overwhelming, but all it took was dealing with these people to realize that they weren’t part of some secret club, they were all just people on the same team: law enforcement.
“Again, that would be going against protocol, otherwise known as the rules. If anything, I might get a heads-up at the same time as you do—although that’s highly unlikely,” she emphasized. “But they wouldn’t get in contact with me and not you. It doesn’t work that way,” she insisted. “The only advantage I have as a Cavanaugh is if I ever get shot, or need a kidney, odds are there’s a relative who could step up and donate their blood or their kidney or whatever.”
She took a breath and then said in an even voice, “I’m only going to say this once, Durant, so listen up. Same name or not, none of us will ever capitalize on the fact that we’re related. Having the same last name doesn’t open up doors for us so much as it opens us up to be the target of a great deal of criticism and misconceived ideas.” She gave him a very pointed look as she said this.
And then she brightened.
“Okay, the subject is now closed.” Kelly glanced at her watch. “It’s past our shift.” Way past, she thought. “What do you say that we get some dinner? And since it’s my suggestion, I’ll spring for it. Sky’s the limit—up to ten bucks,” she deadpanned.
He wasn’t thinking about food right now. Unwinding was what was currently on his mind.
“Thanks for the offer, Cavanaugh, but I’m going to drink my dinner.”
“Smoothies?” she asked, summoning her best innocent look. She knew damn well he wasn’t thinking about combining a handful of healthy ingredients in a blender.
Kane laughed shortly. “What do you think?”
She gave it to him straight. “I think that you need a designated driver coming with you. Wouldn’t do to get a DUI, considering your career choice.”
He took chances when he was out in the field, but only in the line of duty. No way he intended to drink and drive. “I was planning on picking up a bottle and taking it home with me.”
The thought of him sitting alone in his apartment, helping alcohol evaporate out of a bottle filled her with a strange sort of sadness. “You can always do that some other time.”
“Is this what it’s going to be like?” he asked. “If we, through some perverse trick of nature, actually remain partners, are you going to argue with everything I say?”
She wasn’t aware of being argumentative right now, just helpful. “Not argue,” she corrected, “I’m tactfully suggesting alternatives.”
He frowned. “You’re not exactly making the best argument for my staying your partner.”
“On the contrary, I’m making a great argument for remaining your partner.”
He looked at her for a long time. “I’ve died and gone to hell, haven’t I?”
“Nope. If anything, it’s the other place.”
He sighed, giving up. He drove into the police parking lot and stopped by her car. She was coming with him tonight, he knew that without being told. Just as he knew that wherever he went, she was going to follow, like a shadow he had no control over.