To his surprise, Kelly got out of her vehicle at the same time he stepped out on the passenger side.
“What are you doing?” he asked. He saw no reason for her not to drive off.
“I’m surveying the property,” she cracked. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“You’re walking me to the door?” he asked incredulously. There was so much wrong with this picture he wasn’t sure where to start.
She snapped her fingers. “You figured out my secret. I’m walking you to your apartment,” she confirmed. When he gave her a very skeptical look, she added, “I don’t mean to imply that I think you can’t hold your liquor. Let’s just say I’m satisfying my curiosity as to where you live.” She smiled up at him brightly as she fell into step beside him.
“It’s not some dark cave, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he told her.
With that he pointed toward the garden apartment located just beyond a central planter. The flowers in the planter seemed to be fighting a losing battle, she noted as they passed.
She laughed at his description. “Never even crossed my mind. No stairs?” she asked as he stopped before the door of a ground-floor apartment. She’d pictured him as someone who preferred being closer to the sky than to have someone living over him.
“I like being close to the ground,” Kane told her as he fished out his keys.
“Fear of heights?” she guessed.
When he answered her, she noticed that Kane neither denied nor confirmed her guess. Instead, he said, “It’s easier to hit the ground running this way.”
What he meant by that escaped her for the moment. She noticed that Kane tended to wax a little philosophical now that he had more than three beers in him. There were worse things, she decided.
Holding the key in his hand, Kane refrained from putting it into the lock. He supposed that a few parting words were in order.
“I’d invite you in—”
The next word he was about to say was but, however he didn’t get a chance to utter it because that was when Kelly said, “Okay,” and moved a bit closer to him, as if she was waiting for the door to be opened.
“But,” Kane continued with determination. “I’m not set up for company.”
He was the last person she would have thought felt uncomfortable about the appearance of his living quarters. “I’m not company,” she told him. “I’m your partner, remember?”
“I’m trying very hard not to,” he told her with a degree of honesty.
Kelly continued talking as if he hadn’t interjected anything. “That makes me like family,” she concluded, making her point.
His eyes were flat as Kane countered, “Not my family.”
Something in his voice caught her attention. But she couldn’t quite put her finger on what about it bothered her.
She watched his face as she asked, “Why? No girls in your family?” It was a guess at best.
Kane didn’t answer her.
He hadn’t been all that open with her tonight, but now it seemed as if a barrier had come down between them.
Hard.
“I’ll see you in the squad room tomorrow,” he said, turning away from her.
“Oh, you’ll see me before then,” Kelly informed her partner.
He’d just inserted the key into the lock and glanced at her over his shoulder. He kept his hand protectively over the doorknob.
“Why?” Kane challenged. If she was planning on meeting him for breakfast somewhere before their shift began, she was out of luck. This was as much fraternizing as he intended on doing for the rest of the year. Perhaps longer.
“Because I’ll be driving you in,” she said, trying to rouse his short-term memory. Kane had executed a perfect three-point turn to successfully parallel park, taking full advantage of the space closest to the six story precinct building. Right now, however, his vehicle left something to be desired.
Such as proximity.
“Your car’s parked in front of the precinct, remember?” Kelly prodded.
He frowned, which immediately told her that he hadn’t remembered. The next moment, he shrugged. “Don’t bother. I can call a cab.”
Kelly was quick to veto the idea. “There’s no need for you to spend the extra money. I take my responsibilities seriously.”
Since when was he a responsibility? Especially hers? Kane waved away her words.
“That’s okay—” he began.
“You turn me down and you’ll hurt my feelings,” she said out of the blue.
For a second, he stared at her, trying to decide whether she was serious or just pulling his leg. He couldn’t tell.
“What feelings?” he challenged. “If there was one thing I learned about you today, it’s that you have the hide of a rhino.”
Even if she had the face of an angel.
Kane immediately pulled back mentally as he simultaneously upbraided himself. Where the hell had that thought come from?
He supposed it was a clear indication that he had had too much to drink after all.
It irritated him beyond all reason that she was right.
Kelly seemed to take no offense at his comment. “Ah, yes, but under the tough outer layer beats a soft heart,” she informed him. The corners of her mouth twitched a little as she did her best to keep her amusement from showing. “Okay, Durant, this is where we part company. See you in the morning.”
She thought she heard him grunt something in reply just before he disappeared behind the door. The man’s manners left something to be desired.
Kelly hurried back to her vehicle. She had barely pulled out of the spot when another car immediately swooped in, taking her place. There were few spots available at this time of night, she noted. Parking was at a premium. Not for the first time, she felt a wave of smug relief wash over her.
She’d made the right decision.
A little over a year ago she had given up apartment living and bought a small detached home. Among other things, this afforded her a driveway where she could always park her car. That in turn meant she no longer had to go searching for a parking spot at the most disadvantageous time of the evening.
Granted, a parking space had come with her previous apartment, but she’d lost count the number of times she’d come home, dead tired, only to find someone else had parked in her space. Like as not, the rental office would be closed for the night and she would have no recourse but to go trolling for an empty spot, not an easy feat at that time of night. Especially when all she really wanted to do was crawl into bed and get some well-deserved sleep.
She wouldn’t have to go through that tonight. Not that she was even close to falling asleep this time. She had all manner of questions bouncing around in her head. They’d been bouncing around ever since she’d seen that odd look on Kane’s face when she’d told him to think of her as family.
She needed answers and she had a feeling that asking Kane questions only would have made him clam up even more than he normally did.
The man could have auditioned to play a sphinx, she thought grudgingly, zipping through the yellow traffic lights.
* * *
The second Kelly let herself in the front door, she headed straight for the landline in the living room. At times the reception on her cell wasn’t all that great and the signal cut in and out. She was in no mood to have interference get in her way.
Kelly paused only long enough to remove her service weapon and leave it within easy reach near the front door before she picked up the telephone receiver and started dialing.
The phone on the other end rang four times, then went to voice mail.
Valri wasn’t home.
Swallowing an oath, Kelly debated hanging up and trying again at a later hour, but at best that would be hit and miss. If her younger sister, the best computer wizard she knew, came home sometime before midnight, she wanted Valri to call.
She wanted Valri to call even if it was after midnight, she decided.
Kelly said as much in the message she left.
“So call me,” Kelly concluded. “I don’t care what time you get in,” she reiterated. “I need to talk to you, ASAP.”
She blew out a breath and was just about to hang up the receiver when she heard the line on the other end being picked up.
“What’s so urgent?” she heard Valri ask her. She sounded concerned.
“You’re home,” Kelly said happily.
“Apparently,” Valri answered. “Now what’s the emergency?”
“Why are you screening your calls?” Kelly asked.
There was a long pause and then she heard her younger sister say, “Could be because I’m doing something more important than talking to my sister.”
That was an odd thing for Valri to say, Kelly thought. “What could be more impor—” And then it hit her. “Oh. You’re not alone, are you?”
“And they said you weren’t the bright one,” Valri laughed.
It was obvious she wasn’t about to identify who was with her—not that she really needed to.
“It’s Alex, isn’t it? He’s the one with you,” Kelly concluded, referring to her sister’s fiancé.
Valri relented, giving up the pretense. “Two for two, not bad. Now, if you called just to shoot the breeze or complain about your new partner—”
“How do you know about my new partner?” Kelly asked, surprised.
“You forget, we Cavanaughs have our own special little network that spreads information faster than even the internet,” Valri reminded her. “Okay, either talk fast, or I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”
“I need some information on him,” she said quickly. “My new partner. Kane Durant,” she threw in for good measure, just in case Valri didn’t know everything.
“So, ask him,” Valri prodded.
“Ha!” Kelly dismissed that so-called option. “I’d have better luck getting a statue to talk. Besides, I’ve got a feeling this is pretty personal.”
“And you have the right to pry because...?” Valri asked.
“Don’t get holier than thou on me, Valri,” Kelly warned. “I need to know this so I don’t accidentally say something to him that I’ll wind up regretting.” No way she wanted to trample on the man’s feelings. Or accidentally unearth some deep, dark family secret.
“You know that’s going to happen sooner or later no matter what kind of information I pass along to you. That kind of thing is just in your nature.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Kelly bit off. She wasn’t about to give up until she had what she wanted. “Look, Val, I need to know about the man’s family,” she insisted. “It’s important to me.”
There was silence on the other end and Kelly knew she was getting to her sister.
“And you’re sure he won’t tell you if you ask nicely?” Valri asked.
“I’m sure. Trust me,” Kelly answered. She stretched out on the sofa as she talked. “I told him that he should regard me as family and he got this really strange look on his face, like I’d just opened the door to something deep and dark. When I asked him if there were any girls in his family, he immediately changed the subject.”
“Did you ever think that maybe he just didn’t want you to pry?” Valri asked her. “There are people like that, you know. People who don’t want to give you their life history in the first ten minutes that they know you. Sometimes these things take time—like building up trust. That can’t be rushed.”
“There’s more to it than that,” Kelly insisted. “I can feel it.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place? Can’t beat a scientific method like that,” Valri quipped.
“Does Alex know what kind of smart mouth you have?” Kelly asked her.
“I’ll have you know that Alex is very keen on my mouth, thank you very much.” The next moment, Valri got down to business. “Okay, give me this guy’s full name,” Valri instructed with a resigned sigh. “I’ll see what I can come through with.”
“Thanks, Val. I knew you’d come around,” Kelly said with enthusiasm and more than a little gratitude. “His name is Kane Durant. Detective, first class. I can hold on while you look him up,” she volunteered.
“That’s great, but you’ll be listening to a dial tone eventually,” Valri warned her. “The information I need to access is on the computer at work.”
That didn’t sound right to her. Valri could make a computer sit up, beg and roll over. This kind of thing should constitute a walk in the park for her.
“Since when has a little thing like proximity stopped you?” Kelly asked. “Might I remind you that you’re the one who hacked into—”
“Please, no trips down memory lane,” Valri requested rather quickly, shutting down her sister.
Granted these were private lines they were on, but a little bit of paranoia was a healthy thing. It kept her, and the people who mattered, on their toes. The last thing Valri wanted was to have Kelly make a reference to her time as a successful hacker and possibly have that information go viral. Nothing good could possibly come of that.
“Besides,” Valri went on, “that was then, this is now.”
“Lovely title for a song,” Kelly cracked. And then she sighed, relenting. “Okay, little sister. How long do I have to wait for the information?”
“Depends on how accessible it all is and how much I find,” Valri told her. “I’ll get started tomorrow morning. Good enough?”
“Guess it’ll have to be.”
“Why are you so curious about your partner’s family, anyway?” Valri asked.
She was proud of hers, but not every family took its cues from Norman Rockwell’s paintings. In some cases, family was the very last thing a person wanted to talk about.
Even if that person was a police officer.
“You wouldn’t understand,” she told Valri. Before her sister could mount some sort of a protest, she added, “You had to have been there.”
“That’s what people say when they don’t want to go into detail about something,” Valri told her.
“It’s complicated,” she said.
“Okay,” Valri said, accepting her sister’s answer since she had no other option. “Just as a side piece of information, how are you getting along with him?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Kelly said honestly. “I’ll let you know more once you get back to me about his family and I get to know him a little better—if that’s possible.” She laughed softly to herself, shaking her head. “I don’t mind telling you that right about now I’m really missing Amos. With all of his strange quirks—needing to carry five coins in each of his pockets leaps to mind—the man was still an open book. This guy I want you to look into is more like a mystery—with all the pages glued together.”
“Might be fun to unglue them,” Valri told her. When Kelly sighed, her sister merely said, “I’ve seen what he looks like. Oh, and Brennan said the two of you were at Malone’s earlier. You bought the drinks for you and this partner you’re researching. That means you’re bonding, right? He wouldn’t have willingly gone with you if you weren’t bonding.”
“If by willingly you mean that I went after him, giving him no choice and then dragging him to the old ancestral stomping grounds here, then, yes, he came willingly.”
“Unless the man is a ninety-pound weakling—and I know for a fact that he’s not—you didn’t drag Kane Durant anywhere that he didn’t want to go. Some partnerships take time to establish,” she reminded her sister. “You know that.”
“Yeah, I know that,” she agreed. But this was something that she just couldn’t patiently stand around and wait for Kane to eventually reveal. She had a feeling that she needed to understand his background if this partnership between them was going to have a prayer of working. “Just get me as much of his background as you can, okay?”
“Shouldn’t be that big a deal,” Valri assured her. “I’ll get back to you tomorrow morning. Fast enough for you?” she teased.
“It’ll have to be,” Kelly replied.
Valri sighed. “Good night, Kel.”
“Good night,” Kelly echoed. “And tell that good-looking guy next to you that I said hi.”
“Maybe later,” Valri replied in a very husky voice.
Kelly smiled wistfully to herself, envying Valri just a little as she hung up.