Cavanaugh Encounter. Marie FerrarellaЧитать онлайн книгу.
Frankie gave the man a withering look. She might have to mind her Ps and Qs while talking to him, but he had no control over the thoughts going through her head.
“Yes. I’m giving you some right now,” she told O’Bannon.
White Hawk nearly choked, trying not to laugh out loud.
“Good thing I’m not a mind reader,” he responded. Hitting a button that opened all four of the car doors, he said, “Okay, let’s go.”
Frankie got in on the passenger side. “The crime scene investigators have already been there,” she told him.
Luke opened the driver’s side door and got in. “I kind of figured that out when you said that your victim was in autopsy,” he told her. “But I like looking around the crime scene for myself. Humor me,” he added.
“You’re the lead,” she replied tersely, just before giving him the address where her cousin’s body had been found.
Luke heard the less-than-happy note in her voice and assumed it referred to the fact that he had taken over the case.
“Any time you want to jump off the merry-go-round, go right ahead. You’re more than welcome to do so,” he told her. He glanced in his rearview mirror to see if White Hawk had gotten in and buckled up yet.
“Understood,” she told O’Bannon in the same tone of voice.
Having secured his seatbelt, White Hawk took a moment to lean forward in his seat. “Don’t worry. He’ll grow on you,” he promised the sexy detective.
“Maybe that’s why I’m worried,” she responded, then explained, “so does fungus.”
“Luckily, they’ve got medications for that,” O’Bannon told her as he adjusted his side mirrors before putting his key in the ignition.
Shifting ever so slightly in her seat, Frankie looked at the lead detective pointedly and said, “I sincerely hope so.”
White Hawk sighed quietly. It was obvious that he felt called upon to act as a referee in this verbal sparring match. He spoke up, trying to distract the new member of the team by asking her a simple question.
“How did you happen to catch this case? I missed that part.”
Frankie knew the other detective was just asking her that in order to try to keep the peace. But she found him rather easygoing and likeable, so she answered his question.
“I know the woman who was the victim’s roommate, Amanda Culpepper.” She recited the story that she had memorized for O’Bannon’s benefit—and in order to be allowed to work this case. “When Amanda found Kristin unconscious on the floor and couldn’t revive her, she panicked and called me.”
“Found her how?” White Hawk asked. “Did she wake up in the morning and walk in to find the victim just lying there like that?”
“No, Amanda had gone away for the weekend. She told me that she had gone to Las Vegas with her boyfriend and spent three full days there.”
As Frankie recited the details for what felt like the umpteenth time, she could literally feel O’Bannon listening to her every word despite the fact that she had already told him all of this. She had a feeling that the lead detective was paying such close attention to what she was saying because he expected her to trip herself up and confuse the details.
Frankie couldn’t help wondering if she had suddenly become a suspect by bringing her cousin’s murder to the department’s fair-haired boy. She found herself wishing that the detective in the backseat was the lead on this multiple murder case instead of O’Bannon.
White Hawk didn’t make her feel uneasy. O’Bannon did. She felt as if, despite his laidback manner, O’Bannon was scrutinizing every word out of her mouth and comparing them to every other word she’d already said.
“When did this happen?” White Hawk asked.
“I got the call early this morning.”
“So the crime scene’s not that fresh,” O’Bannon said, whether for her benefit or for his partner’s, she wasn’t sure. In either case, she did her best to take the remark in stride and not view it as a criticism that she’d been remiss in not bringing the matter to Homicide’s attention immediately.
It left her wondering if O’Bannon actually wanted the case and had just been yanking her chain earlier about her reasons for bringing the case to him.
“It was fresh when the CSI Unit arrived to go over it a couple of hours ago,” she replied coldly.
“We’ll talk to them after we have a look around,” O’Bannon said, and it was clear to Frankie that he was addressing his partner and not her.
Even so, she was determined to work with this man. It was the only way she would find Kristin’s killer.
Frankie nodded in response to what he had just said and murmured, “Fine.”
“Glad we have your permission,” Luke replied.
“Turn right at the corner,” she directed coldly.
He spared her a glance before doing as she had prompted. Luke was deliberately trying to rattle her, to get her to squirm and lose her cool. It was his way of seeing just what she was made of and who he was actually dealing with.
Had Francesca DeMarco been just another beautiful woman who crossed his path, his approach to her would have been entirely different. But he wasn’t trying to date her—that was on the back burner for now—he was attempting to find out just what sort of a person was trying to be part of his team, no matter how temporarily.
The team was only as good as its weakest link, and he needed to evaluate just what kind of detective DeMarco was.
He was fairly sure he could ascertain this from her record on the force. There were reports on file that could be accessed, if not by him, then by his cousin, Valri, who worked in the police department’s computer lab.
A tour of social media would get him additional personal information.
He doubted if DeMarco would believe him if he told her, but he was actually rooting for her.
Still, he had to be sure before he let her sign on for this. If she messed up the investigation for whatever reason, that would be on him, and his lieutenant would be the first one to say it, despite Handel’s blasé attitude about DeMarco’s joining the investigation.
“Where’s this roommate staying?” Luke asked out of the blue.
She knew why he was asking. Amanda couldn’t stay in her apartment until the yellow tape went down. “She’s crashing on a friend’s couch until the crime scene’s been cleared.”
“Yours?” Luke asked bluntly.
“Someone else’s,” she answered, bracing herself for a barrage of questions as to why she wasn’t taking in the victim’s roommate. She decided to jump ahead of him and answer the main question before it was asked. “Wouldn’t seem right if I had her staying at my place while I’m investigating her roommate’s murder. That would look like a conflict of interest.”
Silently he congratulated her for being one step ahead of this pantomime even as he asked, “Do you always play by the rules?”
Her eyes met his as she quietly told him, “That’s all we’ve got, are the rules.”
A hint of a smile curved his lips. “Huh. You didn’t answer my question, DeMarco.”
“Why are you badgering her, O’Bannon?” White Hawk asked his partner. “She’s on our team, remember?” he pointed out.
Rick White Hawk smiled his support at the petite brunette when she turned around in her seat to look at him.
Frankie returned his smile.
“Yeah,