Cavanaugh on Duty - By Marie Ferrarella Page 0,70
wish him lots of luck.”
Kari didn’t understand. “Why?” she wanted to know.
“I think he’ll understand” was all Brenda said before she ended the call.
“She find something?” Esteban asked the moment Kari put her phone away.
She realized that she was furrowing her brow as she pondered the other woman’s odd words, so she forced a neutral expression to her face. “Not yet—but she said to tell you that she wished you luck.”
Rather than ask her what Brenda meant by that, the way she assumed that he would, she saw Esteban laugh, compounding the mystery for her.
“Then you do know what she’s talking about?” she asked him.
He wasn’t positive, but he had a pretty good idea. “My guess would be that she thinks you come on a little too intense and dealing with that on an ongoing basis a minimum of five days a week might be...a little challenging for me.”
“I want to catch a serial killer before he winds up wiping out half the city,” Kari protested. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Not a thing, Hyphen, not a thing,” he told her with an easy smile she found hopelessly sexy.
Concentrating on her job was getting harder and harder for her, Kari thought. Especially when torrid memories of last night and the night before kept unexpectedly ambushing her mind.
She did her best to block those thoughts, but she was fighting a losing battle.
* * *
Shortly after she and Esteban finished eating the takeout they’d picked up for lunch, Kari’s cell phone rang.
For once, she didn’t immediately take out her phone. “Oh, God, if that’s someone calling with more bad news, I don’t think I can stand it,” she moaned.
“Well, it’s not the lieutenant calling,” Esteban told her. He nodded toward the man’s office. “He’s not on the phone.”
“Okay, maybe that’s a good sign.” Mentally crossing her fingers, Kari pulled out her phone. “Cavelli-Cavanaugh.”
“I think you need to come down here.”
She recognized the voice immediately and mouthed “Brenda” to Esteban. For once containing her all-consuming curiosity, Kari didn’t instantly bombard the other woman with questions. Instead she replied, “We’ll be right there.”
“It is another body?” Esteban wanted to know the moment she ended the call.
“No,” she answered. “From the way Brenda sounded, I think we’ve just had a breakthrough,” she said as she rose to her feet and all but flew out of the squad room.
Caught off guard, Esteban found he had to lengthen his stride just to catch up. “You know, for a little thing,” he told her once he was abreast again, “you can really move.”
Just for a second, she allowed herself a quick mental detour. Flashing a wicked grin, she said, “I thought you already knew that.”
His laugh made her gut tighten with hopeful anticipation about the night ahead. “I’m learning, Kari, I’m learning.”
She loved hearing him say her name, but she knew better than to admit that to him. If she didn’t say or do anything to scare Esteban off, maybe whatever it was that was going on between them would last awhile longer.
At least she could hope.
* * *
“We’re here,” Kari announced, walking quickly into the tech lab. The eager note in her voice was impossible to miss. “Are you going to make our day?”
“Quite possibly,” Brenda replied. She doled out the information in stages to allow the two detectives to digest it properly. “First off, I found your connection. Judge Rockwell, A.D.A. Watson and that defense attorney, Mel Samet, were involved in a number of cases—”
Kari could feel her stomach begin to sink. “How many?”
“Twenty,” Brenda told her.
Observing the exchange, Esteban scrutinized the look on Brenda’s face. There were traces of triumph there. That could mean only one thing. “How many cases with that guy on the jury?” he wanted to know.
Brenda laughed. “Cut to the chase, right? To answer your question, one.” As Kari started to inundate her with questions, Brenda held up her hand, asking for patience. “But that’s not the most significant part.”
“Go on,” Esteban urged. One glance at his expression told Kari that he was still expecting to hear the worst. She needed to rub off on him a little more, she thought. He’d be a happier man for it.
Brenda went over the details as quickly as possible, hitting only the highlights. “The trial involved a rape case. The teenager accused of raping this girl was tried as an adult, convicted and sent to prison. His father tried to get the verdict appealed. The kid kept protesting that he was innocent.”
“That’s what they all say,”