Chapter 5
“S o what’s the new girl like?” Gwen asked as she poured liquid into the plastic test tube with the errant hair that Lyra had extracted from under the victim’s fingernail.
Before Caine could respond, Jace growled from his perch beside Gwen. “She stinks.”
“She does not, Jace,” Caine protested.
“I can smell her a mile away. I know when someone stinks, and she does.”
“Well, what does she smell like, then?” Gwen asked.
“Like plums and vanilla,” Caine answered, not lifting his head from going over the other trace evidence they had logged. When it suddenly became as silent as a tomb, he glanced up. They were staring at him as if he had grown another head. This, of course, was genetically impossible. “What?”
“Ah, nothing, Chief.” Jace smirked, then went back to filling test tubes with liquid.
“Is she pretty, then?”
Jace pushed off the worktable. “Who cares? She’s an NOP.”
Caine bristled. The last thing he needed was animosity within the team on this case. They couldn’t afford to have biases blind them to the truth. “Jace, I’d appreciate if you didn’t use that word in this lab. I will not tolerate any speciesism here.”
“You hate them just as much as I do, Chief.” Jace stared at Caine. “Hell, man, you have more reason than anyone here to hate them. What they did to you.”
He put his hand up to stop any more accusations. “Although I find this matter as difficult to swallow as you do, I do not hate—”
“Excuse me?”
The soft, feminine sound came from the doorway. Caine swore under his breath and turned toward the voice. Eve stood framed in the doorway, her white-blond hair falling in her eyes. He wondered how long she had been listening to their conversation. He hoped not long.
However, by the look of anger and hurt on her face, he assumed she had been standing there long enough.
“Yes, Eve, hello. Has Lyra got you up to speed?” He walked toward her, hoping to defuse the situation.
“I need a computer.” She brushed a stray hair from her forehead and lifted her chin, but avoided meeting his eyes.
Caine had to admire her. She had likely heard everything they had said, and she still had the guts to walk in here and rise above the insults.
He’d been worried when he first saw her, looking like a Malibu Barbie doll. Long white-blond hair, dark blue eyes, blemish-free tanned skin, little pert nose with a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge. Thankfully, she was not rake thin. No, she definitely had curves. She filled out her navy pinstripe suit jacket and skirt very well. Not that he was trying to notice, it was just one of those things a man couldn’t help but observe. For a human, he had to admit, she was attractive.
When he had taken her hand, he had felt something jolt through his skin. An energy of some sort. She wasn’t psychic, but she possessed some kind of gift. And given the fact that his hand tingled after, remarkably with pleasure, she had certain sexual potency as well. Something, he believed, she had no idea that she possessed.
“Yes, of course,” he answered, giving her his best diplomatic smile.
“I thought since the rest of the team is processing evidence, I would get a jump on IDing the victim. I can access AFIS, CODIS and missing persons reports.”
“You have complete access to all the systems in San Antonio?”
Arching a brow, she smiled back at him. “What I don’t have access to, I can hack.”
Gwen whooped. “A girl after my own heart.”
Caine’s lips twitched. The woman had guts, he’d give her that. More than he expected from a human woman. Now, if she could back that up with skill, he’d be one happy crime investigator.
“You can use the computer in the analysis room.” Still carrying his clipboard, Caine exited the lab and led the way down the hall to another small, enclosed area.
When he walked through the doorway of the analysis room, he stopped in his tracks, and Eve nearly collided with him. The computer was being used. Lyra was happily going through magical symbols and spells that she had archived in their system years ago.
Lyra glanced up at him and smiled smugly. “Why don’t you let Eve use the computer in your office?”