Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,33
personality usually happened near the end of her first cup of tea.
“Jake Carlisle. He had the number for the profiler he suggested I talk to.”
“That was fast,” she said then drained the last of her tea before taking it to the sink and setting it in with yesterday’s dishes.
“Yeah, he said Carson, that’s the guy, was on a break right now and had time to look at the case,” Aaron said, joining her at the sink. “Which means I need to go into the office and find out what we’ve gotten from the crime scene last night.”
“They’ll have results already?” She took his mug, rinsed out the coffee dregs and set in with the others.
“Maybe, maybe not. I’m afraid they’re going to only be able to tell me what they haven’t found. Like no fingerprints.” He sighed and turned his neck until it cracked.
She tried not to cringe. “But you need all the details you do have to get this Carson guy started.”
“Right. And I’m going to need to bring my captain up to speed on things.” He turned to lean one hip against the counter. “You think you’ll be okay staying with Paula this morning?”
“I’d already planned to.”
“Then we’d best get to the hospital. I don’t want Nana mad at me. She might not send me anymore Christmas cookies,” he said with a grin.
“She sends you some, too?” Surprised that she wasn’t the only one getting the year-end treats.
He nodded. “Three years running. Kirk F stops by the precinct with a big container every year. I’m lucky if I have a few to take home at the end of the shift.”
She grinned. “I get to keep the whole thing to myself.”
He groaned. “Now that’s just not fair.”
“Maybe you should give Kirk F your address,” she said with a laugh and moved around him to get her shoes from beside her bed.
It felt good to tease him. When he’d informed her he was spending the night no matter what she said—in no way had it been a suggestion or question—she’d thought it would be uncomfortable, awkward. But it hadn’t. Other than Kirk F, who really didn’t count, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so relaxed around a man. Even before she’d been taken and abused.
Seated on her bed, one shoe on, the other in her hand, she paused and stared off into space.
Had she ever been relaxed around a man? Comfortable? Not trying to figure out how they meant to use her or how she was going to use them? It had taken her weeks of therapy to realize she didn’t like the person she’d been before the incident and her manipulation of men might’ve put her at risk for the whole ordeal to have taken place. Yes, hundreds of women who’d been caught up in the sex-trafficking network were rescued and the perpetrators—Senator Klein, his son and other political cronies—had been tried in federal court and sat in prison because of her actions. That didn’t dismiss her own faults, her curiosity and sticking her nose into other people’s business to maneuver herself up in the company. For that she had to take responsibility.
“Ready?”
Startled back to the present, she looked up to see Aaron once more at her bedroom door, Stanley patiently seated at his feet. Any other day they’d look like a family going out for a nice walk. But they weren’t a family, and this wasn’t any ordinary day. They were on the trail of a killer.
10
“About time you two showed up,” Nana greeted them as she wiggled out of the chair in Paula’s room. “My grandson got here half an hour ago.”
“Where is Kirk F?” Aaron asked, handing Stanley’s leash to Brianna.
“Boy’s gone to get himself some breakfast. The nurses were nice enough to bring me a tray with little missy’s breakfast this morning. Told the boy, I was too tired and too old to be making him food. At his age, if you starve, you’re just plain stupid,” she said wrapping her knitting project around the needles and big ball of yarn she’d been using. After she’d gathered up her things, she turned to eye Aaron. “You gonna need me again tonight?”
“I don’t need…a sitter,” Paula said from her bed, looking a little less pale and sickly this morning. “Besides, the doctor said…I might go home…later today.”
“Key word being might.” Nana stared at her over the rim of her glasses.
Paula actually rolled her eyes like a petulant teenager.