Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32) - Lynsay Sands Page 0,106

left her skin tingling like she’d rubbed tingling tanning lotion on her face, and it was moving out from there to the rest of her body. The man was crazy hot and sexy and thank goodness he’d moved to another table. It was the only chance she had to actually get some proper work done. It was hard to concentrate with him close.

Her thoughts were distracted when a trio of teenagers approached the table. Crowding close together, and eyeing her with a combination of fear and determination, they stood next to the table waiting politely.

CJ invited them to sit and turned on her tape recorder.

CJ hit Send, emailing the report to her boss. She then sat back and twisted her neck one way and then the other to try to ease the crick she had in it from sitting hunched at the computer for so long. It had been a busy few days. Once the men had moved to another booth in the diner, it had been nonstop people approaching her to pass on information they had about Jefferson. Very little of it had been something that could be used in a court of law, but she’d put most of it in her report to her boss. She’d gone to the police station after that, accompanied by Mac, Decker and Bricker. They’d all reviewed their statements and signed them, and then waited a good hour for Jefferson to show up, but he never had. He hadn’t been arrested either. It seemed the man had disappeared. The captain suspected that Jefferson’s wife being at her parents’ and their refusing to let him speak to her when he’d called searching for her had tipped him off, but the man also had a radio at home and had most likely heard the APB called out on him. He’d been missing when the officers had gone to the house, and he hadn’t shown up for his shift either. It was looking like he’d “done a runner.”

CJ had waited around the station for a while, but after the captain had promised to contact her if they were able to find and arrest him, she and the men had returned to the bed-and-breakfast where she’d met Mac’s sister, Katricia. She’d liked the woman, and fortunately his sister wasn’t holding her job against her. They’d got along great and visited for a while, and then they all went out to dinner, dragging Mrs. Vesper along with them since the rest of her clients had cleared out now that the wedding they were attending was over.

After that they’d returned to the bed-and-breakfast and sat on the porch chatting, half the group spilling onto the lawn there were so many of them. It had been a blast. CJ had never laughed so much in her life as she did that night, although her week on the island with Marguerite and Julius had come close. It had been late when Katricia had left to drive back to Port Henry and CJ and Mac had gone upstairs. He’d said he’d walk her to her door, and he had, but he hadn’t left until the next morning and then it was only long enough for him to shower and change in the RV. CJ had done the same in her room, and then met him downstairs to go interview Keith Kaye, Mark Loop, and Mike MacDonald. She hadn’t expected to be able to interview Mark Loop, but he’d regained consciousness during the night and was able to tell her what he recalled of what happened. It was exactly what they’d seen: Officer Jefferson had stopped him, smashed his back light, and then attacked Mark when he started cussing at the man and threatening to complain to the captain about his actions. Jefferson may have started out a good cop, but he had definitely turned into one of those bad cops she wanted to see off the streets.

CJ had spent the time since her interviews writing up her report. It was a really long report thanks to the number of people who had approached her at the diner. She’d worked on it all afternoon the day before yesterday, and all day yesterday, and, now, at noon on the third day, she was done and had sent it to her boss. Which meant she was free to do what she wanted. The moment she’d hit Send she was on vacation for two weeks. Her original plan had been to go to Pelee Island again,