Strong, Sleek and Sinful - By Lorie O'Clare Page 0,47

faster, answering as she reached her car.

“Kylie, it’s Paul.”

“What do you got?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder and then unlocking her car.

“Female, age fifteen, student at Holy Mary’s, a private high school in Mission Hills. Her name was Kathleen Long.” He continued with her address, parents’ info, and then paused. “I’ll e-mail all of this to you. Obviously this is pending the autopsy, but the immediate diagnosis was rape and sodomy. It sounds as if she was pretty beaten up. They don’t have a clue why her body was there.”

“Was she dead before she was put there?” Kylie asked, knowing Paul wouldn’t know, but it was the first question that came to mind.

“I’m sure our Chief will have those answers for us soon.”

“You know, you could have filmed that crime scene for a textbook demonstration video,” Kylie commented, moving behind her wheel and closing the car door. “I didn’t notice any odd behavior from any officer working just now.”

“That’s good to know,” Paul said.

“Yeah.”

The ambulance left and another unmarked car followed. Kylie started her engine but kept her fingers on the keys when Perry drove toward her. The squad car stopped, taking two stalls when he put it in park at an angle. He got out of the car, leaving his partner in the passenger seat, and approached her with long, determined strides. It crossed her mind to lock the doors the second before he reached for the door handle and yanked her car door open. Kylie hung up her cell and tossed it to her passenger seat just as strong fingers wrapped around her arm and lifted her out of the car.

“What did I tell you about playing private detective?” Perry growled. He looked pissed, but there was something else smoldering in that dark gaze that heated her insides to a dangerous level so quickly that she couldn’t think of a good answer. “This isn’t a game.”

“I’m not playing.” Her voice cracked when she spoke and she cleared her throat, daring to stare him down in spite of his intimidating glare. “What happened to her?” she asked before she could stop herself. For a moment he looked as though he would growl. A small muscle twitched along his jaw next to that hairline scar of his. “I was across the street. You saw me. I was curious just like everyone else,” she added quickly.

“Someone raped a young girl and beat her so badly that it will be hard for her family to recognize her, I’m sure,” Perry told her, his voice rough with emotion while his gaze moved slowly across her face. “We’re not positive yet, but it appears she collapsed where she was found and possibly laid there for a few hours before she died.”

Kylie saw that he told her these details to terrify her. He didn’t speak as one professional would to another. But then, he didn’t see her as a professional. She bit back the foul taste of frustration that she couldn’t question him the way she wanted, and instead found herself staring at his mouth. If he had killed Kathleen Long, describing how she died, what was done to her, might possibly get him off as much as the act of raping and sodomizing her had. That would make him one hell of a despicable man, and Kylie wondered for a moment if she’d become too jaded from so many crime scenes, so many deaths.

“Who would do something like that to a child?” Kylie heard her mother’s words, arriving in her mind at a rather inopportune moment. If she were searching for her sister’s murderer, she’d searched for too long. Because as she stared at Perry, at his hardened, brooding expression, fire ignited inside her even when she reminded herself she could be staring at a killer.

“A sick and dangerous person.”

“Obviously.”

“Why are you here?” he asked again, and let go of her arm. Instead of stepping back, though, he touched her neck and pushed under her chin with his thumb, forcing her to tilt her head back and stare more directly into his eyes. “This isn’t the closest grocery store to your house. Tell me the truth, Kylie.”

“I already told you. I was across the street at the bookstore,” she told him honestly. “I saw you head over here. I saw the lights and the crowd and was curious,” she said, trying to shift her attention past him to see who might be watching them, other than his partner. She hoped Chief Radisson still