there are hot cocktail-delivery guys.
I also need to call my brother. Desperately. Maybe even brothers if Trent won’t give me what I want. Unfortunately, he’s my best and worst shot at information. Best because I’ll trade babysitting for information, and worst because, as the lead detective, he won’t want to give up the ghost. Devin won’t be working the case, and Brody is probably mad at me for making him finally go on a date with Mel, which I hear didn’t go too well.
Rumor has it he assumed he’d get sex at the end of the night, but apparently, she’s not a hit-it-and-quit-it girl. Who knows? Roll on Friday night when I can corner everyone and annoy information out of them.
I scrunch up the cupcake wrapper and drop it in the trash can next to my desk. I wonder if going to see Trent will be of more benefit to me than calling him. If I call, he can hang up, but he can’t exactly throw me out of the police station.
I mean, he can try, but I’ll just threaten to tell Nonna, and he’ll stop.
I blow out a long breath. Yep. I’m gonna have to make a trip to the police station if I hope to find any kind of lead for my investigation.
I swear, if I didn’t love Gianna this much, there’d be another murder in town.
I slip my heels on, grab my purse, my phone, and my keys, and head out of the building. It’s unusually quiet in the office today, so I’m assuming everyone is out doing work instead of paperwork or working at home. I really need to inject little GPS trackers into them or something.
It takes me only a few minutes to drive from my office to the police station and pull up. Drake’s truck isn’t here, and I’m more than a little thankful for that. If I don’t see him, it means I don’t have to explain why I’m here. He knows I only turn up when I need something.
Damn relationships. It’s a problem when your partner knows you so well… Mostly because I can’t surprise him anymore. Or get away with anything.
Yeah, it’s the last part I struggle with.
“Hey, Noelle,” Charlotte greets me as I walk in. “What’s up?”
“Hey.” I smile at her as she sits behind the counter with a stack of papers in her hand. “Is Trent around?”
“Uh, I think he’s in his office. Do you want me to check?” She goes to stand, but I shake my head to stop her.
“It’s okay. I’ll do it. Thanks.” Again, I smile. Then I head down the hallway to my eldest brother’s office.
His door is slightly ajar, and when I peek through the gap, I see him standing in the middle of the room in front of his whiteboard. From what I can see, he’s staring at a blank board.
“I know you’re there, Noelle.”
“Damn. How’d you know?” I push the door open and step in.
He looks over his shoulder at me and half smirks. “You’re the only person who’d stand in my doorway and spy on me. Plus, I have a four-year-old. I know when I’m being watched.”
“I suppose.” I sigh and perch on the edge of his desk. “What are you doing?”
“Working,” he answers evasively. “What are you doing?”
“I wanted to see my favorite brother.”
“Did we not just have this conversation, oh, yesterday?”
“So I stopped by to see you twice in two days? If that isn’t proof you’re my favorite, I don’t know what is…”
“Noelle,” he says sharply and turns. “I’m not playing this game with you today. What do you want?”
Fine. Cutting to the chase it is. “Information.”
“Nope.” He turns back to his board. His blank board.
“You don’t even know what I want to know.”
“Yes, I do. You want information on Wally’s death. You want to know what we’ve found out since we named Gianna our top suspect, and you want to know whether or not the autopsy has been completed, and you want the results if it has been.”
“You know, it totally ruins everything if a woman can’t be even a little mysterious.”
“There’s nothing mysterious about you. Except perhaps your very existence. I swear you were born to test me.”
“That is in the job description of ‘sister.’ To test you.”
“Yeah, I figured.” He caps his pen and puts it on the little tray beneath the board. Then he turns to me. “I can’t tell you anything. I’m sorry. I wish I could. Sheriff Bates doesn’t want Drake to know