LITMIR.BIZ

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no idea what they were up against, and it frustrated him no end. He didn’t like operating blindly.

      Valri watched the chief. “You’re thinking that whoever killed Hunter knew what was on his laptop and what? Decided to save the world from it?”

      “Not exactly,” he corrected her misconception. “We’re thinking that whoever killed Rogers wants to use whatever is on the computer and doesn’t want to share that information with the rest of the class.” He spread his wide palms on top of his desk blotter and leaned slightly forward for a better look into her eyes. He found a good many of his answers there when he spoke to people. “So, Officer Cavanaugh, are you up for this?”

      Valri could barely sit still and contain the energy that she felt surging through her. “I love a challenge, sir.”

      Brian smiled, nodding his head. He’d made the right call. “So I’ve heard.”

      “Where is the laptop now, sir?” Valri wanted to know.

      “Temporarily, it’s still locked up down in Homicide,” Brian told her. “Detective Brody has custody of it at the moment. Are you acquainted with Detective Alex Brody?” he asked.

      The name was vaguely familiar, but she had no idea why. Most likely she’d overheard it being mentioned by one of the other uniforms. In any case, she had no personal recollection of the man.

      Valri shook her head. “No, sir.”

      “Well, you will be. I’m having the two of you partner up for this case. Temporarily,” he added on.

      “He’s good with computers, too?” she asked, assuming that was why the chief was putting the two of them together.

      Brian laughed rather heartily in response to her question. Valri had her answer before the chief opened his mouth and said a word.

      “Not to hear him tell it. But Detective Brody is good with people and he’s a damn fine detective to boot.” He could see by the look on his younger cousin’s face that she was trying to follow his reasoning and she wasn’t succeeding. “I’m putting the two of you out in the field together,” he explained. “You’ll each supply strengths that the other is lacking.”

      “Won’t Detective Brody feel resentful, being paired up with a beat cop?” she asked. She wasn’t a rookie, but she had a feeling that Brody would think of her in that light.

      “Possibly,” Brian acknowledged. “Which is why I’m issuing you a temporary promotion to detective for the duration of this investigation.”

      “Promotion? To detective?” she repeated in an awed whisper, never taking her eyes off the chief. “Seriously, sir?”

      Valri was certain that at any second now, he’d come back to his senses, say he’d made a mistake and apologize just before he told her that she was going to remain a patrol officer.

      “You have a problem with that, Officer Cavanaugh?” he asked her in all seriousness.

      “What? Oh no, sir. No, I don’t. It’s just that—” Her words all but evaporated as her voice trailed off into something that sounded like a squeak.

      “It’s just that...?” he repeated, waiting for her to finish her sentence.

      She had to be honest with him. Yes, she had joined the police force with dreams of eventually making detective. But even in her wildest dreams, it took some time to get there. She’d been on the force only a little over two years.

      “I didn’t expect to have it happen so fast,” she finally said.

      A comfortable as well as comforting smile slipped over his lips. “Life happens fast, Officer Cavanaugh. We have to try to keep up. And besides, the promotion is temporary, not permanent,” he reminded her. “At least, not yet,” he added with an encouraging note in his voice. “But it’s been my experience that as a whole, Cavanaughs are a very tough bunch to keep down.” His eyes held hers. “I’d like to believe that the same can be said for you.”

      “Yes, sir,” Valri replied with conviction, beaming. The next second, she realized that it probably sounded to the chief as if she was bragging so she made an attempt to backtrack and say something a bit more humble. “I mean, I’m not trying to get you to think that I—”

      “One thing you will learn, Officer,” Brian said, raising his voice and cutting through her statement, “is that no one ‘gets’ me to think anything.”

      “No, sir,” she responded quickly, then realized that she was interrupting him while he was talking. “I mean—sorry, sir.”

      “Nothing to be sorry about, Officer. And I’m proud to say that I’ve never been known to bite a single officer, so relax, Officer Cavanaugh.”

      “Easier said than done, sir.”

      He laughed then at the simple truth she had uttered in desperation.

      “Yes, I imagine that it is,” he agreed with a soft chuckle. “So, tell me—and think carefully—are you up for this?” he asked her again.

      There was no hesitation in Valri’s voice this time as she gave him her answer. “Yes, sir.”

      He nodded, pleased.

      “Good.” And then he hit the button on his intercom, connecting him to his administrative assistant out front. “You can send him in now, Raleigh,” he told the woman who had once patrolled the streets of Aurora, along with Lila, his wife.

      “Right away, sir,” the feminine voice on the intercom promised.

      The next moment, the door to Brian’s inner office was being opened and a tall, broad-shouldered detective with dirty-blond hair that was slightly longer than regulation dictated came walking in as if he owned every square inch of space he passed.

      Sparing an appreciative glance at the officer sitting in front of the chief of Ds—Brody was not one who didn’t take note of beauty wherever he came in contact with it—the detective then focused his attention entirely on the man who he’d been told had requested his presence in his office.

      Alex had spent his morning with a dead man in a dingy apartment that desperately needed a thorough cleaning and a massive dose of fresh air. The chief’s immaculate, spacious office was a very welcome contrast.

      Alex stood behind the only empty chair in the room, waiting to find out if this was going to be something he needed to sit down for, or if this was just a quick, “touch base” sort of a meeting.

      “You sent for me, sir?” he asked the chief.

      Brian smiled. Gesturing for the young detective to sit down, he said, “I did indeed, Detective Brody.”

       Chapter 2

      “Detective Brody, this is Officer Valri Cavanaugh,” Brian told the new arrival. “Officer Cavanaugh, this is Alexander Brody, the homicide detective who caught the case we were discussing.”

      Alex nodded at the woman to his left. Surprised when she put out her hand to him, he shook it belatedly, then glanced back at the chief.

      “One of yours, sir?”

      He’d put it in the form of a question, but the query was obviously rhetorical in nature. It was a given that all the Cavanaughs were related to each other in one way or another. It was one of the first things he’d learned when he came out of the academy and joined the Aurora PD.

      The second thing he’d learned was that having all these related people around him was not really such a bad thing. The ones he had encountered so far—especially the detectives he’d worked with—were all at the top of their game.

      The chief gave him an indulgent smile. “You’re all ‘one of mine,’ Detective,” Brian informed him.

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