Best Laid Plans(27)
“No, of course not. It’s just—last night was incredible. I didn’t want to tarnish it with a homicide investigation.”
He gave her a half smile. “I am pretty incredible.”
“You are.” She kissed him, but her mind was elsewhere.
“Lucy? What is it?”
“Sometimes, I bring the darkness home with me. And … I wonder if that’s all I have inside.”
“Don’t. It’s not true. Inside you are passionate and compassionate, you’re everything I want or need. Lucy, I’m here for you, light and dark. Good and bad. It would hurt more if you didn’t want to share, because I know how you think, how you work. You immerse yourself in your cases. It’s what makes you so good—and what troubles you.” He pushed her damp hair off her face and ran his thumbs down her jaw to her neck. He kissed her.
She returned the kiss and smiled. “You make everything easier for me. And I really do like brainstorming with you, your mind thinks through problems better than anyone I know.”
“I am brilliant, as well as incredible.”
She laughed. “Yes, you are.”
“Lucy, last night wasn’t isolated. We’ve done pretty good for the last eighteen months balancing the dark with the light.”
She sobered up. “But you’re the light, Sean. I’m the dark.”
“Don’t even think that way.” He caressed her cheek. “You can tell me anything.”
“You want to know, don’t you?”
“I want to share everything with you, Lucy. You know that.”
After filling Sean in on the Worthington case over breakfast, she realized that she and Barry had covered a lot of ground yesterday. “So Tia is helping us locate the prostitute. Once we talk to her, I think we’ll finally know what’s going on.”
“But you think he was murdered.”
She hesitated. “Yes. I just don’t know why he was killed. Because he was a pervert? Because of something related to HWI? Because of his wife, the congresswoman? Once we know why he flew to San Antonio on Friday night, I think we’ll have the answers. Hopefully tomorrow, when we interview his daughter.”
“I don’t know if I told you, but HWI offered me a job a few months ago.”
“You didn’t, but yesterday I met the head of security, Gregor Smith. Small world—he mentioned you, after he found out who I was. He was an MP and arrested Jack once.”
“Now that would be an interesting story. But I mention the HWI offer because Smith called me again yesterday afternoon. He didn’t tell me that you’d been to the office, just that he wanted to hire me to test their security and assist in the forensic audit. I accepted, but I didn’t know you were the lead agent. I can back out.”
“First, I’m not the lead agent—Barry Crawford is. Second, I’m not going to tell you to take it or not take it. In fact, it would probably be more of a conflict if I’m involved in the decision making, so I’m recusing myself.” It would be easier on her at work if Sean wasn’t involved with the same cases she was, but at the same time, they worked so well together that she certainly wouldn’t complain if he did take the job.
“All right. I’m meeting with him tomorrow morning.”
She kissed him. “They couldn’t have hired a better consultant.”
“That’s what I said.” Sean winked. “Call Tia, then we’ll go to the boys’ house. If you need to bail on me, that’s fine—but you’ll have to find some way to make it up to me.” He kissed her. “Like, a full body massage after my long day of hard labor.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Oh, yeah, I would.” He grinned.
Sean went upstairs to change into his grungy clothes while Lucy called Tia.
“Sorry I’m just getting back to you—I just listened to your message,” Lucy said.
“It was Saturday night, hope you and Sean had a night out on the town.”
“Nope, just stayed in, but he cooked.”
“I’d give anything for a man who cooked.”
“You can’t have him.”
“He’s a little young for me. I’m going to be forty at the end of the year. Does he have a single older brother?”
She pictured Kane Rogan, who was an older, leaner, meaner version of Sean. “Yes, he does.”
“I’ll get an intro out of you one of these days. Anyway, I got your message and was surprised I’d never seen the girl before. I know most of the regulars, if not by name then by face. She’s not in the system, at least in Bexar County. I’m widening it to all of Texas, but it’ll take a little more time without a name or prints.”
“SAPD ran all the prints they could get from the motel and nothing popped,” Lucy said. “We’re running them federally, but there’s no criminal. Nothing yet from missing persons.” Lucy sipped her coffee. “You said you had a lead?”
“Maybe. I talked to one of my informants, showed her the picture. She recognized her, said she’s new in town, but doesn’t know anything about her. I have a couple places to check out where she might be. I can do it myself, I don’t want to infringe on your Sunday.”