Becoming Forever (Waking Forever Series) (13 page)

Lara grinned. “I know
a
Lucy, but what are the odds?”

Ash smiled. “You would know if you had met
the
Lucy.” Ash leaned back in her chair. “Best cake ever. The icing is so thick you can just swim in it.” Ash held her thumb and forefinger nearly two inches apart.

Lara laughed. “Your family is Catholic then?”

Ash nodded. “Out of habit I think more than anything else.”

Lara’s eyes narrowed
. “I was raised Catholic. Brutal religion.”

Ash’s brow furrowed. “Maybe it’s different in Mexico.
We do a lot of potlucks at our church.”

Lara looked at A
sh for several seconds. The frown on her face made her look angry. Then as if a switch flipped, Lara sighed and managed a smile. “Real, real Catholics, not this Catholic lite you Americans play at.”

Ash was glad the tension had passed. She didn’t want to get into a debate about religion even if she had very little skin in the game. “We prefer our Catholicism buffet style.” Ash winked.

Lara waved the waiter over. “Please let me get this.”

Ash shook her head. “Dutch - all the way.”

Lara started to protest, and then shook her head. “Okay then.”

The two women paid their bill
s and walked out of the restaurant. Feast sat in a hybrid residential and commercial neighborhood; so they had to walk several blocks to get to where they had parked.

“
I’m up another block.” Ash said, pointing down the tree lined street. She was immediately aware of Lara’s hand on her waist as she stepped toward Ash. Her heart racing, Ash leaned toward Lara and their lips met.

The kiss was tentative at first, and then Lara stepped closer, bringing the full length of their bodies together. A soft moan escaped Lara’s mouth as her tongue made contact with Ash’s. Placing her hand lightly on the side of Lara’s neck, Ash marveled at how soft and warm her lips felt.

Lara stepped back first, and smiled. Her skin was flush. “I enjoyed dinner.”

Ash reached down a
nd took Lara’s hand in hers. “Me too, even with the weather talk.”

Lara grinned and released Ash’s hand as she stepped toward her
black Mercedes. “Not that again.”

“I’m running out of material.” Ash teased.

“I’ll call you tomorrow, and we can plan another outing.” Lara slid into the driver’s seat.

Ash backed away, knowing she looked like
a fool with the cheesy grin across her face. “Absolutely.”

Walking toward her Jeep, Ash still felt the tingle of Lara’s lips on hers. She was growing
fonder of the beautiful woman, and hoped the feeling was mutual.

***

“I don’t see what the harm is in discussing the case?” Ash persisted in spite of the pained look on Emma’s face. Her outing with the doctor was going significantly worse than her date with Lara two days ago. They had met at Grimaldi’s Pizza in the Quarry Market, and things had been tense since Ash started asking questions about the Garrett autopsy. Emma was being defensive and evasive.

“I can’t – I don’t want to be responsible for inadvertently sending you down the wrong path with a misinformed assumption
or speculation.” Emma countered as she clenched and unclenched her napkin.

Ash let out an exasperated sigh. “Emma, this isn’t a court room. You’re not under oath.” Ash shook her head. “I’m responsible for the conclusions I draw. Not you.” She was torn between wanting to reassure her friend
, and telling her how utterly ridiculous she was being.

Emma looked at Ash for several seconds, her face expressionless. Finally, she swallowed, and looked down at her
pizza. “Honestly, I spend ten to twelve hours a day with my work.”

Without looking up at Ash
, she continued. “I know you do too; so I trust you’ll understand when I say I want –” Emma finally looked up and met Ash’s gaze. “I want you and me to be separate from that. I want it to be about us, and not the work.”

Ash’s breath caught at the sim
plicity of her friend’s candor, and she felt guilty having suspected Emma of hiding something from her. “I want that too.” Ash smiled. “That’s all you had to say, silly.” Ash nudged Emma’s arm.

Emma hesitated and then smiled. “Thank you.”

Ash nodded, and the two women resumed their dinner. Ash looked across the table at her friend, who had just taken a bite of vegetarian pizza. Ash’s esteem of Emma grew when she saw the doctor fold the thin crust pizza up before taking a bite.

With a mouth full of pizza, Emma looked at Ash. “What?”

Ash grinned. “I’m glad you’re enjoying the pizza.”

Emma finished chewing and wiped her mouth. “I read an article when this place first opened, and found it fascinating that to ensure continuity of product between their satellite stores and the original Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn, they have a special water osmosis filtration system that renders the water in any city nearly identical to the Brooklyn water.” Emma took a drink of her water. “So the dough i
s practically the same.”

Ash finished chewing a bite of her peperoni and sausage pizza before responding. “Starbu
cks does the same thing. Triple reverse osmosis system in every store. Costs them a hundred thousand dollars, but you get the same cup of coffee every time.”

Ash suddenly wanted to punch herself. She was turning into her friend and spouting off trivial bits
of information. If she hung out with Emma enough, her simple and compound sentences would start morphing into compound complex sentences.

“
I’m not a huge fan of their coffee.” Emma shrugged. “Coffee in general, actually. I prefer tea.”

Ash’s eyebrow arched. “You know they just bought Teavana?”

Emma winced. “I know. Hopefully they let it be business as usual.” She reached for another slice of pizza.

Ash watched Emma as she folded her pizza slice and took a bite. She continued to be amazed at how comfortable she felt with the doctor. In spite of their differences, the friendship worked. Given Emma’s recent admission about their relationship being more than work, Ash felt confident she felt the same.

Chapter 7

Ash sat at her desk, staring at her notes from the Garrett case along with the M.E. report. Her frustrations were growing as she continued struggling to piece together what seemed like random facts and elusive details.

“Detective Haines?” Samantha Reynolds was a twenty-three year old, dark haired, Hispanic intern who helped around the station while she worked
on her Bachelors of Science in Criminology. Ash had always had an affinity for the girl, given their shared field of study.

“What’s up Sam?” Ash caught a flash of purple as the girl pushed the office door completely open. In her arms was a gorgeous arrangement of purple and lavender roses, stock and waxflower, accented with fresh greens.

“These came for you.” The petite intern struggled to carry the enormous arrangement.

Ash quickly got up out of her chair, and took the
flowers from Sam. “Thanks. Sorry you had to lug them all the way down here. You could have buzzed me.”

Sam smiled. “I don’t mind. Besides, they smell so good.”

Ash had received flowers several times in her life from both family and people she was romantically involved with, but those paled in comparison to this colossal assortment. “They really do. Thanks Sam.” Ash began looking for a card when she noticed the young woman wasn’t going anywhere. “Was there something else?”

Sam blushed, and looked down. “
We were curious who they’re from.”

Ash knew the
we
Samantha spoke of was the pool of assistants and receptionists that worked throughout the station. No doubt one of them had rung the delivery person in, and now the gaggle of them wanted details. Ash shook her head as she had no intention of becoming a topic of gossip in the office. She began walking around the arrangement, and seeing the small envelope discreetly tucked into the flowers, Ash reached out and quickly grabbed the paper while Sam stood on the other side. Tucking it into her pant pocket, she peered around the flowers. “Looks like there isn’t a card, or it fell off.”

Sam frowned. “I thought for sure I saw a card.” She looked around the arrangement at where Ash had just taken the envelope from. Then looking up and seeing Ash’s intense stare, the young girl winced. “My mistake. I’ll tell the front desk - ah, no card.”

Ash nodded. “Thanks, Sam.” The girl quickly left the office, shutting the door behind her. Ash pulled the small envelope from her pocket and opened it, wondering what Lara had written.
Thank you for a lovely dinner and for understanding. Your Friend, E.

Ash
stood perfectly still for several seconds as she processed this lovely gesture from her friend and how she felt about it.

It’s perfectly fine for a friend to send another friend flowers. Especially after we had a bit of a tiff last night.
Ash sat down at her desk and positioned the vase of flowers on the corner.
Then why am I beyond ecstatic that these are from Emma, and when I thought they were from Lara I was only pleasantly pleased?

“Sweet Jesus, that’s an impressive handful of dead things.” Ash was brought out of her pondering by Cris coming in the office. Before she could respond with her usual sa
rcasm, she saw their Lieutenant, Robert Edwards, behind Cris.

Ash stood up
smartly behind her desk. “Morning, sir.”

Robert Edwards
was nearly twenty pounds overweight at 5’8” tall, with thinning gray hair. He was a career officer who had been promoted to Lieutenant of Homicide over three years ago. The Lieutenant was a reasonable man, but he hated excuses and didn’t abide failure. Ash assumed he was here to talk to her and Cris about the open, and still very unsolved, Garrett case.

“What have you two got on Garrett?” Robert sat on the edge of Ash’s desk, eyeing the large arrangement.

Ash looked at Cris, who nodded, indicating she was up to bat. “One person of interest. Girlfriend who may have aided the perp. Unusual bite marks and saliva on the victim; so we are looking into possible ritual killing or even a fledgling killer who might have committed similar crimes elsewhere.”

Edwards looked from the flowers to Cris
, and then at Ash. “You’re at the three week mark, Haines. The trail will only get colder. Why hasn’t this person of interest been brought in for formal questioning?”

“She has an alibi
, sir, which is why we think she knows the perp, or aided them in some way.” Ash forced herself to breathe so her voice wouldn’t tighten up. “And based on her attitude during my initial interview, I doubt she would come in of her own fruition.”

“
Hello, Detective Haines.” Ela’s melodic voice filled the small office.

Ash jerked her head around, her mouth open. “Ah, Ms. Jacobs.”

Ela smiled and came into the office, both Cris and Robert stood. “Please, Detective Haines, I give you my permission to call me Ela.” She turned her attentions to Robert. “And who is this?”

The
Lieutenant cleared his throat and stretched out his hand. “Robert Edwards, Ms. Jacobs.”

Ela winked as she took the man’s hand. “Ela.” Turning toward Cris, she extended her hand.

“You must be Detective Haines’ partner, Cristelo Martinez.” Ela’s accent was perfect as she took Cris’ hand between both of hers. “Is that spelled without the ‘h’?”

Cris nodded. “Yes, Ms –”

Ela release Cris’ hand and shook her finger at him teasingly. “Ela, please.”

Ash managed to regain her composure. “Ms. Jacobs, how did you get back here?”

Ela turned toward Ash. “I showed them my ID, told them I had an appointment, and I was buzzed through.” She grinned.

Ash looked at Robert who shook his head. “I’ll go take care of this. Ela, it
was a pleasure.” The lieutenant left the office, his irritation over the security breach clear by the tension in his shoulders.

“
What brings you to our neck of the woods?” Cris gestured for the woman to sit in the chair at the end of his desk.

Ela moved gracefully through the cramped space and sat in the chair. Crossing her legs, she put her elbow on the edge of Cris’ desk. “Cristelo, I’m sure you heard I behaved rather badly when your partner approached me at Paul’s funeral.”  Ela glanced at Ash and frowned. “I was
so deep in my own grief I wasn’t myself.”

Ash had to stifle
a laugh. “Something’s deep.”

Cris smirked and looked closely at the woman. Her skin was flawless, and her eyes were the most intense blue he had ever seen. “What can you tell us about Mr. Garrett’s death
?”

Ela turned her attentions back to Cris. “I don’t know if I can help at all, but I would like to make a formal statement.
Maybe there is something I know and don’t even realize may assist you with the investigation.”