What Burns Within (41 page)

She yanked herself out of his grip and turned around, grabbed her coat and keys, and slammed the front door behind her.

“Where were you?” Craig asked as soon as Ashlyn returned to the house.

“Forging your signature at a shoe store.”

He gave her a wry smile and grabbed the boxes as she slipped off her sandals. “Very funny.”

“Seriously. I had to sign some paper saying I picked these up.”

“Don’t want customers trying to get a second order free.” Craig set them on the small table in the corner of the kitchen. “Thanks for doing that.”

“And thanks for cooking,” she said, surveying the array of pots simmering on the stove. “My trip to the store was a bit more interesting today.” She leaned against the counter and grabbed a carrot from the tray of vegetables he was dicing. From previous experience she knew he was actually a good cook, but he seldom bothered when he was alone. Unless he had company, Craig tended to live on takeout.

“That girl give you more insight into male anatomy?”

She laughed. “Hardly. Her co-worker was there and he’s a real womanizer. Ass man too.”

Craig frowned at her. “Nice.”

“No different than some of the guys we worked with last year.”

“Probably not much different than any number of guys you walk past on a given day. Especially working those arson cases.”

She chewed slowly as her eyes pinched together. “You know something that I don’t?”

“You’re quite popular.”

“I don’t think I want to know what that means.”

“Where are you going?” he asked her as she started to walk into the hallway.

“Upstairs to change. These short skirts are driving me crazy.”

“Maybe you can sue the department for harassment, making you wear those.”

“I’m going after hazard pay for the high heels,” she called back.

Craig lifted the cutting board and scraped the vegetables into the pan just as the doorbell rang. He started to run to answer it and then stopped, turned the burner down, and walked to the door.

For a moment they stood looking at each other. Craig tried half a dozen different lines in his head and couldn’t think of what to say. She solved the problem for him.

“Can I come in?”

He opened the door wider and stepped back. “I’m just making dinner.”

“Smells good.”

Lori followed him down the hall into the kitchen, where the contents of the pan were sizzling.

“How did you find out where I live?”

“It wasn’t hard.”

Craig glanced at her. “Not exactly reassuring.”

“I meant for someone in the department.”

“Right. What brings you by?”

“No ‘can I get you a drink?’ or ‘want to stay for dinner?’ or ‘how have you been?’ formalities from you, huh?”

He flushed as he looked up, but she offered him a bitter smile.

“At least you’re consistent. You don’t baby me.” She stiffened. “Sorry. I’m intruding.”

Craig followed her gaze to the hallway, where Ashlyn had paused.

“No, not at all.” Ashlyn walked into the kitchen. “Can I get you something to drink? Tea, juice, lemonade?”

Craig noticed the pinch of Lori’s eyes, followed by the slightest widening, as though she’d just made a connection.

“You work for the department, don’t you?”

“Um-hmm. Iced tea?”

“Sure.”

Lori glanced at Craig, looking like a poker player who’d just picked up a winning hand.

“Why don’t you two go into the living room while I finish dinner?” Ashlyn said. “I’ll call you in a few minutes.”

“Lori isn’t staying,” Craig said.

“You know, Craig, department policy and all that jazz. Could really hurt your career if the wrong people knew you’re involved with another officer.”

“It’s none of your business,” he told her.

“Really?”

“We aren’t partnering now, so what I’m doing in my personal or professional life has nothing to do with you.”

“I want back on the rape case.”

“You’re dreaming.”

“I don’t think so. And I think you can help me with that.”

“Lori, go home. Honestly, you aren’t even ready to be back on the job. I’d let someone take this rape case away from me before I’d be willing to work with you on it.”

She smiled and set her glass down on the counter. “If that’s the way you want it, that’s fine.” Lori held up her hand as Ashlyn started to follow her into the hallway. “I can see myself out.”

He inched the tape forward a millisecond at a time, paused it, studied the image for a moment, and then backed it up.

Perfect. The more sophisticated technology became, the easier it was for him to convert frames from tape to his computer, where he could save them as images. She’d make a nice one for his collection.

Once he’d transferred all the data, he printed the image off, studying her. An eye-catcher in her own right, vivacious, a real intelligence to her, despite the casual indifference.

Nice legs. And a real nice ass.

His smile faded as he heard footsteps coming down the hall, and he stuck the photo into his bag, glancing at the clock and cursing being held up again, on a Saturday as well. He wasn’t even supposed to be working today, but with summer vacations and staff being sick, he was on mega-overtime at the moment.

And there was a fire to night. Not as big as some, but big enough for a quickie.

She was on the wrong rotation, though. He stuffed the personal information in beside the photo and cleared his computer screen so that nobody could see what he’d really been doing.

“Anything else to go off?” Craig asked.

“A few things to chase down, but not much. You know, you’d think it would be easy to sit around a house all day and just track down info, but it’s enough to drive me crazy. What about you?”

“Remember being a cadet at the Depot?”

Ashlyn offered a sardonic smile. “Does anyone ever forget?”

“Today was like a repeat.”

“That much fun, huh?”

“I thought police officers were bad. These firefighters are pretty competitive,” Craig said, getting up to answer the door. “Did you see Tain?”

“Briefly. He was supposed to call back…”

Craig stepped back while Daly walked past him wordlessly. He followed Daly back to the living room.

“Did you know?” Daly demanded.

“About what?” Ashlyn asked, remaining curled up on the couch.

“About another possible motive for the abduction of Taylor Brennen.”

“Is this why I didn’t hear from Tain? You didn’t suspend him, did you?”

“I came pretty damn close, Ashlyn. First you and now this. Since when do you cut me out of the loop?”

She opened her mouth and then looked at Craig before turning back to Daly.

“Look, Burnaby’s bungled this from the beginning, and there was no reason to think that Taylor’s abduction wasn’t connected to the other girls. If we jumped to conclusions and let them take the case back, we wouldn’t be where we are now. What about the connection to the fires? And the rapes? Taylor’s case fits those patterns.”

“We know that now, Ashlyn.”

“Tain checked it out, quietly. We just didn’t want anyone getting excited and getting ahead of what the facts merited.”

Daly sank down on the sofa and leaned forward, looking at her. “So you’re saying Tain told you and you agreed to keep quiet.”

Craig watched her, caught the split-second hesitation.

“I’m saying that Tain did the right thing, and I supported his decision.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I’m not hanging him out to dry to cover my own ass here.”

“Ashlyn, this is the second time you’ve demonstrated to me that you can be reckless. Is this how you work on the job, or is this the influence of Tain?”

“It’s on me, Daly.”

“Then I’m pulling you out of here.”

“What? I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Craig said, moving around behind the smaller sofa to stand behind Ashlyn.

“Craig, you can stay in the department and we can get that list checked, but I’m not having an officer in an undercover role if I can’t trust her.”

“The guys at the department believe she’s my girlfriend. Pulling Ashlyn out could jeopardize my position there.

“Dad, you know damn well if Burnaby had caught on to the possibility that Taylor’s abduction wasn’t linked, they would have snatched that case back. You’d be dealing with Coquitlam families you couldn’t help.” Craig sighed. “I know Tain, and I know he’s capable of a lot of things, but not for the sake of his ego. He did this because he believed it was right.”

“There was a time you weren’t so quick to trust him.”

“But I’ve always trusted Ashlyn, and so have you.”

Daly stared back at Craig for a moment before he shifted his gaze down to Ashlyn.

“My question here is whether Ashlyn and Tain trust me. You both could have come to me and I would have supported you. I can protect you if I know what the hell you’re doing.”

“I…I’m sorry. There’s been so much stress you’ve been under, and I’m not just saying that to try to brush this off. You know the hours Tain and I were putting in. Stuff came in, and we just had to roll with it and sort it out as best we could. There were times I was looking for you and you were caught up with Craig or Hawkins or at a rape scene. Tain wanted more information before he put it forward because we were still actively working with Burnaby, and then once he’d tracked it down, I was pulled off for this.”

“When did he tell you?” Daly asked.

“Everything? This morning.”

“But you knew about it before.”

“I knew he was holding something back, and he told me enough for me to support his decision.”

“Did Hawkins flip out?” Craig asked.

“Hawkins already cut the team from Burnaby out of it, so Tain’s on his own, except for what ever help you can give him. But Hawkins did call to tell me he expected me in early tomorrow morning for a meeting.”

Craig saw Ashlyn look up at him.

“When did he call?”