Guilt was mounting up within her, making her feel sick. She had never dealt with anything like this before and it was hard to keep from breaking down.
“Right now, my main concern is keeping another person from getting killed, namely you,” Morgan told her. “Now stop arguing with me and get into the car.” He held the door open for her.
Krys took in a deep, shaky breath and did as he asked. She desperately tried to see an upside to this. She could only think of one. “I guess this rules out Bluebeard trying to kill me.”
Morgan didn’t totally agree. “Maybe yes, maybe no.” His response surprised her. “This could all be a coincidence,” he told her.
She stared at him, confused. “You’re going to have to be clearer than that.”
“Maybe this Bluebeard does want revenge because you’re responsible for ruining his perfect scheme. Meanwhile, someone killed Claire because she was about to blow the whistle on the drug trials and that could wind up costing the company a fortune.”
This was just getting worse and worse, she thought. “All I know is that I feel like Typhoid Mary, spreading death in my path without even realizing it.”
He had to stop her before she got too carried away blaming herself. “Don’t be too hasty donning that hair shirt just yet.”
“Are you telling me you think I’m being some sort of a martyr?” Her voice rose sharply.
“No. I’m saying that you’re anticipating being a martyr. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, okay?” he advised.
“Ahead of myself? Maybe someone should tell that to Claire,” she snapped. She was struggling, but she was on the verge of breaking down. The guilt was all but suffocating her now. She had never cost anyone their life before and the very thought was overwhelming her.
Consumed with guilt, Krys didn’t realize that he was pulling over until Morgan had stopped the car and turned off the engine. Blinking back tears, she looked around. They weren’t anywhere near the police station. She saw that he had pulled his car into a parking lot.
“What are we doing here?” she asked. “For that matter, where is here?” she asked, her voice breaking.
“I thought maybe you needed a moment to pull yourself together before we drive to the police station,” he told her.
“I don’t need a moment,” she insisted angrily. “I’m fine. I’m fine,” she repeated. And then her voice cracked completely and she began to sob.
“Yeah,” he agreed, placating her. “You’re fine all right.” Slipping his arm around her in an effort to comfort her, he held her close to him. “You just need a couple of minutes until that ‘fine’ gets under control.”
She wanted to protest what he was saying, to tell him not to treat her like some fragile little doll that was about to shatter. But she couldn’t say a word.
The tears welling up in her throat kept intelligible words from forming. Unable to speak, she gave in to the helpless, awful feeling that lay siege to her soul. She turned her face in against his shoulder and just sobbed uncontrollably.
“That’s it,” Morgan told her soothingly, holding her and stroking her hair. “Sometimes all you can do is just cry and let it all out. There’s no shame in that. Go ahead. Cry,” he coaxed her. “There’s no one around to see you. No one to try to act tough for.”
“You’re here.” She finally managed to sob the words out.
“I don’t count,” he told her, holding her to him.
She struggled to regain control over herself, but all she could do was sob. Krys cried for at least a full five minutes and then she drew her head back, determined to stop.
Morgan dug into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. “Here.”
She accepted the handkerchief, wiping her eyes, then handing it back to him. “I’m sorry,” she apologized.
“For what? Being human?” he asked. “Hate to tell you but it happens to the best of us.” He closed his hand over hers, pushing the handkerchief back to her. “Hold on to that. Tears have a nasty habit of popping back up just when you think you’ve finished crying. I’m pretty sure I won’t be needing it right now.”
She sniffed, crumpling up his handkerchief in her hand. “You’re not supposed to be this nice.”
“I’ll work on it and see what I can do,” he promised with a wink.
A ghost of a smile emerged on her lips in response to that. And then something else happened as well.
Before she could think better of it, or stop herself, Krys found herself expressing her gratitude to him in another way.
She kissed Morgan.
Surprised, he didn’t want to seem as if he was taking advantage of her or the situation and began to pull back. But then, before he realized he was doing it, he framed her face with his hands and kissed her back.
With feeling.
Chapter 13
All sorts of emotions flashed through Krys at what felt like the speed of light. At once drawn to Morgan and stunned by what she was experiencing at this very moment, she definitely wasn’t reacting to him on any sort of a professional level.
Pulling back, Krys began to say that this wasn’t like her, but then Morgan managed to disarm her by asking her if she was all right. He sounded as if he was concerned about her emotional state.
Her heart was pounding like a drum and her pulse was racing at what felt like ninety miles an hour.
“No,” she answered truthfully, trying her best to will herself to calm down. “I’m not all right. But I’m getting there.” She took a deep breath, blowing it out again slowly. A wave of self-consciousness washed over her. “I promise I won’t embarrass you in front of your friends.”
“I wasn’t concerned about that,” he told her. “And besides, you have nothing to be embarrassed about.”
They had a slight difference of opinion about that, but she wasn’t about to continue protesting. She focused on moving forward. And most of all, she was determined to find whoever had killed the woman who had been brave enough to step forward and bring attention to this so-called miracle drug’s shortcomings.
“We can go to the police station now,” she told Morgan, pulling herself together. She wanted to do whatever she could, help any way possible, to get this investigation on solid ground.
“Are you sure?” he asked her, starting up his vehicle again. “We can hold off going there for a bit longer if you want more time to get yourself together.”
“What I want,” she emphasized, “is to get the bastard who’s responsible for killing Claire.” Aside from feeling that she owed this to the young woman, it was the only way for her to be able to deal with this overwhelming guilt she was feeling.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Morgan declared. “We’ll get him.” As he drove to the precinct, he told her what his plan was. “I’m going to drop you off in the squad room while I go and talk to the medical examiner about her autopsy findings.” While he could talk to any of the medical examiners who worked with Aurora’s police department, he could usually get more answers out of his cousin-in-law. As luck would have it, she was on call today. Trying to make Krys feel better, he shared this piece of information with her. “I think Toni is on tap today.”
“Tony?” Krys questioned.
“That’s ‘Toni’ with an i, not a y,” Morgan said, filling her in. He added the crucial point. “She’s my sister-in-law.”
“Of course she is.” Krys shook her head. This family seemed to be everywhere. Did her sister know what she was getting herself into? “Is everyone associated with the police department a Cavanaugh?”
“No, not everyone,” Morgan said. “But there are a lot of us.”
* * *
Arriving in the police parking lot, Morgan pulled his vehicle up into his usual parking spot. As he got out of his car, he debated just bringing Krys into the first-floor lobby to wait for him rather than up to the squad roo
m. “I won’t be long,” he promised.
She caught his arm. “You won’t be long at all,” she corrected him. “I intend to come with you.”
“To the morgue?” he questioned. He had no desire to witness her suddenly get sick to her stomach. “I don’t think you should go,” he told her, emphasizing, “You’re already upset enough.”
“No, I was upset,” she said, going up the stairs and to the front door quickly. “But I’ve gotten all that under control now,” she stressed. “Look.” She went through the automatic doors as they parted for her. “I’m never going to get to the bottom of this awful thing by burying my face in my hands and hiding from reality.”
Like his sisters and his cousins, this woman seemed to thrive on arguing. He didn’t have time for this. “I admire your resolve, but it’s not your job to get to the bottom of this. It’s mine.”
She realized that he thought he was being kind to her, but he wasn’t going to get her to back off. And he was wasting precious time because arguing with her was futile. The man meant well and he had a great set of lips on him, but he was not going to get her to change her mind or back off. She was determined to find out who had done this awful thing.
Morgan must have recognized stubbornness when he saw it. “All right, how about this? Why don’t we just compromise and agree that finding the truth behind this is both our jobs? We’ll work together.”
The way he saw it, this was the best way he could think of to keep an eye on her and not have her taking off on him.
She saw Morgan grin encouragingly at her. She wasn’t sure what to think, but she was braced for anything. He surprised her by saying, “You would really get along well with my sisters.”
She raised an eyebrow as she regarded him suspiciously. “Are your sisters just as stubborn as you?”
He grinned. “Oh, they’re much more so.”
That would be taking stubbornness to an incredible level. The very idea almost had her laughing at him. “Oh, I find that really hard to believe.”
“You wouldn’t if you knew them. I guarantee it.” As Morgan followed her into the elevator and took it down to the basement, a thought came to him. “As a matter of fact, that isn’t a bad idea.”
“What isn’t a bad idea?” she asked.
“Getting to know my sisters. Getting to know everybody.”
Morgan made a mental note to talk to his Uncle Andrew. Andrew enjoyed nothing more than having an excuse to gather the entire family together. Initially, Andrew had served on the police force, working his way up until he became the chief of police. He would have remained one until he retired if it hadn’t been for his wife’s sudden disappearance. Rose went missing for eleven years, leaving him with five children to raise. He had no choice but to take an early retirement. But he never gave up hope that Rose was out there somewhere. He moved heaven and earth to find her, but it was far from easy.
After being on the force, he found that he needed something to help occupy his time when his kids were grown and had joined the force themselves. He decided to split his time between searching for Rose and bringing the rest of the family together every chance he got. A twist of fate helped him locate his wife who, because of an accident that caused her car to go off the road and into the lake, had her suffering from amnesia. Andrew devoted himself to helping her regain her memory. When she finally did, it felt as if he had been suddenly granted a “do-over.” From then on, he lived his life like a man on borrowed time, never taking even a moment for granted.
He threw parties for the family every chance he got. And when he wasn’t throwing parties, Andrew was still rustling up meals for family and friends whenever someone happened to just drop by.
Morgan decided that Krys could really use one of his uncle’s famous parties. In his opinion, it would be just what the doctor ordered and it would serve as her formal introduction to the family as well as their introduction to her.
He was going to call Andrew the first chance he got, Morgan promised himself. He knew that the family patriarch would undoubtedly welcome the chance to meet Nikki’s twin sister and, Morgan was sure, Krys could certainly use a good dose of Cavanaugh closeness and affection if only to raise her spirits.
This sort of thing would be right up his uncle’s alley, he thought with a smile.
But Krys didn’t look as if she was entirely convinced that this would be a good time to meet all the members of the family. “Why don’t we at least wait until we find out who killed Claire?” she suggested. “I’m not going to be able to enjoy anything until I’m sure that this killer isn’t lurking somewhere out there, waiting to ambush my sister—or me.”
Even as she said it, she couldn’t keep from shivering over the mere suggestion of that possibility taking place.
“Don’t worry,” Morgan said, trying to comfort her. “I guarantee that within the hour, everyone at the precinct—not just the family—will be on this.”
“No offense,” she told him. “But I won’t be happy until this is finally over.”
He laughed shortly. “You’re not the only one,” he assured her. “But allow me to point out that Aurora has the best low crime rate for a city of its size in the entire country.”
He wasn’t telling her anything that she didn’t already know. Aurora’s exceptionally low crime rate was well-known. “I know,” she told him. “But low isn’t the same as nonexistent.”
And all it took was one killing if it involved her—or Nikki, she thought.
“No,” he agreed, getting off the elevator as it opened on the lower level, “it isn’t. But you have to focus on your odds,” Morgan advised. “And they are damn good.”
They continued walking until they reached the morgue. Morgan looked at the bulletin board. He had been right about his cousin Toni being the ME who was on duty.
They came in. Before he could make the introductions, Toni looked up from the autopsy she had just completed. The moment she did, she appeared surprised.
“Nikki?” Dugan’s wife cried, stripping off her rubber gloves. “What are you doing back so soon? And why are you here of all places?”
Shaking her head, Krys offered the woman a tight, patient smile. “No, I’m not Nik. Nikki is hopefully still on her honeymoon with Finn and completely oblivious of this whole thing.”
Toni drew a little closer, taking another look at the woman that Morgan had brought into the morgue with him. “Then Dugan wasn’t kidding,” she remarked, properly impressed as she circled around Krys. “He mentioned seeing you when he’d delivered that pizza last night. You do look exactly like her.”
Krys tried not to sigh. This was getting old. She and Nik didn’t usually travel in the same circles. “I get that a lot.”
She really had to be tired of saying that, Morgan thought. He was definitely going to have Andrew throw that get-together. That way everyone could meet Krys once and for all and finally stop remarking how much she looked just like her twin. He knew that Krys would appreciate that.
“I bet you do,” Toni said, agreeing with Krys.
“What about the dead woman?” Morgan prompted, trying to move this along.
“She doesn’t look a thing like Nikki—or—Krys, is it?” Toni asked, looking at Krys.
“Yes, it’s Krys,” Morgan confirmed, “and I realize that she doesn’t look a thing like the body those hikers found today,” he said patiently. “What I want to know is if you have any information about the victim’s time of death or the way she was killed?”
“That I can give you,” Toni said, becoming all business. “The time of death was early this morning, between six and seven,” she told Morgan. “From the looks of it and what she was wearing at the time, I’d say that the victim was jogging.”
“How did she die?” Krys asked quietly.
Toni raised her eyes to look at the other woman. “She was shot,” she answered
simply. Slipping on another pair of gloves, she turned the dead woman’s head to display the wound at the back of her neck. “Most likely by a sniper.”
“A sniper?” Morgan repeated, somewhat surprised. “What makes you say it was a sniper?”
“There was just one shot,” Toni told him. “Taken at an impressive distance,” she pointed out. “To me that definitely says sniper.”
The fact that this was the work of a sniper made Morgan feel that Krys was in even more danger and was more vulnerable than he had initially thought. He was not about to take any more chances with her life.
“That settles it,” Morgan declared abruptly. “I’m keeping you under lock and key.”
Krys was instantly up in arms. “I can’t live that way.”
“Well, you might not be able to live any other way,” he pointed out. “Did you think of that?”
“He has a point, you know,” Toni told her.
“I’ll be all right,” Krys assured Morgan as well as the medical examiner. “I’ve got sources I can count on to warn me. People on the street who could put the word out,” she elaborated, “and see who might have made use of a sniper in order to get rid of Claire.”
Morgan looked as if he was very close to losing his temper. “Kowalski, you can’t—”
But she immediately cut in before he could complete his thought. “I can and I will,” she informed Morgan. “Look, don’t you see? The sooner we find out who did this, the sooner we can find out the name of the person who paid to have this hit carried out. I am not going to live in fear,” she insisted, incensed. “I can’t,” Krys underscored.
For a moment, it was as if they had both forgotten that they were not the only ones in the room. “I’m not telling you to live in fear,” Morgan said, his voice growing louder. “I’m telling you to let me do my job—and I can’t do my job if I’m worried about you.”
Cavanaugh In Plain Sight (Cavanaugh Justice Book 42) Page 12