For all Intents and Purposes (MidKnight Blue Book 6)

by Sherryl Hancock

  “Good morning, Joe,” Midnight said, smiling and glancing over at Christian, who realized she had used his cousin’s name to let him know who was on the line.

  “Not really,” Joe replied.

  “Uh-oh,” Midnight said, her face darkening just a bit. “What happened?”

  “Well, the damn raid went south is what happened.” Joe sounded frustrated and weary. “The bastards came out shooting, and a couple of the younger guys lost it.”

  “Okay…”

  “I got one down,” Joe said seriously.

  “Down?”

  “Yeah, I think he’s gonna be okay. Dumb sonofabitch hit a door without back up.” Joe’s voice had taken on a depreciating tone that Christian didn’t understand.

  Midnight understood it perfectly. Her face softened, as did her voice. “He knew better, Joe. You and I both know that. He was trained by the best rangemaster around.”

  Christian heard his cousin blow his breath out in a frustrated sigh. “I don’t feel like the best right now, Night.”

  “Hey, you can’t keep the bad guys from pulling a few punches, Sinclair. That’s why they call it police work and not police fun.”

  Joe laughed mildly. “Yeah, okay, you win. You are all knowing and seeing.”

  “’Bout time you realize that,” Midnight said, grinning. “Who’s down, by the way?”

  “Hobson.”

  Midnight nodded, narrowing her eyes in thought. “Wife and two kids, right?”

  “Yeah,” Joe said quietly.

  “But he’s okay, you think?” Midnight said, chewing her lip in thought.

  “He was talkin’ when they took him to the hospital.”

  Midnight nodded. “You want me to call his wife, or do you want to?”

  “I’ll do it,” Joe said, then his voice took on a chiding tone. “That is my job, you know, not yours anymore.”

  “Yeah, yeah, save it,” Midnight said, grinning all the while. “Look, keep me posted, okay?”

  “You got it, boss. And uh… could you keep Christian entertained for a while longer? I’m gonna be here for another couple of hours at least…” He trailed off, knowing she had more important things to do than babysit his cousin.

  Midnight smiled. “You’ll owe me.”

  “I already do,” Joe replied easily.

  “So double it.”

  “Great… I’ll see you soon then.”

  “Okay. Bye.” Midnight broke the connection.

  Christian was surprised at Midnight’s obvious vehemence on Joe’s behalf. She had been determined to make him feel better about having someone hurt on his team; that had not escaped Christian’s notice. It made him curious about their relationship, but he figured he’d get that story from his cousin if anything.

  “He called you boss,” Christian said, having picked up on that as well. “Why?”

  Midnight shrugged. “Probably because I’m his boss.”

  “You’re his boss…” Christian repeated, as if unable to fathom it.

  Midnight shrugged again. “No big deal. I’m my husband’s boss too.”

  “So what does that make you?”

  Midnight looked over at him as she drove into the parking lot at the police department and pulled in to her reserved spot, her gold-green eyes sparkling as she smiled. She turned her head and looked pointedly at the sign in front of her car: “RESERVED, CHIEF CHEVALIER-DEBENSHIRE”

  Christian coughed as he read the words, his eyes widening as he looked back at her. “You’re the fucking Chief of Police?”

  Midnight inclined her head, grinning all the while.

  “But I thought San Diego was a pretty big department,” Christian said, having heard that from his mother over the years.

  “Fourth largest in the country.”

  “And you’re the chief,” Christian said, dead pan, his face still indicating his disbelief.

  “Right.”

  “Unbelievable.”

  Midnight laughed, getting out of the car. “Come on,” she said, canting her head toward the building.

  He followed her inside, waited as she signed him in, then followed her to her office. He spent the next hour watching her work. He, like many before him, was impressed with her way of handling people. Even as the chief she never really talked down to anyone.

  Midnight was on the phone when Rick walked in. His eyes went to Christian immediately. He walked over, extending his hand. “You gotta be Christian,” he said, smiling. “I’m Rick Debenshire. It’s good to meet you.”

  Midnight was watching the exchange, and she saw the look on Christian’s face as he nodded. “Ah, the lucky man,” Christian said, looking to Midnight and seeing her shake her head and roll her eyes.

  Rick looked at his wife, and then back at Christian, furrowing his brow. “What?”

  Christian shook his head. “Never mind. So you’d be my cousin’s best friend then?”

  “That would be me.” Rick nodded, then inclined his head in his wife’s direction. “Or you could be describing my wife.”

  Christian was surprised by that.

  Midnight hung up the phone then, leaning back in her chair with a wry grin. “So you’ve met…”

  “Yeah.” Rick moved to sit on the edge of her desk. “So what’s this lucky man shit?” he asked, not one to forget something easily.

  Midnight gave Christian a look that said, “Go ahead, explain it to him.”

  Christian laughed. “I just meant you’re lucky being married to such an incredible-looking woman.”

  Rick’s expression was self-assured. “Luck has nothin’ to do with it.” The look in his deep blue eyes was challenging. Christian met it with one of his own.

  Midnight stood up and walked around her desk to stand in front of her husband. “Let’s try to keep the testosterone at a manageable level in here, okay?” she said with a meaningful look, her grin wide.

  Rick returned her grin, closing his eyes for a moment as he nodded. “So what time’s this raid?” he asked, moving on to what he felt was more important.

  “Two o’clock,” Midnight said cautiously, wondering if he was going to hassle her again.

  “And it’s Tiny’s crew?”

  “We covered this, Debenshire,” Midnight said lightly.

  “Well, I’m coverin’ it again, Chief.” Rick sounded serious, but his grin was in place again. Then his expression turned meaningful. “You damn well better be careful. And don’t even think of having him put you on the entry team, because you can bet that beautiful ass of yours I’m gonna warn him off.”

  Midnight looked at him with calm acceptance as he spoke. When he was through, she leaned forward, kissing him softly on the lips, staring into his eyes even as she did so. “I only do entry when I have you or Joe as back up, you know that,” she said gently.

  “Yeah, well…” Rick looked stubborn, but his eyes showed how easily he was affected by his wife’s words and actions. He stood up, his hands on her waist, and pulled her to him. He kissed her then, his intensity telling her everything he didn’t say, but Midnight recognized the signs of possessiveness in it as well. She knew he was sending Christian a very definite message that she belonged to him without question. When their lips parted, Midnight looked up at him, her expression telling him she knew what he was doing. His own basically said, “Yeah, so?” He left a few minutes later.

  Midnight glanced over at Christian and saw that, predictably, he was watching her. She grinned. “The testosterone level got a bit high again, huh?”

  “As did my blood pressure,” Christian said seriously.

  Midnight looked at him for a long moment, then shook her head. “Hopeless,” she muttered as she moved to sit behind her desk. She reached over, switching on her computer. When the screen came up she started to cuss.

  “Problems?” Christian craned his neck around to try to see the screen.

  “Just that this computer is a piece of crap and my system’s always down.”

  To Midnight’s
surprise, Christian stood up and walked around her desk. He glanced at the keyboard, then around the back of the computer.

  “Do you mind?” he said, gesturing to the machine.

  “No.” Midnight shook her head, moving her chair back to give him room.

  Christian touched a few keys, bringing up new screens. “This a three-eight-six or a two?”

  “Three-eight-six,” Midnight said, surprised. “You know computers?”

  “Yeah, some.” Christian shrugged. “I studied it at school for a while, but I decided it wasn’t going to make the kind of money I needed to make at the time.”

  “I see,” Midnight said, having learned from Joe about Christian’s “colorful” past—what Joe knew of it, anyway. “Know anything about programming?”

  Christian glanced at her. “Some. Why?”

  “Think you could do an assessment of a system I have for my inventory?”

  Christian gave her a measured look, turning around to sit on the edge of her desk. “You’d trust me to do that?”

  Midnight nodded.

  “You don’t know anything about me,” Christian said, his tone indicating his surprise at her lack of caution.

  Midnight looked back at him for a long moment. “I do know you’re my partner’s cousin—by definition you’re practically family. I figure that means I have to trust you.”

  Christian couldn’t begin to think of a reply. No one had ever given him that sort of credit before. Here she was, the chief of a police department; she’d known him all of two hours, and she trusted him. She’d called him family, Joe’s family… It hit him again that these people really thought of him as Joe Sinclair’s family. They didn’t seem to care that he was illegitimate. Being a bastard had been the torment of his life; it had made him feel less worthy and he’d used his looks to compensate for that. And now here these people were, treating him as if he had always been a Sinclair. It just didn’t jibe.

  So he didn’t have to reply. He turned back to the computer, his thoughts swirling in his head. Eventually, he had all the information he needed to determine the problem. He checked the back of the machine, made a few adjustments, and corrected a few lines of machine language that had somehow become skewed. He stood back. The program came up as it should, and Midnight clapped like an audience at a performance.

  “So, whaddya say, Blue. You want a job doin’ this or not?”

  Christian turned around. “Doin’ this assessment, right?”

  “To start with, but then I figure I’ll want you to fix the problems you find too.”

  “First thing would be to upgrade to at least fourt-eight-sixes,” Christian said, nodding toward the computer. “That’ll cost ya.”

  Midnight nodded. “Well, why don’t you check everything out and give me a figure as to what it would cost to make everything run better.”

  “Better being faster? Or more efficiently?”

  She grimaced. “Is both too much to ask?”

  “No, but that will definitely cost.”

  “Cost I can deal with; it’s damned computers that don’t do what I want that I can’t deal with.”

  “Well, that I can fix,” Christian said, pleased to have a job after only two hours in the States.

  It was almost eleven before Joe finally made it into the office. Christian was sitting at Midnight’s terminal, trying to familiarize himself with the system. Midnight was sitting on the other side of her desk, reading through a month-end report. Joe stood in the doorway, surveying the scene before him with a bemused grin on his face.

  “Well, that didn’t take long,” he said finally.

  Christian turned around, and Midnight looked up. “What?” Midnight asked.

  Joe walked over, extending his hand to Christian and shaking, then looked at Midnight with a gesture to his cousin. “He’s been here, what… three hours, and already he’s taken over your job?” He grinned widely.

  Midnight rolled her eyes. “I could be so lucky. He’s going to do some work on our computers. Thankfully the recessed computer-phobic Sinclair gene skipped his generation.”

  Joe looked at Christian, who had stood by this time. “You know computers, man?” he asked, surprise coloring his voice.

  “Yeah.” Christian shrugged. “Doesn’t everybody?”

  Midnight laughed. “Blue, if there was a place on this earth where everyone knew computers, your cousin would be in the place on the planet furthest from it.”

  “Ah,” Christian said, understanding dawning.

  “Yeah, well…” Joe looked recalcitrant. “I know a lot of people that know a lot about computers and wouldn’t know the business end of a gun if it was pointed at them.”

  Christian looked pensively up at the ceiling.

  “What?” Joe said, mockingly irate. “You’re gonna say you know guns too?”

  Christian’s lips twisted in an apologetic grin. “When I carry, it’s a SIG P220, with Black Talon ammunition, seven rounds in the clip, one in the chamber, two spare clips, and TRITIUM night sights.”

  “Shit,” Joe said, shaking his head, as Midnight started to laugh. He grinned. “Shut up, Night.” Then he looked back at Christian. “You ready for lunch?”

  Christian nodded. “Okay.”

  “Night?”

  “Rain check. I’ve got a raid this afternoon, and I’m determined to get this report read before then.”

  Joe raised an eyebrow. “Rick know you got a raid?”

  “Yes, Sinclair, he knows,” Midnight said, exasperated.

  “Gave you shit, didn’t he?”

  “Doesn’t he always?” Midnight didn’t sound angry in the slightest.

  “You gotta be gettin’ used to it by now.”

  “You’d think so. I’ll see you two later.”

  “Yeah, later,” Joe said.

  Outside, Joe led Christian over to the Jaguar he was driving that day. He had anticipated having Christian with him on the way home that evening, and he had to pick Randy up from school. He took note of Christian’s appraising look at the car. “I usually drive a Porsche, but I gotta pick Randy up…”

  “Jaguar’s cool,” Christian said. “Had one back home.”

  “Yeah? What model?”

  “KX8.”

  Joe nodded. “Badass car.”

  “Blew more than a few doors off.”

  Joe reached over to dial a number on his cell phone. The line rang, and a woman answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey,” Joe said smoothly.

  “Hey yourself,” Randy replied, a smile in her voice.

  “How’d the final go?”

  “Fine. How’d the raid go?”

  “Not fine.”

  “Uh-oh… What happened?”

  “I’ll tell you over lunch. Are you free?”

  “Oh, I suppose for you I could manage to be…”

  “Well, Christian and I would appreciate it.”

  “You say that now…”

  Joe laughed. “We’ll pick you up outside the psych building in ten, okay?”

  “You got it, handsome.”

  Ten minutes later Joe pulled up to the psychology wing at the University of California at San Diego. Christian got out to let Randy sit in front with Joe. He was taken aback by how beautiful she was in person as well. Don’t the women in this country age at all? he thought. He extended his hand to Randy, taking hers gently.

  She smiled. “Christian, it’s very nice to meet you.” She was taken aback by his appearance as well. He really was a dark version of her husband. His looks would be considered movie-star handsome.

  In the car, Christian listened as Joe and Randy talked, watching the way his cousin acted with his wife.

  “Have you seen Donovan lately?” Randy asked at one point, and saw a strange look cross Joe’s face. “What?”

  “Why do you ask?” Joe asked, his tone cautionary.

  “It’s just been a while since he’s come by, and I wondered if he’s on assignment again, or somethin
g…” she said, her eyes narrowing. She knew her husband well, and she could see he was debating telling her something. “Why did you think I was asking?”

  “I just thought you might have talked to him or something…” Joe said cautiously.

  “Okay…” Randy sounded a lot like Midnight when she was waiting for more information.

  “Look, I didn’t want to say anything till I knew what was going to happen.”

  “Happen about what?” Randy asked, her voice taking on an edge.

  Joe looked up, gritting his teeth. He could already hear the lioness coming out in his wife and he hadn’t even told her anything yet. He was silent for a long moment, then blew his breath out in a frustrated sigh. “A couple weeks back he got into it with a friend of his at 10-7. He hit the guy and a couple of LTs saw it. I talked to him about it yesterday.” He kept his voice purposefully casual, but Randy wasn’t fooled by it.

  “You held a corrective interview with him over a bar fight?” she asked incredulously.

  “It wasn’t just a bar fight, Randy,” Joe said, his voice becoming a little edgy. He knew what was coming. “The other guy was a cop too.”

  “Okay, so now what happens?” Randy said angrily. “Now you hang him from the highest flagpole for doing the same damn thing other cops do?”

  “Randy! I’m doin’ my job. You know damn good and well that I can’t let something like this go. He injured another officer, it has come to my attention, and now I have to do something about it. That’s my job.”

  “Oh yeah, and when it comes to my brother you really do it, don’t you?”

  “I’m not gonna get into this with you, Randy.” Joe made a cutting gesture with his right hand. “So let’s just fucking drop it, okay?”

  “So what’s going to happen to him?” Randy asked, as if she hadn’t heard what he had just said.

  Joe took a deep breath, blowing it out and shaking his head. “It’s real simple. If the guy files on him, he’s gone.”

  Randy stared at him, a horrified expression on her face. “You can’t do that,” she said, as if he had just pronounced a death sentence on Donovan.

  “I don’t have a fucking choice.”