by Grady, D. R.
Hours later when reality returned with the pealing of the telephone, Owen grumbled the expanse of the room to where he yanked up the demanding instrument from where it charged. Not enjoying the summons in the best of moods, he was especially crotchety at the interruption of that particular dream.
“What?” he snarled into the phone.
“Having a wet dream?” Fred asked with interest.
“As a matter of fact I was.” A reluctant grin spread across his face.
“Still have the hots for that super model? I can’t remember her name.”
“No, got over her years ago,” he stated firmly. “Was there a reason, besides interrupting my very pleasant wet dream, that you called?”
“Uh, yeah,” Fred started, but then he heard paper rustling in the background and Fred’s voice faded momentarily. “I found some minor information on your Gentleman Caller.”
“What have you got?”
“Just a profile, nothing to get too excited about, there O,” he said, using his favorite childhood name for Owen, ‘O.’
“A profile is good,” he corrected. “More than we’ve got now.”
“Right, when do you want this?”
“McCully and I will come by later today for it.”
“Uummm, O, it’s Saturday,” Fred reminded him.
Owen blinked before he said, “So?”
“Nevermind. I’ll expect you when I see you.”
“Sure,” he replied distantly as he hung up, his mind already snapping to his current case. Not that he didn’t have others, but the Gentleman Caller case took precedence right now.
He stared at the phone in his hand and before setting it down, hit the speed dial for McCully.
“What?” she demanded irritably after the fourth ring.
“Fred’s got a profile for us on the Gentleman Caller.”
“Yeah, so do I. He’s a freak. Now get off the phone and let me go back to sleep,” she growled.
Owen rolled his eyes and tried very hard to keep the grin out of his voice. “I’ll be over to pick you up in thirty minutes, be ready.” And he disconnected the call. Then he started for the shower, tearing off clothing as he went.
The phone rang before he got in, and when he saw the caller was Kendrick, the technician who tested the blood smear, he answered the phone. “What did you find?” he greeted.
“The blood type and fingerprint match the victim.”
Of course they did. It was too much to ask that they got a lead in this case, obviously. He thanked the technician and dropped the phone onto his bed before crawling into the shower, and made a mental note to tell McCully the news.
Thirty minutes later, showered, shaved and wearing clean clothes, he pulled into Jenna’s driveway. He noticed McCully’s car. At least he knew she was still around.
His eyes swept the neighborhood as he rang the doorbell and waited. When the door opened, he turned and looked into the same blue eyes that had taunted him in his dreams. Clear and vibrant, they were a reflection of the woman who bore them. Heat welled and pulled low in his stomach, and Owen abruptly cut it off. He needed to protect this woman, not lust after her.
“Good morning. I mean afternoon,” she said calmly.
“Same to you,” he anwered. “Have you got a cranky detective here?”
A smile teased her lips. “I do.”
Owen nodded and followed her into the kitchen. He accepted the mug of coffee and the chocolate covered doughnut she offered. Seating himself at her kitchen table, he realized he felt more comfortable in her home than his own, and he’d only visited hers twice.
“Thanks,” he said in between gulps of the brew.
“You’re welcome,” she returned and refilled his mug.
McCully finally showed, and glared at him from over the top of her own coffee mug. She slurped loudly, and continued to stare him down. With a half smile, he raised his doughnut and took a big bite. Her eyes widened before they turned to pin Jenna with much accusation.
“You gave him one of the doughnuts?”
Jenna smiled and his heart flipped. “He looked hungry.”
“He woke us up, was rude, demanding, and a brat, and you rewarded him with a chocolate covered doughnut?”
“Yes,” Jenna returned, the smile still lurking around her lips.
Owen took another large bite from his treat. A grin popped out before he could stop it.
“And see how he taunts me?” McCully exclaimed as she threw out a hand to indicate him before stomping across the kitchen to the coffee pot.
“Someone woke up in her usual fighting form.” He ate another bite of doughnut.
“This is normal?” Jenna inquired.
“Yes.”
“Only when I get calls from him after only five hours of sleep. On a Saturday,” McCully said tartly, darting a nasty look at him.
“But we get to go see Fred.” This should prove highly entertaining.
“We’re going to see Fred?” McCully repeated suspiciously.
“Yep.”
“You didn’t say anything about going to see your geeky friend.”
“Yes I did, you were still asleep,” he corrected with a smug grin.
“You never said anything about seeing your fellow nerdboy.” McCully held her ground.
Jenna laughed at their game, and Owen wished he could tug her down onto his lap. Maybe taste those lips. “You’ll get to meet the nerdboy, too,” he said to Jenna.
“Me?” she asked dubiously, as a frown grew between her eyebrows.
“Yes, you. We’ll keep you with us for now. We can drop you off later tonight, and I’ll arrange for Coulihan to stay with you.”
“Do you really believe I’m in that much danger?”
“Jenna, how many rape victims did you treat last night?” he asked softly.
“Two,” she answered slowly, obviously remembering the petite blonde who’d been wheeled in during the wee hours of the morning. She too had blood in her hair and neat, perfect incisions on the left side of her head.
“Right.”
“But he said I wasn’t at risk,” Jenna argued.
“He wants your praise, but Jenna, you don’t know who he is, so how will you praise him?” McCully added her two cents around a mouthful of chocolate covered doughnut.
“I know. We’ve already discussed this. I’m wondering if I do know him. I mean he’s acting like I should, so what exactly does that mean?”
“I’ve been thinking about that too,” Owen said as he finished the doughnut and washed it down with coffee.
“And?”
“None of my conclusions have been good ones.”
“You never mentioned we were going to Fred’s,” McCully continued to grumble the entire trip. Fortunately the time spent in the car was minimal. Jenna couldn’t remember when she’d been this entertained.
“Think about it, McCully, you haven’t even met the guy yet, so how can you complain?” To his credit, O’Maley handled her with his usual cool and aplomb.
“Easy. I don’t like the situation, so I’m going to protest.”
“You’re going to whine, you mean,” he shot back.
Her nose pointed straight up. “I do not whine.”
He snorted as he signaled his intent to turn left and waited for a car to pass before he made the turn.
“I do not!”
Jenna started laughing. They really did sound like a pair of squabbling siblings. Fortunately, O’Maley pulled up in front of a building that looked like several individuals with quite different architectural tastes had added to the original structure. The additions didn’t go well together, and because of that fact, the whole thing oddly worked.
“Here we are,” O’Maley stated.
He bounded up a walkway that wound around one of the structures and pounded on the door. She and McCully followed a little more slowly.
“Come in,” a male voice bellowed from somewhere inside the house.
“Here goes. Now, the o
nly rule is to follow me exactly. I’m going to stay on the perimeter of the floor, you both need to do the same,” he cautioned.
“Okay,” she agreed. McCully just sniffed. Jenna hid her smile. From the way the feisty cop acted, she wondered if there wasn’t more than she let on.
“Fred?” O’Maley yelled.
“In the back room,” a voice answered.
O’Maley led them through two rooms that were piled with computer and electronic equipment.
“How does he find anything?” McCully muttered.
Jenna sent her an amused look of agreement.
Shoving through a door, O’Maley skirted around the perimeter of the floor, close to the wall.
Computers lined every wall. Two of the walls actually held multiple computers. More electronic equipment and computer guts littered every available surface. Upon their arrival, the man seated at a table against the far wall rose to his feet.
Jenna stared at the man who had just emerged from the refuse and blinked in surprise. McCully mentioned earlier how she was certain Fredren Savage would be overly thin, short, with unkempt hair, taped glasses and a plastic pocket protector. The man before them looked O’Maley in the eyes, and his impressive shoulders spanned the same width as the redhead’s. His curly black hair bespoke of a Jewish ancestor and those gorgeous lips and his perpetually tanned skin proclaimed an island or African heritage, but those blue, blue eyes proved he had Caucasian blood somewhere too. His nose and the way he held himself seemed to come from a Native American ancestor. He sported trendy black framed glasses with nary a piece of tape in sight. The entire package was very fine indeed.
Jenna heard McCully suck in a breath and wasn’t surprised. McCully claimed to have only spoken with the man on the phone, but Jenna thought she’d heard a vibe of attraction when the woman mentioned him. This could prove to be rather interesting.
“Fred,” O’Maley said and clapped the other man on the back in affection. Fred returned the favor and it became rather evident to Jenna that this pair shared a long history.
“Hey, O.” His voice held a beautiful, impressively deep cadence, and Jenna, alarmed, shot a quick look at McCully to make certain the detective hadn’t melted into a puddle at their feet.
“Fred, this is my partner, TJ McCully and Dr. Jenna Fields,” O’Maley introduced.
“McCully? I thought she’d be bigger,” Fred mock mused, rubbing a hand along his chin.
McCully took a swipe at him, but he danced away from her, the laughter in his eyes going very public. She curled a lip at him.
“Nerdboy, like I said,” McCully said, waving a hand to encompass the man and room.
Fred gave a satisfied smile. He turned to her. “Dr. Fields, it’s nice to meet you,” he told her sincerely and she took the proffered hand. A firm, friendly handshake and a charming smile later Jenna didn’t miss the assessing look in his eyes and wondered about it.
He turned away then and offered a file to O’Maley. “It’s all here.”
“How did you get this together so quickly? I just asked you to do it late Thursday.”
“I’m the best,” Fred stated easily, the grin telling them he teased.
“Right, and I’m the King of Sandovia,” O’Maley muttered.
“Kingly material, you are not O.”
O’Maley’s lips twitched, but he didn’t comment.
“What would happen if someone stepped into the middle of the room?” Jenna wondered aloud.
O’Maley and Fred both swung around to her. “Watch,” Fred said and scooped McCully easily off her feet. She fought him after emitting a chirp of surprise and even managed to get in a couple of good shots before he set her down. As soon as her feet hit the floor, her weight activated a trap door that opened wide and she disappeared.
Fred looked triumphant.
O’Maley shook his head sadly. “You’re in really big trouble now,” he warned.
Fred’s grin kicked up another notch. “I like trouble.”
Settling McCully down after they met up with her again on the sidewalk outside Fred’s house took some doing, but eventually Owen managed.
With a bribe.
“Look, I didn’t ask him to toss you down the chute,” he tried to explain in vain.
“You could have stopped him,” she retorted, her arms crossed under her breasts, bottom lip jutting out.
“No, I couldn’t. Once he gets an idea in his head, he just goes with it. That’s what makes Fred so brilliant.”
“He’s not brilliant, he’s a geek boy.”
Jenna sent her an amused look. “Isn’t this where you’re supposed to say you hate him?”
McCully looked nonplussed.
“Well, you have to really dig in the screws and tell him you hate him. It’s very effective,” she explained.
McCully caught on. “You have an older brother.”
“Yes I do. And don’t forget his worthless friend, Mark Matthews,” Jenna answered with a huff.
“That’s right. Well, I’ve got three older brothers. Four when you count this one.” And she flicked a hand in his direction. “So, since he and Fred are so close, automatically His Geekiness thinks I’m also fair game. That makes five.” McCully’s mouth turned down.
“I see. Which one is His Geekiness, again?” Jenna asked innocently.
McCully chortled. He rolled his eyes as he maneuvered the car into a tight parking spot outside an Italian restaurant. “Why I’m feeding you two, I don’t know.”
“You’re going to have a long way to go before you make up for your rude friend,” McCully reassured him as she leapt out of the car and rubbed her hands in greed. “This will help your cause tremendously, though.”
Jenna took notice of the covetous glee in her eyes and smiled. “Looks like it’s pretty easy to get back into her good graces.”
“This is fortunate. She is a redhead, you know,” O’Maley answered wryly.
“I noticed,” Jenna replied, and she smiled at McCully, who made definite tracks across the parking lot. “She does seem rather intent though.”
“Don’t ever get in the way of McCully and food. It can get really ugly,” O’Maley advised.
“I see.”
“Yeah, like that rule doesn’t apply to the geek boy here,” McCully scoffed.
O’Maley grinned and Jenna’s world bottomed out for a moment. Her breath caught again and she hoped that hadn’t been a catch in her voice when she answered with some inane remark.
She was grateful when a smiling waiter led them to a nice table in the corner. She heard O’Maley lean down and whisper to McCully, “Your reputation gets us secluded, again.”
She flicked his nose before settling into the booth.
“So what’s good here?” Jenna asked. Both detectives looked down their noses at her over their menus.
“Everything,” they said together before returning to their perusing.
Jenna arched her brow. “I see,” she said, even though she didn’t.
“Lasagna,” both said, snapping their menus shut decisively.
“Okay, lasagna it is then.”
Two pairs of green eyes gleamed at her.
“I think you two spend a little too much time together.”
McCully grinned and O’Maley snorted.
“So, what are you two going to do about your relationship?” McCully asked from nowhere, with no warning, looking between her and O’Maley.
Jenna’s heart raced before it plunged to her feet.
Had McCully just asked what she thought?
Chapter 4
“Our relationship?” O’Maley repeated and blinked at his partner. Her heart rocketed back into place, but it beat at an alarming rate.
“That’s what I said, big guy. When are you going to ask Jenna out?”
O’Maley turned to her and asked, “Want to go out for supper?”
“Sure,” she replied, as her stomach flipped in an exciting way, but she still managed to beam at him.
> He blinked again before he turned to his partner. “Is asking her right now acceptable to you?”
“Works for me,” McCully answered with enthusiasm. “Tonight’s meal doesn’t count, by the way. If I’d have left the two of you to this dating thing, nothing would have ever happened.”
“Where do you want to go?” O’Maley asked, ignoring his partner.
“We could come back here,” Jenna suggested.
“Without McCully though.”
“Yes.” Jenna smiled at her.
“You should go to Sully’s,” McCully inserted between mouthfuls of bread.
“Sully’s is nice,” O’Maley said, a contemplative look on his face.
“It is.”
“You’ve been there before?”
“Once, a long time ago, and I’ve always wanted to go back.”
“Good. What night suits you?”
“How about tomorrow night?” McCully suggested, sounding exasperated.
“Will you quit? You’ve already done enough,” O’Maley chastised her, with an impatient look at the woman. “How about tomorrow night?” he asked when he turned back to her.
McCully quieted, but Jenna doubted she’d remain quiet for long, the bread basket was nearly empty. Plus the female detective appeared to be having far too much fun. Apparently interfering in her partner’s love life had become a new hobby. Jenna really hoped McCully took up another hobby, because she wanted this relationship to work.
After a thoroughly delightful meal, O’Maley drove her and McCully back to her house. Since it was the weekend, McCully decided to just stay on duty and help out, as she mentioned slyly that Coulihan was probably involved elsewhere. Jenna laughed, understanding that the pretty cop was most likely with Mark Matthews. The couple had quite a scare earlier, with Mark’s kidnapping where he was used for experimental drug testing. The kidnappers had taunted his friends, Jenna’s brother and sister-in-law, with pictures of dismembered torsos and mutilated cats, not to mention the harassing phone calls about cheating wives.
Now that case was successfully closed. Damon and Emmy had resolved their differences and Mark and Colleen soon announced their engagement. They planned to marry at the end of the summer. McCully and Jenna agreed that Colleen Coulihan was most likely inundated with wedding plans and wouldn’t welcome extra work over her already sure to be busy weekends.