Past Rites
Page 29
“Cheers,” she said, handing him a cup.
“To what?”
“To our crime squad. To you for breezing through this case with flying colors and winning the respect of your former peers. They’ll be begging you to go back.”
He knew she was being facetious. Homicide had shut the door on him, their fight was over and done with. This was his home now.
“You thinking about Lily?” she asked.
“She must have hated her mother for not protecting her. That’s where the dissociation came from. If she lived out of her feminine self, she didn’t feel safe. So she came to despise the feminine altogether. She must have hated what the girls stood for at school.”
“And dating men? She was too busy wanting to be a man to please her father.”
“She killed those girls and then herself. Her last act of control. It’s seems unfair, doesn’t it? To the human spirit.”
He took a sip of the fizzy wine ‒ hated it ‒ if he was honest. It was dry and tasted like Alka Seltzer and made him thirstier than crap. He set the cup down on the desk, where the base left a wet mark in the wood.
“Want to know something?” she asked. “Suzi Cornwell and Captain Fowler.”
“No way.” He hardly heard himself speak. “Crafty old sods. When did that happen?”
“Who knew? But it might explain why she’s coming to work here.”
The idea didn’t bode well for Temeke, especially in light of the pass Suzi had made.
“Why did you leave the party just now?” Malin asked.
“Phone call. It was Serena.”
Temeke didn’t know why he volunteered the information, why he suddenly felt vulnerable sitting there with a beautiful woman. He noticed the smile fade, saw her staring down at the floor without saying a word.
She breathed heavily as if controlling her voice. “Were you OK with that?”
“Yeah.”
“But you said she didn’t want to come home. You said it was over.”
“She doesn’t want me all cracked and damaged. Not the way I am now. She wants me whole, happy and hearty. Do you understand?”
“Scars heal, sir. Really.”
“I hope you’re right.”
She grasped his hand and squeezed it. Then she let it go. Tilting her head, she smiled with those deep brown eyes of hers. “You’re a great partner, Temeke. By the way, Hackett gave me bonus. It was quite a large chunk of change. He thinks we make a good team.”
“He said that?”
Malin nodded and there was certainty in that nod.
“You going back in?” she said, pointing up the corridor to where all the laughing was coming from.
“In a while.”
He watched her walk away – a stronger woman this time, chin up, shoulders back and a bounce in her step. And he found himself grinning for a while. Couldn’t stop. Felt like he was walking on air.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claire Stibbe was born in England and now lives and works in the US. She is a member of the Albuquerque Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association and a graduate of the 50th Albuquerque Citizen Police Academy.
Today, Claire writes crime fiction books set in New Mexico. There are already three books in the Detective Temeke crime series, The 9th Hour, a 2016 New Mexico/Arizona Award Finalist, Night Eyes, and Past Rites. She is now working on the fourth.
Claire has also written short stories for Breakwater Harbor Books Publishing. The collection won Best Anthology of 2014 in the Independent Book Awards hosted by eFestival of Words.
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