“Are you sure about me calling you?” Emerald asked, reaching for her purse on the passenger seat. “I’m positive Nash will be at your house by then. I know he isn’t going to want you talking to me or anyone else on the phone. You know how much he loves his alone time with you.”
Emerald heard Shauntie searching through papers in the background. “You’re right about that; however, Nash is staying at his house tonight because he has an early morning appointment. So, I’ll be here alone once Sapphire leaves. Just call me, alright?”
“I’ll try my best if I’m not too worn out, “Emerald promised. “Sometimes, I think I’ll get off early and these cases end up going well into the next morning.”
“Bye Emerald,” Shauntie said.
“Bye girl,” Emerald answered and closed the phone tossing it back into her purse.
Getting out of the car, Emerald shut the door and then set her car alarm before heading towards the entrance. Her boss did get on her last nerve with his flirty comments and lingering looks, but when it came to determining the cause of death of a body, Dr. Martin David was the best Chief Medical Examiner in the whole state.
Emerald was woman enough to admit that she was beyond lucky to be his assistant. In the short five years she had worked alongside him, the knowledge she’d gained was priceless.
Her first year on the job, Emerald learned very fast how to deal with assisting with an autopsy, police officers and helping a grieving family by using empathy.
Honestly, if her boss hadn’t been nice enough to work with her, she wouldn’t be still at a job she truly loved more than anything in the world.
Walking inside the building, she headed down the long hallway towards the elevators wondering why Dr. David hadn’t called her to meet him onsite for the first examination of the body. She was usually there to collect specimens and help him transport the newly found body.
Emerald stopped in front of the elevators and pushed the arrow. Usually, she wasn’t fond of coming to work on her days off since she seldom got them. However, today the call from her boss turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
She wasn’t really in the frame of mind to sit at Shauntie’s house. Both of her girlfriends finished her challenge in record time and actually fell in love with two great guys. How could she sit there and listen to them talk about all of the good things going on in their lives while she was still searching for her hunk?
Yeah, Emerald knew it was only the beginning of January and she still had a little while before Valentine’s Day. However, the kind of guy she truly desired wasn’t going to fall from the sky right into her lap. Those kinds of things only happened in those romantic comedy movies that she refused to watch anytime they were released in the theaters.
Her current ‘boyfriend’ Adonis was a nice enough guy and he was attractive with his light brown eyes and smooth caramel complexion, but he was as dull as a bag of bricks. Every day after work, all he wanted to do was spend time with her or have her hang out at his house.
The beep of the elevator signaled Emerald of its arrival. The metal doors opened and Emerald walked on pushing the button she needed. Resting her head back against the elevator wall, she waited as the door slid closed.
Things couldn’t keep going on the way they were with Adonis. They’d only been seeing each other for about a month, but Emerald knew nothing else would happen between them. Adonis just didn’t get her blood racing. There was nothing about his touch that made her want him to touch her any further.
Shit! Even his kisses were lackluster and too much on the boring side for her. She needed more of a take charge kind of man and Adonis, as sweet as he was, was just too much of a follower for her tastes.
In the past, she had dated guys just to tell people she was in a relationship. Because in the back of her mind, Emerald constantly held out hope that this was only for now. Her perfect man was on his way and someday in the very near future things would be different for her.
Yet, it had taken dating Adonis for her to fully understand that she was lowering her standards way too much. She was about to settle into a pattern she wouldn’t have been happy with five years ago.
Emerald hated the thought of being one of those women who stayed with a guy out of obligation, or he was a good friend to her, and even worse she was afraid to be alone.
She was tired of living her life for something that might not ever show up. So, it was about time she started living each day to the fullest and not wishing for a guy that might not ever come.
No. She couldn’t in good conscience let this relationship go any further. Staying somewhere she honestly wasn’t happy wouldn’t be fair to Adonis. He openly wanted more than she could give him at this point in her busy life.
Perhaps it was time for her to take a step back; Emerald realized she might have a bitter pill to swallow. In spite of that, she had to be true to herself and lately she was beginning to feel like she was putting on a show for Adonis, showing up for the dates with him and going through the motions, but not really feeling anything when she looked into his eyes across the restaurant table. So why not do it now instead of later?
For now her career might be the driving force in her life but she didn’t think she would be actually this upset about not having someone to go home to like Shauntie and Sapphire.
But one thing was for sure, Emerald wasn’t ever about to confess anything to either one of them. They were like sisters to her, but sometimes neither one of them knew how to leave well enough alone.
Shauntie wouldn’t be happy with her being alone and spending most of her days and nights working. Not now, that she was so in love with Nash and planning a huge wedding. Her oldest friend believed everyone including herself should have a huge diamond ring on their finger.
Emerald wasn’t saying that she was against falling on love, but she still craved the attention of an attractive male. She wouldn’t allow the fear of going back to the single status to keep her from moving ahead and improving herself.
She had never been the type of woman to keep anyone in a state of limbo and she wouldn’t place Adonis in a place she didn’t want to be herself. How was she supposed to meet her ‘Mr. Perfect’ if she was still stuck in her failing relationship with the current guy in her life? Adonis truly hadn’t made it to boyfriend status in her mind.
The ring of the elevator drew Emerald from her thoughts about her man search. Pulling her dress down further, she brushed a flyaway strand of hair away from her eye as the elevator’s doors opened.
She couldn’t think about anything else tonight but doing a good job at work. Emerald wasn’t going to allow the drama going on in her personal life to filter over into her professional work ethic. She loved being an assistant medical examiner and she wasn’t going to lose her job over her mind being someplace else...namely on the lack of a man in her life.
Walking off the elevator, Emerald headed for where Dr. David was waiting for her at the end of the hallway. He didn’t tell her a lot on the phone when he called her, so she had prepared herself for anything.
Pausing in front of the closed door, she got herself under control before pushing the door open and walking inside. Instantly, Emerald spotted Dr. David towards the back of the room standing over a body. She placed her purse down on the table by the door and then grabbed her lab coat off the coat rack by the wall.
“Good evening, Dr. David,” she said, making her way over to him. “I apologize for taking so long to get here. I wasn’t in this part of town.”
Moving in front of him, Emerald glanced down at the body of a young male who didn’t look older than sixteen years old. She always hated seeing a young person on the table. “Do we know who he is yet?” she asked as her boss looked up at her.
His dark blue eyes studied her for a few minutes and then glanced at her outfit. “That’s a nice dress you are wearing,” he said then went back to work on the body. “I hope my phone call didn’t take you away from anything important.”
Em
erald quickly buttoned up her lab coat silently scolding herself for not doing it sooner.
“No sir. I was just on my way to a friend’s house to help her plan her wedding. She understood why I had to cancel. Do you know who he is?” Emerald asked again, trying to get her boss’s attention back on the corpse and off her.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have enough information on him yet. He was only found a few hours ago by a couple of kids walking by the river bank. They thought it was a joke at first until one of them turned over the body,” Dr. David answered, pulling off his white, sterile gloves.
“Why didn’t you call me earlier to collect specimens and transport the body with you?” Emerald was concerned Dr. David had done everything himself. Was her job in jeopardy and she wasn’t aware of it?
Walking across the room, Dr. David tossed his gloves into the trash can and then removed his medical cap before answering her.
“Since the body was found so close to the water, I didn’t want any of the evidence lost. I know you have the experience to do it correctly, but I collected everything I could and brought it all back here. I need to go upstairs and find out if anyone knows more about the young man. Can you cover the body for me?”
“Yes, of course,” Emerald answered, still a little worried by the fact Dr. David had done part of her job for her. “Do you know what might have killed him? He’s so young and looks in perfect health. I find it hard to believe it was from natural causes.”
Turning around her boss stared at her. “I have an idea, but I don’t want to make it official until I have all of the facts together first.”
He spun back around and went towards the door. “I’ll be back in about fifteen minutes. An officer is supposed to come by to see if I have a cause of death. Please tell him I don’t but I will be in touch as soon as I do.”
Standing in the back of the room, Emerald watched as Dr. David opened the door and left the room without saying another word to her. He would probably be gone longer than fifteen minutes. He could have at least told her the officer’s name. She wondered how long it would be before he actually showed up. Sighing, Emerald knew none of her questions were going to get answered now because Dr. David was gone. So, she might as well cover the poor boy’s body and look over the bags of evidence he left for her.
Making her way over to the cabinet, Emerald grabbed a white sheet and then came back over to the young man’s body. She unfolded it and draped it over him, whispering a prayer for him.
Emerald left the table and made her way across the room where all the specimen bags were placed any time a new body came in.
From the amount of bags waiting for her on the table, Emerald prepared herself for a very long night. Honestly, she might actually be here until early in the morning. There was no way she would be showing up at Shauntie’s tonight.
Chapter Three
Placing her glasses down on the table next to her, Emerald rubbed her hands across the back of her tired eyes. She had been working non-stop for the past twelve hours over the specimen samples while Dr. David finished up the autopsy on the young man’s body.
“Emerald, can you come over here for a minute?” Dr. David called out to her. “I want to show you something on the body.”
“Yes sir.” Placing the piece of evidence she was working on back into the bag, Emerald got up and went over to her boss.
Standing next to him, she looked down at the exposed body. “Did you find anything to determine his cause of death?” she asked.
Dr. David finished making the last stitch to close up the body. “I did all of the postmortem examination and I’m terming his death as a suicide. There weren’t any strange marks to his body; his stomach was empty of contents. The young man wasn’t poisoned. In addition, I did a rush on the toxicology report and it came back clean.
What a shame, she thought.
Emerald always hated when a young person’s body ended up here because of a suicide. At this young age, most kids didn’t understand that as bad as things seemed it would get better if they only gave it some more time.
“Did you ever find out his name?” Emerald asked as her boss pulled the sheet over the body.
“Rex Hamilton, Jr,” he answered. “An officer called me on my cell phone and told me while I was coming back down here. He was leaving to inform Rex’s parents. He’d been missing for about two days and when I checked the computer his information pulled up.”
“Who’s coming to identify the body? Do you know how long it might take?”
Half the time when a suicide of a teenager was involved, she dealt with the fathers more than the mothers. Most mothers had a very hard time accepting their child was gone especially when it was done by the child’s own hands and not by a homicide or an accident.
“I’m not sure,” Dr. David answered honestly. “They live pretty far from town, so it might take a while for them to get here.”
“Since he was found by the river bank did he drown himself?” Emerald wanted something to tell the parent if they asked how their son ended his own life.
“Yes,” he answered. “Rex died from self-inflicted drowning. There was a lot of water in his lungs. I need to finish working on the death certificate before I leave. If the officer who comes with Mr. Hamilton’s parents has any more questions for me, please tell him to contact me on my cell phone since I’ll be at home.”
Moving away from her, Dr. David removed his gloves and disposed of them as he made his way over to the coat rack. He removed his lab coat and hung it up there.
Emerald watched as her boss got ready to leave. She felt a growing sense of sadness at the thought of dealing with Rex’s family. With her boss gone though, she would be able to leave right after the parents came to identify the body.
“Have a safe trip home,” she said as her boss went towards the door.
Pausing in his tracks, Emerald cursed under her breath as Dr. David turned back around. Why did she say anything to him? He was on his way out the door and her big mouth was going to get him to stay here with her.
Great! She wasn’t ever going to learn her lesson.
“Emerald, could I interest you in having a drink with me sometimes?” Martin asked her. His eyes held hers from across the room while he waited for her answer.
How was she going to get out of this without coming off too bitchy? This was a damn good job and she didn’t want to insult her boss despite the fact he had a very hard time taking no for an answer.
“Don’t you remember me telling you I have other plans before you called me into work?” she asked wondering if he would lie or tell her the truth.
Her boss nodded at her. “Yes, I do recall. However, I was hoping maybe we could get together at another time. I really want to go out with you. I’ve been thinking about us going out for a while now. What would it hurt? What do you say? One date. I’ll even let you pick the time and place.”
“I have a boyfriend and you know that. Why are you still asking me out on a date? Besides if I wasn’t involved with someone, you do have a rule here about co-workers not dating. I’m pretty sure there’s some woman out there who would love to go out with you. I’m just not her.” Emerald hoped that her boss would finally get the hint and drop it.
“Well, I guess I’m not going to get anywhere with you, am I? You can’t blame a guy for trying.” Spinning around on his heel, Martin walked out of the room finally leaving her alone.
Once Martin was gone and Emerald was sure he wasn’t coming back for anything she blew out the breath that she had been holding. God, he needed to get a life and soon because her boss had to stop asking out all of the females who worked around here.
Just last week, she found out that he’d invited another one of their female co-workers out for coffee knowing she had a boyfriend. It was a good thing Gigi hadn’t taken him too seriously or Martin would be out of a very high ranking job.
In her honest opinion, Dr. David wasn’t a bad looking man, but his attitude rubbed a lot of p
eople, mostly females, and the wrong way. Maybe if he stopped trying so hard his love life would jump by leaps and bounds.
Yet, it wasn’t her place to tell him anything about his personal life whether it was good or bad. They had to stay totally professional with each other. His lack of companionship wasn’t her fault, so why was she even wasting her energy thinking about it?
Okay, enough about Dr. David. Emerald needed to focus on getting the body prepared for viewing, so Rex’s parents could see him. She didn’t want any kind of autopsy instruments lying out in the open for the parents to see.
****
An hour later, Emerald walked around the room making sure everything was in its place for the family’s arrival. Without a doubt, the most difficult part of her job was dealing with the family members left behind after a sudden death.
She could handle dead bodies because those people were already gone and in a better place. Yet, even after doing this job for close to six years dealing with crying parents or family members, it always got to her and the suicide deaths were, by far, the worst.
“Excuse me, is Dr. David here?” a male voice asked behind her.
Twirling around, Emerald’s body stiffened in disbelief. Her breath caught in her lungs as she gaped wordlessly at the gorgeous cop standing across the room. Her heart pounded away in her chest like she’d just finished running a twenty mile marathon.
Wave after wave of shock slapped at her as she tried to comprehend what was right before her eyes. However, she could only stare at him, tongue-tied.
No! It couldn’t be him!
Emerald hadn’t laid eyes on him since that night. She doubted he even remember her after all of this time. Why would he? She hadn’t meant anything to him... Nothing at all.
She felt another shock run through her already over stimulated body as his eyes raked over her body. How in the hell out of all the places for Chance Cutter to end up, why did it have to be here?
Hunks Pulled Over Page 2