by Jae
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Next of Kin
Sequel to
Conflict of Interest
By
JAE
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Copyright © 2008 By Jae
All rights reserved. 1
eBook ISBN: 978-1-934889-26-8
Print ISBN: 978-1-934889-42-8
First Edition
eBook Format
Published November 2008
Print July 2009
This electronic book is ePublished by
L-Book ePublisher, LLC
La Quinta, Ca. USA
Email: info@ L-Book.com
Web Site: http://L-Book.com
Editors: Judy Underwood
Cover Design by Sheri
[email protected]
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This work is copyrighted and is licensed only for use by the original purchaser and can be copied to the original purchaser's electronic device and its memory card for their personal use. Modifying or making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, without limit email, CD, DVD, memory cards, file transfer, paper print out or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Acknowledgments
The biggest thank-you goes to my beta reader Pam. She had the patience to work with me on several versions of Next of Kin. Pam, thanks for all the time you invested in this story and its prequel.
Thanks to Chris, who beta read Next of Kin when I first wrote it, and to Margot, who makes a great test reader. I also want to thank Sheri for three wonderful covers for my books. A special thank-you goes to RJ Nolan – it's great to have the support of a fellow writer.
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Dedication
To my "next of kin," especially to Susanne – a great sister, a great friend, and a great woman.
Next of Kin
CHAPTER 1
"WHAT ARE YOU wearing?" a sultry voice purred through the phone.
Aiden closed the file she had been reading and tossed it on top of the others that were scattered all over her desk. She pressed the phone against her ear and whirled the desk chair around, trying to obtain a minimum of privacy in a room full of nosy detectives. She cupped a hand around the receiver and lowered her voice. "What am I wearing?" she repeated with a disbelieving smile.
"Ooooh, Carlisle's got an obscene caller!" Jeff Okada announced.
The detectives crowded around Aiden's desk, and she waved at them to go away.
"Yeah," the female voice at the other end of the line answered. "Or rather... what aren't you wearing?"
Aiden tipped her chair back and laughed, relaxing for the first time all day. "You're sexually harassing a sex crimes detective at her workplace? My, my, you're a daring woman, Doctor Kinsley!"
"Daring? No. Concerned? Yes," Dawn answered, giving up on her attempts to sound seductive. "I've seen neither hide nor hair of you for the last three days, and the mountains of mail in your mailbox tell me that you haven't made it home since Thursday."
She hadn't. Aiden sighed. "I'm sorry –"
"No," Dawn interrupted. "I didn't call to make you feel bad. You're doing your job, and you don't have to apologize for that. I just thought you could probably use a change of clothes by now. Unless, of course, the Portland Police Bureau has a new interrogation technique, and you want to get a confession from the perp just because he can't stand to be in the same room with you any longer."
Aiden laughed for a second, then her face once again took on the grim expression she could see on the faces of her colleagues. "We have to catch him before we can force a confession, by offensive smell or otherwise."
"You will," Dawn said quietly. "It just takes a little time."
Time his next victim doesn't have. Still, Dawn's belief in her felt good.
"So do you want me to drive by the precinct later to bring you a change of clothes?" Dawn asked.
Aiden looked around the busy squad room. It was Saturday evening, but there were still two dozen detectives and police officers working on finding a serial rapist. Aiden's sexual orientation and her relationship with Dawn were not exactly a secret, but it wasn't something she talked about a lot at work either. Most of her colleagues hadn't commented one way or the other, and she was loath to rub it in their faces.
Dawn seemed to notice her hesitation. "I could pick up a change of clothes from your apartment and send them by bike courier if that would be –"
"No!" Aiden said, sounding harsher than she wanted to. Her patience had already been wearing thin after working the case for thirty-six hours straight, and she lost what little patience had remained when she heard Dawn's careful response. "No, I want to see you, not some bike messenger."
At her outburst, even the normally oblivious Ronny Pratt looked up from his work. A few other detectives gave her curious stares, probably wondering to whom she was talking.
Aiden wearily rubbed her face, trying to hide her blush from her colleagues.
"Okay," Dawn said after a while. "I'll be over a little later. I'm having dinner with my mom, and I'll stop by on my way home."
Aiden's stomach growled. She couldn't even remember the last time she had eaten anything, much less a home-cooked meal. "Tell Grace I said 'hi.'"
"I will. I love you."
"Uh." Aiden glanced around the squad room. There goes my tough-cop reputation. "I..."
Dawn laughed. "You don't have to say it. I know that the boys are probably listening to every word you say."
"Yeah," Aiden grumbled. "They're a nosy bunch."
"I'll let you go now," Dawn said after a moment of silence. "See you later."
"Dawn?"
"Yeah? Don't worry. I won't bring your sexy undies to work. I'll search for a pair of sensible granny panties," Dawn said with a giggle.
Aiden's tense features relaxed into a smile. "I love you," she said into the receiver before she put it down.
Ruben leaned across his desk. "How's the li'l doc?"
Aiden looked up, a sharp retort on her lips, but when she saw nothing but sincerity in her colleague's eyes, she leaned back again and rubbed tired eyes. "She's fine." She picked up the file again.
"Don't you know that by heart now?" Ray asked, looking up from his own file and pointing at hers.
Aiden stared down at the crime scene report until the print became blurry. "There has to be something we're missing." She threw down her file and rubbed the back of her tense neck, then trudged across the squad room to the coffeemaker. By now, only coffee, adrenaline, and stubborn determination were keeping her awake.
"Why don't you lie down in the 'dungeon' for an hour or two?" Ray suggested, referring to the claustrophobically small room next to the locker room. "If there's anything in there you're missing, you won't find it while you're this exhausted."
Aiden put down her cup of coffee. She knew Ray was right. "You'll wake me the moment there's a new lead?"
"You'll be the first to know," Ray promised.
With a tired nod, Aiden headed for the nearest bed.
* * *
Dawn stepped off the elevator, surprised to see the precinct's hallway still busy even on a Saturday night. Carefully balancing her armful of bags and containers, she pushed through the glass doors announcing "Sexual Assault Detail" and entered the squad room.
She had visited the squad room before bu
t under very different circumstances. Just six months ago, she had been one of the victims whose pictures were hanging on the dry erase board. A shiver raced across her skin, almost making her drop her packages. She took a deep breath and stepped farther into the room.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" A young plainclothes detective quickly blocked her way.
Dawn nodded. "I'm searching for Detective Carlisle." She pointed over the young Latino detective's shoulder to where she knew Aiden's desk was.
Aiden was nowhere to be seen, but Ray Bennet stood from his desk and greeted her with a warm smile. "It's all right, Moreno," he said to his younger colleague. "She's welcome here anytime."
Dawn knew the reassurance was meant more for her than for the young detective, and she appreciated it.
"Hey, Dawn!" Ruben shouted from across the room. "After having to stare at my partner's ugly mug all day, you're a sight for sore eyes."
Okada ignored him. "Hello, Doctor." He stepped closer, both hands pressed to his stiff back, and peered into the bags that Dawn carried. "Do you come bearing gifts?"
"Yes. My mother and I combined forces to make sure that Portland's finest wouldn't go hungry tonight." Dawn set down her bags on the closest desk and handed out containers of still steaming food. She just smiled at the promises of eternal salvation from half a dozen hungry cops.
The door to Lieutenant Astrid Swenson's office opened. "What's going on?" She frowned as she glanced at her men who were crowding around Aiden's desk. "Is there a new lead?"
Dawn froze. She knew Aiden's friends and colleagues would welcome her anytime, but she wasn't so sure about the lieutenant. Not only was Dawn an outsider in this group of cops, a civilian who shouldn't even be here, but she also knew Aiden had taken a lot of criticism from her superiors for starting a relationship with a former victim.
"No, just an upstanding citizen bringing us nourishment," Jeff Okada answered, undauntedly digging into his food.
The group of cops around Dawn parted as the lieutenant stepped closer, giving her a direct view at Dawn. The frown on Swenson's face deepened for a second when she recognized her. "Doctor Kinsley, right?"
Dawn swallowed and nodded.
"She's just here to drop off a change of clothes for Aiden," Ray came to her rescue. "Susan already dropped off mine earlier."
Dawn suppressed a smile. She knew Ray was telling his lieutenant that she had to respect the relationship between her and Aiden the same way she respected his marriage to Susan. "Yeah, and having done that, I'll go and leave you to your work now."
"Dr. Kinsley," the lieutenant's voice made her turn back around. "I think she's back there, taking a nap. I'm sure she would kill her partner if he let you leave without seeing her, so why don't you go and wake her up before her dinner gets cold?"
Dawn stared at her.
The lieutenant's blue-gray eyes softened, and she gave Dawn an encouraging nod. "Go on." She pointed to one of the doors down the hall.
"Thank you, Lieutenant." Dawn pressed one of her home-cooked dinners into the surprised woman's hands and hurried down the hall before Swenson could change her mind.
"Wow," Jorge Moreno, on loan from narcotics for the duration of this case, said with admiration, "who was that? She's not on the job, is she?"
Ray settled down at his desk to eat his dinner. "No, she isn't. She's a psychologist."
"Huh." Moreno was quiet for a moment. "Is she married?"
Ray almost choked on his dinner. He set down his fork. "Whatever you're thinking – forget it, rookie."
"Why?" Moreno grinned boyishly and dug into his dinner. "She's gorgeous; she holds down a steady job, and she can cook – she's exactly the kind of woman my mama wants me to bring home."
"Your mama might be all right with you bringing her home, but Carlisle might object," Ray answered, pointing his fork at Moreno.
"Why, she her girlfriend or what?" The young Mexican laughed at his own perceived joke. Slowly, his laughter died down when he looked into the smug faces of his colleagues.
Ray merrily stabbed a piece of chicken with his fork. "Yep."
"Oh." Jorge Moreno sat down heavily and scratched his head. "So asking Carlisle out wouldn't be a good idea either, huh?"
"What is this – my squad room, where serious business is conducted, or a dating service?" Lieutenant Swenson shouted from the door of her office. "Go back to work, people!"
* * *
Dawn quietly opened the door the lieutenant had indicated. The room was dark, and she needed a second to let her eyes adjust to the darkness. She silently paused in the doorway, not sure if there was anyone sleeping on one of the cots. Finally, her eyes got used to the darkness, and she could make out a single form huddled under a blanket.
She couldn't see the face, but she didn't need to. She had slept next to Aiden enough times to recognize her even in the darkness. The way she slept on her back, the door within easy view every time she woke, was typical for her cop girlfriend. Aiden was tossing and turning every few seconds, and one of her hands was clutching the blanket.
Dawn didn't need her PhD in psychology to know that Aiden was stressed. This case, like so many others, was getting to her.
Quietly, taking care not to stumble in the darkness, Dawn inched closer. She sat down on the edge of the cot and peered down at her sleeping lover. The shirt that peeked out from under the blanket was wrinkled, and Aiden's short hair was disheveled. There was a frown on her face, even while she slept.
Dawn couldn't resist. She bent down to kiss the frown off her face. Her lips softly touched the corner of Aiden's mouth.
"What?" Aiden jerked upright. She stared at Dawn, blinked, rubbed her eyes, and then looked at her again. "If this is a dream, please don't wake me."
Dawn ran a hand through Aiden's hair, combing the tousled strands back into some semblance of order. "If this were a dream, I wouldn't bring you fresh underwear. I would be in my underwear." When Aiden didn't react to the joke, Dawn wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug.
Aiden's breath washed over Dawn's neck as she exhaled. She could feel Aiden's tense muscles relax against her. "Come on," she said after a few seconds, "your dinner is getting cold."
Aiden moved back a few inches to stare at her. "You brought me dinner, and you left it downstairs with the twenty famished cops in the squad room? Do you honestly think they're above petty theft just because they're supposed to uphold the law?"
"No need for jealousy, Detective. I brought enough for everyone." Dawn softly grasped her hand and pulled her up from the cot, enjoying Aiden's sensual, catlike stretches for a few seconds.
Aiden stopped and looked at her. "Sometimes I think this can't be for real," she murmured.
"The case?"
"You." Aiden lifted her hand and touched Dawn's cheek with a single finger. "Us."
Dawn put her hand over Aiden's and pressed it against her face, solidifying their contact. "It is real."
"Yeah. But you waiting around for me, playing second fiddle to my job, and instead of complaining when I don't call you for three days, you come and bring me food and clothes. It just seems too good to be true," Aiden said, her voice almost a whisper.
"My dad, my brother, and my ex-husband were cops – I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I made a play for you," Dawn said.
Aiden arched a skeptical eyebrow as Dawn had expected her to. "You made a play for me? Excuse me, Doc, but that's not the way I remember it."
Dawn was glad to feel Aiden's mood shift, and she answered her smile with one of her own. "Oh, you mean that lame attempt to ask me out to dinner?" she teased.
"Lame attempt?" Aiden echoed. "If I remember correctly, you agreed quite willingly."
"Aiden!" Ray burst through the door, nearly running them over in the tiny room. "Deming called. There's DNA evidence on the last victim. We got a name and an address."
Dawn watched Aiden transform from gentle lover to determined cop before her eyes.
Aiden bent down t
o pick up her badge and service weapon from their place next to the cot, and when she turned back around, the formerly gentle, honey-colored eyes were filled with steely determination. "Let's go."
A quick thank-you and one last glance to Dawn and they were gone.
Dawn listened to their retreating steps with a sigh. "Be safe," she whispered into the darkness of the empty room.
CHAPTER 2
THE UNDERGROUND garage was almost empty. At this time on a Saturday night, most other attorneys and paralegals had long since gone home. The high heels of Kade Matheson's shoes clacked on the concrete, sounding eerily loud in the silence of the night.