“Friends,” she said flatly.
Oh God, he’d really put his foot in it now. “I mean, our families.”
“Family. Right. I’m the little sister you never had.”
It felt like the temperature went up ten degrees. The air conditioner didn’t do squat. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow and leaned forward. He could see the tops of her breasts where the curve of her sundress was unbuttoned.
“I just meant,” he said, “that we’re going to be seeing each other, even after this investigation is over. A lot. I mean, Mike and I are still friends. And, um, I like Dooley. I hope we can go back to the way things used to be.” That’s not what he wanted. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to take her to bed. But first things first. He’d hurt her, and the best way of winning her over was to court her back. Maybe. He hoped. Right now, with that odd look on her face that reminded him strangely of a cat ready to pounce, he wondered if he was wrong.
“Me, too,” she said in a low voice.
Something was very wrong, and Sam wasn’t sure what he’d done. “Good,” he said and smiled, but his smiled wavered when she smiled back, because something had shifted. What was she thinking? He didn’t know if he really wanted to know.
He jumped up. “I should go. Mike will be here any minute.”
“I’ll walk you out.” She stood and walked across the room. He stared at her legs as she left, then drained his beer before following.
She stood at the front door and said, “Let me know what you and Detective Black find out, okay?”
“Of course. And you should go to the station and look at mug shots in the morning, okay?”
“Okay.” She smiled and put her arms around his neck. He was so shocked he wondered if she was drunk. Of course she wasn’t. He didn’t think she’d even finished her beer.
“Sam,” she said in a low, sexy voice. “Your brotherly concern is touching. I mean, I have three brothers, why not four?”
As she spoke she leaned in close to his face.
He wanted her. He wanted to kiss her, to touch her, to carry her to her bedroom and make love to her. He leaned in, his heart pounding, remembering that kiss two years ago, the kiss of promises, the kiss he hadn’t been able to forget.
Her lips touched his… then she moved and kissed his cheek. “See you tomorrow.”
Chapter Ten
Wednesday
Sam had spent all morning on the phone trying to retrace Callie Wood’s last steps, but she was elusive. He’d talked to her parents who were justifiably upset, but they hadn’t spoken to her in four years. He’d learned a little about her childhood and how she got in with the wrong crowd. It angered him as much as it saddened him. Callie seemed to have had an average middle-class upbringing, two parents who were still married, and two younger siblings who were both now in college. But she’d thrown it away to chase after a boy who had led her into a life of drugs and theft.
While Sam was working on the Callie Wood case, Shauna had gone through all the mug shots that fit the description of the man who had attacked her. But she hadn’t had a good look at him, and there were no distinguishing features. That he was Caucasian, six feet tall, and approximately 180 pounds was the best she could do. She left to go to work, and Sam was still on the phone.
John came in and tossed a list of names in front of him. “Shauna emailed me Dooley’s employee list yesterday, but I just got it this morning. Look at the terminated employees.”
Sam scanned the list.
Callie Wood.
“Wait,” Sam said.
“You see the connection?”
“Yes—and now Simone’s preliminary report makes sense, but I need to ask her something.” Sam dialed Simone’s direct line and put her on speaker.
“Simone, it’s Sam Garcia and John Black.”
“Hello, boys.”
“I have a question about your report on my victim from Discovery Park, Callie Wood.”
“Ask away, you have two minutes.”
“You wrote that there was broken glass at the scene that was mirrored glass inconsistent with glass on motor vehicles.”
“Correct.”
“Did you find any of this mirrored glass on the victim?”
She said, “There was trace fragments on her neck, around the area she’d been strangled, and in her hair. Microscopic. But there was none on her shoes, so she didn’t step in it. However, I found crushed mirror fragments where the killer was standing while he strangled her. I postulate he had stepped on a mirror and pieces were embedded in his shoes. That transferred to the concrete at Discovery Park.”