THIRD (DC After Dark #1)(9)

Just like the Homicide Division wasn't for every cop. No, you had to be my particular brand of crazy asshole to endure year after year of people killing each other and still love the job. And I fucking loved the job.

The M.E. answered without even looking at me, too engrossed in labeling vials and bags and shoving them in her evidence case to give a shit about making eye contact. I was okay with it. It wasn't her job to cater to the living. "Twelve hours or so. Give or take a couple of hours."

"So, midnight or one in the morning," I muttered as I leaned down to get a better look at the body sprawled on the disheveled sheets. I didn't bother to ask what was the cause of death. The bullet hole in middle of his chest was a good indicator of how the Senator had bought it unless the tox screen came back with a surprise. "Must have used a silencer or something for people not to hear. Nobody reported a goddam thing much less a gunshot in the middle of the night."

"And the perp was allowed into the room," Peter, my partner, gestured towards the crime scene techs messing with the front door. "They say there's no evidence of forced entry."

I eased up off the floor, careful not to lean on the bed when my knees and achy joints protested the movement. At thirty-eight I wasn't old and I kept my body in great shape but partying at a bar last night until the wee hours and spending some quality time on my knees servicing the cock of a beautiful boy wasn't conducive to being at the top-of-my-game today. As usual, nothing got past Peter.

"You need help there?" His smirk quickly morphed into a full grin when I flipped him off. A big guy with an imposing frame, his bulk usually made criminals and cops think twice about tangling with him but his smile stripped him of all that edge. It was boyish, bright white teeth against the ebony of his skin and it completely ruined his tough-guy game. "You're getting too old to be running the streets at all hours."



       
         
       
        

"I was in bed early enough." I didn't elaborate that I hadn't done any actual sleeping in the bed of the man I'd picked up at a club. I didn't need to. We'd been partners long enough for him to jump to all the correct conclusions. I pointed at the body. "So was he from the looks of it."

Several used condoms were in the trash can, their wrappers scattered on the bedside table along with lube and a large, flesh-colored dildo. That fucker had to be nine inches long and breathtakingly wide and I mentally saluted the senator and his mystery sex partner. He hadn't been conducting constituent town halls in this two-thousand a night junior suite last night. Not unless he had new and personal ways of obtaining votes.

The M.E. perked up, sliding a used condom into an evidence bag. "He had sex. Lots of it according to our preliminary examination of the sheets." She paused as she wrote on a bag with a black Sharpie. "We'll determine if the semen in the rubbers is his but there's also evidence of anal penetration." She pointed her chin at the sex toy lying next to the telephone. "We'll test the dildo to see if that is what was used on him or his partner or both. Any DNA we can find we'll cross-check and get you the results."

I whistled but not in judgment. I couldn't begrudge any guy indulging in a little ass play if that's what he liked. Hell, I enjoyed sex with men and women although I'd confined my activities to the male variety since my divorce. A cheating wife had soured my appetite for female companionship or any whiff of commitment for a while. "I wonder what Mrs. Senator Marsden thinks about him meeting up for a little fun on the side."

"Maybe she was here with him," Peter said, lifting the edge of the coverlet. His eyes scanned the area, looking for anything that might be a clue to what had gone down here. He looked up at me and winked. "You know. Keeping the spark alive. A little role play to spice things up. Meet in the bar and pretend to be strangers before heading up to the room . . ."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "You speaking from experience? You and Katie . . . " I let my question hang in the air between us. They were good together, my partner at work and his partner at home. Solid and still hot for each other even after three kids. They were also the best of friends and it was an amazing thing to watch. I didn't even try to curb my jealousy.

"Fuck off," he chuckled as he reached for something on the floor just under where he was searching. He produced another used condom wrapper and passed it off to the M.E. and her never-ending supply of evidence bags. "Everybody knows that hotel sex is hot."