“Next time, huh?”
“Definitely.” He laid his fork on his plate and put his full focus on me. “Here’s how this will play out. I’m going to walk you to your door and then I’m going to pull you in for the hottest, most incredible kiss you’ve ever had. It will be so intense that you’ll think about it a lot over the next few days. You’ll also recall that we had a good time and you’re going to want to do it all over again.”
“Is that so?” I asked, unable to keep the smile from my face. He was so damned confident.
“Yeah, it’s so.”
And it went down exactly as he said, including a kiss hot enough to melt the siding off my house, the daydreaming about the way it made me feel, and the longing to be with him again. Asshole!
IWAS STILL FLYINGhigh the next week after my dinner date with Josh. In my mind, I had a swagger similar to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe it was going to be smooth sailing with Josh. Hell, I hadn’t heard a peep from him after I made sure he was safely locked inside his house after our earth-scorching kiss, but it was a start – a fucking good one. He sought me out for sexy time in his salon, for one thing, and he agreed to have dinner with me, for another. Those were both good signs that just maybe we had a fighting chance at…something. I really wanted to have something with him. I wasn’t willing to risk good fortune up to that point by calling it the “R” word. I just needed to be patient and allow things to happen at their own pace and not rush it.
Adrian looked up from his desk and spotted me. He let out a loud whistle then said, “Look at you. You’ve been strutting your stuff for over a week now. Plus, you sent my wife flowers to thank her for the massage gift certificate she gave you for your birthday. That must’ve been one hell of a massage to have you looking that happy a week later.”
“Good morning, partner.” I wasn’t about to acknowledge his comments or leering grin.
“It sure looks like it,” Adrian replied. “You ready to interview Commissioner Wallace this morning?”
We had gone to his office to talk to him the day we saw the video, but he had taken his family out of town for vacation. I found the timing odd because school wasn’t out yet for the Thanksgiving holiday and, according to his secretary, the trip was a spur of the moment decision. It appeared to me that Jack Wallace took his family on a literal guilt trip to Disney World. The longer I cooled my heels the angrier I became at the situation, but it gave us time to quietly dig a little deeper into Jack Wallace’s background.
He had a cousin with an extensive criminal record who looked quite capable of killing a defenseless woman soaking in her bathtub while she read a book. But how did he get in? Did someone make a copy of a key or did he pick the lock? Was it possible we were barking up the wrong tree altogether? Maybe Georgia’s death had nothing to do with Rocky or their affair. Someone trashed her house looking for something and didn’t bother to take any of her expensive jewelry or high-dollar electronics, which meant they were looking for something very specific. Was it possible that Georgia had information on someone who didn’t want it leaked? If so, who had a secret worth killing over?
That brought me back to Jack Wallace. People had killed for a lot less than getting outed to their families. No matter how Jack categorized his sexuality, his affair with Rocky wasn’t something he’d want getting out until he was ready – if he ever was ready. I disliked cheaters with a passion, but no matter how angry he made me, I’d never willingly out the man. If he was eventually arrested for any involvement of the crime, there’d be no way of keeping his affair with Rocky quiet.
“I’m ready to solve this case and I have a strong feeling that Jack Wallace is a piece of the missing puzzle we need to bring Georgia’s killer to justice.” I was convinced of it, actually. I had that tingling sensation that told me we were on the right path.
“Let’s show up at his office and take him by surprise.” Adrian rose from his chair and slipped on his jacket.
The short drive to the commissioner’s office was quiet. I had expected Adrian to rib me some more, but it was obvious his mind had turned to the case, as had mine. Jack’s wide-eyed secretary told us that the county commissioners were all in a meeting and couldn’t be disturbed.
“That’s not how this works.” I pulled back my jacket and showed her the badge that was clipped onto my belt. She knew damn well who I was and her stalling tactics pissed me off. “You either go in there and quietly ask the commissioner to come out and have a private conversation with us, or we go in there ourselves and pull him out. Which do you think he’d prefer?”
Adrian chuckled when the secretary bolted from her chair to get Jack from his meeting. “So, you’re the bad cop today?”
I didn’t have time to respond before the secretary returned with a thunderous looking Jack Wallace on her heels. “What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded hotly.
“Can we talk somewhere private?” Adrian asked him politely.
“Or we can do it right here,” I offered, taking my role as bad cop seriously. He didn’t need to know I was hesitant to out his cheating ass.
Jack Wallace stood down immediately when he heard the tone of my voice. “Come to my office.” He pivoted on his heels and we followed behind him. “Do I need to have an attorney present for this interview?” he asked once he shut the door to his office. He sat behind his desk but Adrian and I remained standing in front of it in a move to intimidate him.
“Did you do something wrong?” I asked flippantly.
“Having an attorney isn’t a sign of guilt, Detective,” Wallace sneered at me.
“Of course it’s not,” Adrian said, using a cajoling tone of voice. “We’re not reading your rights and you’re not being arrested, sir. This is simply an interview.”
“If it’s ‘simply an interview’ then why the hell didn’t you wait until my meeting was over or better yet, schedule a time to meet with me?”
“We get a more honest reaction when we take people by surprise,” I told him. “By scheduling an appointment, we give you time to cover all your bases. Oddly, we want the truth and not some sugar-coated version of it, or blatant lies.”
“You offend me,” Wallace said, pointing his finger in my direction.
He offended me too, but I wisely kept my mouth shut. “Let’s discuss your trip to Tennessee with the mayor.” I wasn’t playing around and he needed to know it.
Wallace turned an ashen color, giving himself away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His denial would have sounded weak and unconvincing to the greenest of rookies.
I placed my hands on his desk and leaned toward him, invading his personal space. “Do not play games with me, Wallace. We have video footage from a gas station showing the two of you together in Knoxville.”
