Crime Scene Connection by Janice Kay Johnson

Author:Janice Kay Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-01-26T14:11:37+00:00

* * *

SHE REALLY HAD to learn to say no.

The only good reason to encourage Matthew Reinert to hang around was if she believed for even a teeny, tiny second that he could be coaxed into an indiscretion about his fellow officers.

Alexa scrunched up her nose. That was extremely unlikely, and not true anyway. He’d come rushing to rescue her when she called. That was worth something. Still, when he’d called offering to bring a pizza, she could have said, “Oh, gosh, I have plans. Can we do that another night?”

But no. She’d hesitated, credit to her first healthy instinct for self-preservation, then succumbed without listening to the inner voice saying, Whoa! Think about this.

So now she was listening for the sound of his deep-throated truck in her driveway, to be followed by a doorbell or firm knock on the door he’d installed for her.

Why hadn’t she realized how sneaky his generous effort had been?

And there was the engine, quickly cut off, followed by the doorbell.

She was dumb enough to feel anticipation lurking beneath all the common sense warnings she’d been giving herself.

Letting him in, she said, “This isn’t a good idea. Why are you here?”

He smiled, kissed her lightly and said, “Why else?”

“I can think of a bunch of underhanded reasons,” she mumbled to his back as she locked up before trailing him to the kitchen.

He surveyed the table, where she’d already set out two placemats, napkins, plates and a beer for him and a rare glass of wine for her. If there was a glint of amusement in his eyes when he glanced at her, she could hardly blame him.

Not until they sat down did she get a good look at his face. Oh, he might have been smiling, but tonight that was just surface. Lines too deep, eyes too dark, tension changing the set of his shoulders.

“Your friend?” Surely, she’d have heard if Art Dwyer had died, but—It could have just happened.

“No change. I stopped by the hospital on my way here.”

“Oh.” She plopped down in her chair. This had to be getting to him. “There’s nothing else wrong?”

He sighed and sat, too, placing the pizza box in the middle of the table and opening it. “I have some worries,” he admitted. “But can we eat before we talk about it?”

“I’ll just worry.”

He muttered something, dished up a couple of slices of the pizza and pushed the box closer to her. “Yeah, okay.”

She took a slice, but didn’t start eating.

“Jim Berkey? His body was found today.”

She absorbed that. “Oh. You said you hadn’t been able to find him.”

“He wasn’t dead the whole while, but someone got to him before we did.” The dark undertone was unmistakable.

“You think...” Alexa hesitated.

“I do think.”

Once again, he’d managed to scare her.

Matthew started to eat, making her realize he really was hungry. She wasn’t so much, after her greasy lunchtime indulgence. She nibbled, though, watching him devour half the large pizza with the kind of mechanical hunger that made her wonder if he was even tasting his food.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.