have to-it can just pass right on by. But it can never happen without that moment. You know, when you feel it’s possible.”
She laughed. “You’ve got cheek.”
“Didn’t you feel it too?”
“It’s different for a woman.”
“I don’t believe it. Not that part.”
She shrugged and looked toward the window, at the shaft of sunlight pouring between them on the table. “What was all that about your going away?”
“I may. I don’t know. But we can see each other. He’s not back all week.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve just come from the test site. I saw him there.”
“That must have been cozy. Look, if anything’s going to happen, you’ve got to leave him out of it. I mean it.”
“He’s not in it. I’m talking about us. You and me. You can make whatever rules you want.”
“All right,” she said softly, “but not here. No one’s ever come here.”
“Where did you go with the others?”
She looked at him. “Don’t pretend you’re jealous. You’ve no right. I never said there were others. I just said no one’s ever come here. You can see what it’s like.” She tilted her head toward the neighboring apartment.
He followed her gesture, taking in the room for the first time, a blur of terra-cotta pots and Navajo rugs draped over simple government-issue furniture. He reached across the table for her hand. “We can meet somewhere.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll find a place.”
“There’s the ranch. We could go there.”
“She left you a key,” he said, a statement.
Emma nodded. “She thought I might need it.”
“That day,” he said. “Before the drive. You thought about this before the drive.”
“No. A suspicion. I didn’t know.”
He smiled. “But you thought it might. You were ahead of me. Come here.”
She shook her head, but he gripped her hand, pulling it gently, and she followed the pull, getting up and moving to where he sat, her robe falling open as she straddled him. His face was level with her breasts and he began kissing them, barely touching them at first, then, as he felt the nipples harden, moving over them in a steady rhythm, pressing, so that she anticipated each stroke of his mouth. She closed her eyes. His mouth opened to lick the nipple, tasting her, still salty with sweat. He pressed his face into her, and her head, no longer flung back, now dropped down next to his. “No,” she gasped, “you’ll break the chair,” a last vestige of practicality. He carried her again to the couch, his mouth still on her, tasting all of her this time, slowly, making love to every part of her, teasing her sex until she held his head there, shuddering as she came under his tongue, so that when he entered her again she lay open, already his.
Mills was waiting in his room, lying again on the bed.
“You going to make a habit of breaking in?” Connolly said.
“That was hours ago, when I thought you’d need a ride. Then I just got fascinated wondering where you were. After being so anxious and all.”
“Well, I’m here now. Everything set?”
“Holliday will meet us there. Threatening to call the governor did the trick, just like you said. He’s not happy about it, though. Said you put his ass on the line and he doesn’t like it there. Christ, you’re a mess.”
“We drove all night.”
“Right.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Mills grinned. “I haven’t seen a look like that since college. Larry Rosen, the pussy king. Just like Larry. Out all night and then he’d come back too shagged out to go to class. Except he’d want to tell us about it. You have fun?”
“Don’t be an asshole.”
“Hey, I didn’t say a thing. Better grab yourself a shower, though. The memory lingers on. Those cons down there get a whiff and they’ll start tearing the place apart.”
“Mills—”
“All right, all right. I’m just jealous, that’s all. I have to hand it to you-I’ve been here a year and I still can’t get laid.”
“How about just getting the car? I’ll be right with you,” Connolly said, stripping off his clothes.
“Okay. You sure you don’t want to get some sleep instead? This can wait, you know. They’ve got a signed confession and a witness.”
“Who?”
“The bartender in Albuquerque. Turns out he recognized him after all.”
“Was this before or after they took his liquor license away?”
“There were others. The guy was a regular. It’s him, Mike.”
“I just want to get a look at him.”
Mills shrugged. “Suit yourself. If it was me, after a big night, I’d get some sleep.”
“Well, that’s you. I don’t feel sleepy at all.”
But he slept all the way to Albuquerque, his eyes drooping as soon as they left the Hill and Mills’s cheerful voice faded into a background hum. By the time they reached the familiar highway he was out, not even disturbed by the sun on his face. They were in Albuquerque before he surfaced again, slightly groggy, and saw Holliday’s grim face.
The Albuquerque jail had none of the adobe pretense of Santa Fe; it was a streamlined modern government building in the post office pork-barrel style, official and utilitarian. Chief Hendron, on the other hand, was a throwback to the frontier one-room jail with a big key ring. He had the authority of height and carried himself with the swagger of one who was never far from his six-shooter. He was clearly put out about the interview, his natural belligerence hemmed in only by the threat of a higher authority, an even bigger bully.
“Holliday here says you got some special interest in this prisoner, is that right? You mind telling me what that might be?”
“It’s a government matter.”
“Shit, what isn’t?” He looked at Connolly’s ID and snorted. “Army Corps of Engineers is taking an interest in all kinds of things these days, aren’t they? I suppose we got to wait for the war to be over before you tell us what the hell you’re all doing here.”
“You’ll be the first to know.”
The chief looked at him. “Don’t go fresh on me,” he snapped. “Don’t you do it. I’m still the law around here, and I won’t have it.” He handed back the ID. “If Holliday vouches for you, I guess that’s that. But I’m not going to have you messing with my prisoner. You want to talk to him, you’ve got to have one of my boys with you. We got a self-confessed murderer back there and I still don’t know what business that is of yours.”
“The other victim was one of our men.”
“One of your men? That’s a good one. Now just what would one of you army engineers be wanting with old Ramon back there?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
“Helluva thing, that kind of shit going on in the army. If it was my outfit, I’d be ashamed.”
“If it was your outfit, so would I,” Connolly said and then quickly, before Hendron could reply, “Can I see him now? I’ll have Chief Holliday with me-that should satisfy your concerns about being alone. Has he got a lawyer?”
Hendron glared at him, ready to pounce, then backed down.
“He will have. You got one hour with him, that’s it. You just find out what you need to find out and don’t come back. You interfere with this case and the governor himself won’t keep me off your ass.”
“I appreciate your cooperation.”
