Dead Giveaway

sure he could handle a reunion?'

Her husband nodded. 'I remember.' He looked at Will. 'You had the interview while I was out of town. You said it went well.'

'That psychologist is Abby's sister, Dr. Kate Rose. Very sweet lady.' Mrs. Knight smiled at me.

'Dr. Rose knows what she's talking about,' Will said. 'She said I needed to be committed a hundred percent, just like I am to the game. Said I needed to be strong if I planned to go after this. I'm not dropping the ball because Mrs. Olsen died. We keep going. Okay, Abby?'

I nodded, lips tight. This kid was a winner in my book, even if he'd never played basketball a day in his life.

5

I left the Knight home after telling Will I'd make arrangements for him to have his blood drawn and the sample sent to the genetics lab I'd dealt with on a paternity case a few months ago. After checking in on the first floor at HPD, I rode the elevator to the homicide offices and made my way down the busy aisle to Jeff's cubicle. You've never seen paper-shuffling like what goes on at HPD. Fax machines rattled, phones rang and there was enough cursing to provide a script for hell. The place made me as nervous as a cockroach on a griddle.

But if I thought I'd get some time alone to find out what was bugging Jeff, I was wrong. Angel Molina was sitting across from him in the cluttered cubicle. Angel is my supervising PI and Jeff's good friend.

'Hey, guys,' I said, taking the empty molded chair alongside my boss.

Angel gripped my neck, pulled me close and kissed me on the cheek. The strength of his Polo cologne nearly knocked me off my chair.

'How's my best detective?' He tugged at the cuffs of his pristine starched shirt.

I smiled. 'Was that cheek swipe you gave me a metaphor for another kind of kiss?'

'Me? Kissing butt?' Angel said with a laugh.

'I almost believe you're sincere, except I also know you could sell sand to an Arab. What's this meeting about?' I looked at Jeff.

'It's about working this case,' Jeff said.

'Oh, I get it. That's why you left the Knights' house. You're pissed off because—'

'Hold on, Abby,' Angel said. 'From my conversation with Jeff, I did not get the impression he is upset with you.'

'Why do we need you as a mediator then?' Jeff might not be mad, but I was getting fired up and I wasn't sure why.

Angel patted my knee. 'I'm here as a friend to you both. From what Jeff's told me, your adoption investigation and his murder case seem to be trains on parallel tracks.'

'Maybe.' I looked at Jeff, trying to read him. No such luck. His expression only revealed what had been there before. Fatigue. 'Is that your take, Jeff?'

He took out his pack of Big Red and offered us some. I refused, but Angel took a stick and after unwrapping the gum, carefully folded the paper into a tiny rectangle before putting it in the wastebasket behind us.

'Here's what I know, Abby,' Jeff said. 'You're as competitive as I am when it comes to cases. That could cause us some serious problems on this one, personally and professionally. I don't want that.'

'You think I do?' I snapped.

'Stop with the defensiveness,' Angel said. 'What I told Jeff, what I'm telling you, is that these two trains, they're not in a race. Do you see that, my amiga?'

'Okay. So how—'

'These trains, they might come to a crossing and one might have to slow up and let the other pass. You see this, too?' His dark eyes had softened, like Daddy's used to when he tried to calm me down.

I said, 'What you're saying is that if Verna Mae's death is connected to Will, I have to back off?'

Jeff shook his head. 'No, that's not it.'

'Then quit dancing around and tell me what you want from me.' What was it with these guys? Did they think I might explode or, worse, start crying when I got the whole scoop on this little deal they'd cooked up before I arrived?

'Sorry,' Jeff said. 'I have a hard time thinking anyone but me can solve a case. Ask all my former partners. Anyway, since I've worked with Angel's agency in the past, I don't see why I can't again.'

I paused, realizing this wasn't at all what I'd expected. 'Since technically I work for Angel, we can... collaborate?' I could feel my defenses melting away, feel my stomach unknot. Jeff was behaving in a mature, thoughtful way, something my ex-husband never would have done in a trillion years. Funny how past pain had me reading this as a hostile encounter before I had all the facts.

'You're in,' Jeff said, smiling for the first time. 'I can't waste time chasing down a connection to Will Knight that might be a total dead end unrelated to this murder, old information that might only have to do with your investigation.'

I grinned so wide it hurt. Jeff and I on the same case? Very cool.

'You'll be under Angel's supervision, like you're supposed to be,' Jeff said quickly. 'That's gotta be in my paperwork or I'm in deep shit. You haven't been doing this job long enough yet.'

'Please keep reminding me of that,' I said.

Angel tousled my already scary hair. It's not like I had any time to do anything with it this morning, since I'd jumped straight from the shower into my car.

'You make me laugh, Abby girl. She's something, no, Jeff?'

'She's something, yes,' he answered. He said this with such obvious sincerity, he won back all the points he'd lost by reminding me I still had to be supervised.

'Now that we have an arrangement,' Angel said, 'I have to leave. New detective to train. He's not a fast study like you, Abby. He thinks investigating is like working in some Hollywood film. Wait until he's done ten divorce surveillances, then we'll see what movie he thinks he's playing in.'

I rose and stepped aside so Angel could leave. He shook Jeff's hand before flashing a white smile as impeccable as his shirt.

Once he was gone, I moved over to the chair Angel had vacated to be farther from the busy aisle that ran between the cubicles. Good thing, because a greasyhaired guy in cuffs was being 'helped' out of the office and might have landed right in my lap had I not moved.

Jeff leaned back, his chair resting against the modular desk behind him. 'I think this will work, don't you?'

'As long as I remember which train I'm engineering. There is something I didn't get a chance to tell you.' I explained my theory about Verna Mae possibly being Will's biological parent, how her obesity might have concealed a pregnancy. 'I want to compare his DNA to Verna Mae's.'

'You got a sample of her DNA last night?'

'Oops. I'll need that, won't I? Maybe Burl will let me grab her toothbrush or something.'

'Since we have her body, we've got more than enough to spare. Tell me where to send a sample.'

'Thanks. I think I'll like working with you.' I gave him the name of the lab, and he jotted it on his calendar blotter. He always has about a hundred notes and numbers scribbled all over the place, and I wondered how he kept them straight.

'We probably won't see much of each other in the near future, Abby. I'm following a gang angle on this murder, and getting a gang lead is about as tedious as it gets.'

'Gang angle?'

'We found the Olsen woman's car in the lot— thanks for the tip on that. The bad guy probably climbed right in while she was waiting for you, made her drive around behind the coffee place. Drove back after he killed her, got in his own car and took off. Crime scene people are processing it now, looking for a trace that could lead us to the killer.'

'What does that have to do with gangs?'