Brianna went up the back stairs to the station’s rear entrance. The line about leading a horse to water but not being able to make him drink ran through her mind. It seemed oddly appropriate in this case.
Well, Muldare might not show up tonight. But that didn’t mean she would give up. Her mother had taught her a long time ago, by word and example, that nothing was impossible as long as you didn’t give up.
And she wasn’t about to.
Chapter 8
Brianna spent less than ten minutes in the squad room. She checked in with Del Campo for any updates regarding the hotel’s previous guests. At this time, there weren’t any. The squad room was almost empty, and her regular partner was just on his way out as well.
“Feel like swinging by Malone’s for a beer?” she asked as she sent a copy of the hotel’s guest list to her home computer. She wanted to get a head start on locating these people once she got home. There was a sense of urgency humming through her that she just couldn’t seem to shake. But she also needed a little downtime as well, which was why she was going to Malone’s.
“Do I feel like it?” Del Campo echoed. “Hell yes,” the detective said with the enthusiasm of a man who had been envisioning a tall mug of beer shimmering before him all day.
“Okay.” Finished, Brianna shut down her machine. “I’m heading there myself and—”
“But I can’t,” Del Campo injected in a forlorn voice. He trudged to the squad room’s threshold like a man who had been drained of all hope. “If I don’t get home at a decent hour, Louisa is going to make me sleep in the tub—with the water still in it.”
Brianna pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh at the image that created in her mind.
“Sounds pretty soggy. What did you do to get her so angry at you?” She’d met Del Campo’s wife on several occasions, and the woman was nothing if not easygoing and sweet.
“Two weeks of coming home late,” Del Campo confessed as he reached the hallway.
“You’ve been doing overtime?” Brianna asked. Did their lieutenant have Del Campo working on another case in his spare time?
“Maybe,” Del Campo said vaguely. And then he added, “At Malone’s.”
Brianna grinned as she joined him at the elevator. “It’s starting to all make sense to me.”
The elevator door opened, and they both got on. “Louisa wants me to put in some equal time parenting Joey.”
“She has a very valid point,” Brianna told him. “Go home to your family while you still have one, Francisco.” They reached the ground floor and got out. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Sure,” he answered sadly. “Have a drink for me—make it a double.”
“Beers don’t have doubles,” Brianna reminded the detective.
“Then make it a really tall glass.”
It’ll probably be a short, quick one, she answered silently as she and Del Campo parted company. Francisco tended to park in the building’s front lot while she usually parked in the rear.
Brianna walked back to her car quickly, even though she told herself that there was no real hurry. She doubted that her temporary partner had gone on to Malone’s the way she’d suggested. However, she was still going to go there herself. Not for the beer. As far as she was concerned, beer, a necessary evil, was the price she paid for the camaraderie of her fellow police officers.
Her siblings and cousins had a tendency to turn up at Malone’s as well. She never knew who would turn up at the bar at any given time, but it was a sure bet that she’d see someone she knew. Kicking back at Malone’s was a good way to unwind around people who understood exactly what she was going through.
In the job, there was a certain formality that had to be adhered to, and while she could kid around with her family members and other police personnel she knew, there were still lines that couldn’t be crossed. But at Malone’s, there were no lines. There were only men and women who wore the blue proudly and who bled the same color as she did.
There was a certain comfort in being around people like that.
The drive from the precinct to Malone’s was only a couple of blocks. As she approached, she saw that the bar’s parking lot was overflowing, as was the parking lot of the dry-cleaning business next door, even though the dry cleaner was closed for the night.
Driving around, Brianna managed to find what appeared to be the last available spot in the area.
Malone’s was doing very good business tonight. The establishment was never empty during business hours, but it was usually only teeming like this on a Friday or Saturday night.
Brianna wondered if her new case had anything to do with the increase of traffic at Malone’s. Maybe finding bodies in the walls and speculating how they got there was, in an eerie way, good for business.
That was cynical, she silently chided. Maybe Muldare really was rubbing off on her. That couldn’t be good. If anything, she was supposed to be rubbing off on him, not the other way around.
The wall of noise hit her the second she opened the door. Brianna paused, catching her breath. It took her a minute to acclimate to the cacophony of dozens of raised voices, all vying to be heard over one another.
Glancing toward the front of the establishment, she saw one of Malone’s newest owners, Dan Reynolds, his face slightly flushed, looking exceedingly happy. Dan was moving rather quickly for a man of his girth. A former police officer, he had a steely look about him despite his smile. It was a look that never really left an officer, even after retirement.
She scanned the immediate area. She knew a lot of the people here tonight, but apparently Muldare was not among them.
She might have known. Next time, she
