“Of course she is.” Krys shook her head. This family seemed to be everywhere. Did her sister know what she was getting herself into? “Is everyone associated with the police department a Cavanaugh?”
“No, not everyone,” Morgan said. “But there are a lot of us.”
Arriving in the police parking lot, Morgan pulled his vehicle up into his usual parking spot. As he got out of his car, he debated just bringing Krys into the first-floor lobby to wait for him rather than up to the squad room. “I won’t be long,” he promised.
She caught his arm. “You won’t be long at all,” she corrected him. “I intend to come with you.”
“To the morgue?” he questioned. He had no desire to witness her suddenly get sick to her stomach. “I don’t think you should go,” he told her, emphasizing, “You’re already upset enough.”
“No, I was upset,” she said, going up the stairs and to the front door quickly. “But I’ve gotten all that under control now,” she stressed. “Look.” She went through the automatic doors as they parted for her. “I’m never going to get to the bottom of this awful thing by burying my face in my hands and hiding from reality.”
Like his sisters and his cousins, this woman seemed to thrive on arguing. He didn’t have time for this. “I admire your resolve, but it’s not your job to get to the bottom of this. It’s mine.”
She realized that he thought he was being kind to her, but he wasn’t going to get her to back off. And he was wasting precious time because arguing with her was futile. The man meant well and he had a great set of lips on him, but he was not going to get her to change her mind or back off. She was determined to find out who had done this awful thing.
Morgan must have recognized stubbornness when he saw it. “All right, how about this? Why don’t we just compromise and agree that finding the truth behind this is both our jobs? We’ll work together.”
The way he saw it, this was the best way he could think of to keep an eye on her and not have her taking off on him.
She saw Morgan grin encouragingly at her. She wasn’t sure what to think, but she was braced for anything. He surprised her by saying, “You would really get along well with my sisters.”
She raised an eyebrow as she regarded him suspiciously. “Are your sisters just as stubborn as you?”
He grinned. “Oh, they’re much more so.”
That would be taking stubbornness to an incredible level. The very idea almost had her laughing at him. “Oh, I find that really hard to believe.”
“You wouldn’t if you knew them. I guarantee it.” As Morgan followed her into the elevator and took it down to the basement, a thought came to him. “As a matter of fact, that isn’t a bad idea.”
“What isn’t a bad idea?” she asked.
“Getting to know my sisters. Getting to know everybody.”
Morgan made a mental note to talk to his Uncle Andrew. Andrew enjoyed nothing more than having an excuse to gather the entire family together. Initially, Andrew had served on the police force, working his way up until he became the chief of police. He would have remained one until he retired if it hadn’t been for his wife’s sudden disappearance. Rose went missing for eleven years, leaving him with five children to raise. He had no choice but to take an early retirement. But he never gave up hope that Rose was out there somewhere. He moved heaven and earth to find her, but it was far from easy.
After being on the force, he found that he needed something to help occupy his time when his kids were grown and had joined the force themselves. He decided to split his time between searching for Rose and bringing the rest of the family together every chance he got. A twist of fate helped him locate his wife who, because of an accident that caused her car to go off the road and into the lake, had her suffering from amnesia. Andrew devoted himself to helping her regain her memory. When she finally did, it felt as if he had been suddenly granted a “do-over.” From then on, he lived his life like a man on borrowed time, never taking even a moment for granted.
He threw parties for the family every chance he got. And when he wasn’t throwing parties, Andrew was still rustling up meals for family and friends whenever someone happened to just drop by.
Morgan decided that Krys could really use one of his uncle’s famous parties. In his opinion, it would be just what the doctor ordered and it would serve as her formal introduction to the family as well as their introduction to her.
He was going to call Andrew the first chance he got, Morgan promised himself. He knew that the family patriarch would undoubtedly welcome the chance to meet Nikki’s twin sister and, Morgan was sure, Krys could certainly use a good dose of Cavanaugh closeness and affection if only to raise her spirits.
This sort of thing would be right up his uncle’s alley, he thought with a smile.
But Krys didn’t look as if she was entirely convinced that this would be a good time to meet all the members of the family. “Why don’t we at least wait until we find out who killed Claire?” she suggested. “I’m not going to be able to enjoy anything until I’m sure that this killer isn’t lurking somewhere out there, waiting to ambush my sister—or me.”
Even as she said it, she couldn’t keep from shivering over the mere suggestion of that possibility taking place.
“Don’t worry,” Morgan said, trying to comfort her. “I guarantee that within the hour, everyone at the precinct—not just the family—will be on this.”
“No offense,” she told him.
