“In what?”
“Forensics.”
That makes sense, Ashton thought. It follows through for all the police work. But probably not quite the way she intended to use it.
“Were you working for IPD then? Did you get transferred to the sector office?”
“Not really, no,” she said. “I was on sabbatical, so I could study and attend classes full-time. I got the pay, though, so I could manage to do that without needing a job to pay for incidentals.”
The joys of nepotism, Ashton decided, trying not to curl his lip in disdain. Uncle’s baby girl.
“So did you get an IPD grant for the tuition, or what?” he asked.
“No, my uncle paid for the tuition.”
“Uncle Bill of the deep pockets, huh?” came out of his mouth then. Fortunately he managed to disguise the disgust he felt, so it didn’t show in his tone or his face. Koch blinked.
“You know who my uncle is? Um, was?”
“I do.”
“How long have you known?”
“Since we were dating.”
“And it didn’t bother you?”
“The hell you say.”
“You’re one of us! I knew it!” she said with a wicked grin. “I knew you’d come around!”
“Tabby, what are you doing here?”
“Coming back to work,” she said. “My sabbatical is over and I got my degree, so I’m reporting back for duty.”
“Have you taken your Oath?”
“My what?”
“Your Oath of service.”
“Silly Nicky, I took that years ago,” she said with a flirtatious smile.
“Not this one,” he said, stern. “This one, you swear allegiance to the Throne, and you do it on a lie detector chair.”
“What the hell is a lie detector chair?” she wanted to know.
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Ashton shot back. “You sit in it, it reads your vitals, and tells the technician – and the physician – if you’re lying or not.”
“Why would I need to swear while sitting in one of those damn things?”
“To demonstrate that you’re not lying about your Oath.”
“Pssht,” she murmured, waving a dismissive hand. “There’s gotta be a way around those. Or I’ll just get it waived. Like you probably did.”
“So you don’t intend to take it, let alone mean it?”
“Why should I? I’ve been doing this job for years now, just like you have.”
“That’s gonna be difficult.”
“Oh, I’m sure you can help me, sweetie,” she said, becoming flirtatious again. “Once lovers, always lovers. Mwah!” And she blew him an air-kiss.
Before Ashton could say more, a familiar head stuck inside the doorframe.
“Nick, I think we might need to – what the hell?!”
Ashton looked up, and Koch spun to see who spoke.
“Why, Win Peabody!” Koch exclaimed, leaping up and running to hug him. “I never expected to see you here!”
Peabody froze, his arms away from his sides – and Koch’s – and he stared at Ashton in horror as Koch hugged him familiarly.
“What are you doing here, Win?” she asked the older man. “And why aren’t you sitting in Nick’s chair?”
“Um, be-because he’s better at it than I am,” Peabody tried. Koch laughed. Then she spun to Ashton, a smirk on her face.
“Aha!” she crowed. “See there! I knew you were on our side! I knew you weren’t the goody-two-shoes you always made out to be! And here you even have Win Peabody working for you! How did you manage that?! And who did you have to con to do it?”
“It’s not like that, Tabby,” Ashton said, seeing the displeased expression that was deepening on Peabody’s face. “Uh, Win, would you go fetch Lee, please? I think maybe he needs to, um…”
“Right,” Peabody said, something just short of a scowl on his face. “But then you and I need to talk, Ashton.”
“Yeah, probably,” Ashton agreed, hiding the sigh. “Oh, sit down already, Tabby.”
But instead of sitting in the visitor’s chair, she moved it around to sit close to Ashton, reaching for him.
“I told you already, Tabby, I’m not available,” Ashton said, rising and moving to the bookcase adjacent to the desk… and on the far side from Koch.
“You keep saying all this shit,” Koch said with a smile. “But I don’t think you mean it.”
“Oh, he means it, all right,” came a female voice from the doorway. “He better mean it, anyway.”
A very pregnant Cally Ames stood there, with Lee Carter and Winston Peabody behind her.
None of them were smiling.
After Carter took Koch off for what he termed, “A little catching-up on the way the system works now,” Cally fairly glared at her husband, tears sparkling in her eyes, as Peabody helped her to the nearest chair, but she didn’t sit down.
“Close the door, Win,” she ordered him. “This isn’t gonna be pretty.”
Without a word, Peabody shut the door.
“Now you just explain to me what the hell is going on here, Dominick Xavier Ashton,” she demanded then. “You said the two of you never slept together!”
“We didn’t,” Ashton sighed.
“Nick, I heard her refer to the two of you as lovers, just as I came to the door,” Peabody pointed out.
“I know,” Ashton said, and sighed again, slumping into his desk chair. “I didn’t even know she was anywhere around, and just as I got to the building after having lunch with you, Cally, she practically bowled me over, then laid a big wet one on me in public before I could even react. And I practically had to pry her off me. I dunno what the hell she remembers about our relationship, but it sure as hell isn’t what I remember. I heard she had quite a few boyfriends, so she might have some things mixed up with other guys, I guess.”
“Why the hell did you even have a relationship with Kershaw’s niece?!” Peabody challenged. “I thought you were a good, upstanding guy.”
“Simple. I didn’t know she was Kershaw’s niece,” Ashton explained.
