Sin smirked. “I seem to remember Jesus welcoming everyone to his side—isn’t that right, Mrs. Heap?”
The corner of Mrs. Heap’s mouth arched upward as she tugged her husband along before he could say another word. He followed blindly.
Sin smirked. I know who wears the pants in that relationship.
She and Troy spent the next couple of hours eating lunch and talking like old friends, or new lovers depending on where their relationship was headed.
As the sun began to set, Troy pulled his truck in to the parking lot by the beach.
“I had a great time today,” he said. “I hope it’s one of many to come.”
Sin swallowed hard. “I hope so, too, but you know I’m still on active duty. I’m not sure when I’ll be told to pack up and rejoin my unit.”
“Well, then we better not waste any more time.” Troy leaned over and kissed Sin on the lips.
A guttural moan emanated from her throat as she kissed back.
The kissing led to some high schoolish heavy petting and the windows began to steam up. Sin’s blouse was halfway unbuttoned when Troy’s police scanner buzzed an emergency signal.
“Damn,” he mouthed as his lips were locked with hers. “I need to get that.”
They reluctantly released their embrace and Troy depressed the talk button. “Unit sixty-two responding to the emergency signal. Over.”
“Troy, it’s Helen. I’m sorry to bother you, but another dead girl has been found. You’re the closest to the hospital and the captain has asked for your help.”
Troy hung his head. “I’m on my way.”
Sin quickly buttoned her shirt as she listened to the conversation.
“I will take you home and then head to the hospital.”
“Bullshit, I’ll go with you.”
“Why would you want to go to the morgue in a hospital?”
“I’m not going to the morgue, but I need to speak to Dr. O’Rourke about my father’s medication. We can kill two birds with one stone.”
Troy grimaced. “Under the circumstances, bad analogy.”
“Just drive”
24
They separated as soon as they entered the hospital. Troy went to take the statement of the person who found the body and Sin headed to Dr. O’Rourke’s office.
Sin noticed Dr. O’Rourke’s door ajar and knocked.
“Come in.”
“Hey, Doc, you got a minute?” Sin asked.
Dr. O’Rourke looked up from a pile of papers. Her eyes looked tired and older than her years. “Sure, but only if you stop with the doc nonsense and call me Deborah.”
“Done.”
Sin noticed the dark circles under the doctor’s eyes. “You look like you could use some caffeine, how about I treat you to some in the cafeteria?”
She waved her hands over the pile. “I’m not a coffee drinker, but if it will give me a breather from this mess; it sounds like a good time to start.”
Sin watched as she stood from behind her desk and stretched. Without her lab coat on, Sin couldn’t help but notice what great shape Dr. O’Rourke was in.
“Is this the end of the week paper pile up?” Sin asked.
“Pff, I wish. This is the end of every shift pile.”
“I thought all hospitals were going paperless, you know, Electronic Health Records.”
“Every time the government goes paperless, the pile gets bigger. Go figure.”
Sin laughed. “That sounds about right.”
Walking toward the cafeteria, every eye turned toward the pair. Conversations stopped, women looked catty, and men appeared to turn into drooling, pubescent boys.
“You have this affect on people everywhere you go?”
Sin looked over at Dr. O’Rourke and laughed. “It’s not me, Deb. Have you seen yourself in a mirror lately? You’re a hottie.”
The doc noticed that she had forgotten to put on her lab coat and blushed. “Damn,” she mumbled. “Eight months of conditioning these fools to see me in a professional light just went down the drain.”
A mischievous glint twinkled in Sin’s eyes. “Hell, if that’s all it takes to ruin your rep, let’s give them something to really talk about.”
Dr. O’Rourke looked confused until Sin began to strut with exaggerated hip movements. She moved more like a stripper on stage than a combat hardened government agent.
Dr. O’Rourke burst out laughing at Sin’s self-assuredness and watched all eyes hypnotically gaze as she walked down the hall. By the time they reached the coffee cart in the dining hall, the cases of whiplash had increased ten-fold.
“That felt good to laugh,” Deborah said raising a diet coke to her lips.
“Yeah, it did.” Sin’s expression turned sad as she blew the steam off her espresso.
“Why the face?”
Sin combed her hair back with her fingers and shrugged. “I guess it made me realize that I have never had a girl friend.”
“A girlfriend?”
Sin’s eyes opened wide. “Not a girlfriend, just a female friend. I am surrounded by men everywhere I go. The women I do meet size me up as competition and want to take me down. It’s like I’m the queen bee and they want my hive.”
O’Rourke nodded. “I know what you mean. Being a woman in what’s considered a male dominated field is tough. Add in a position of authority and it just compounds the problem.” She fiddled with the stethoscope hanging around her neck. “Can I ask you a question?”
Sin drank her espresso like a shot of booze. “Sure.”
“Where do you get all your self-confidence?” Dr. O’Rourke put her hands up as if to stop herself. “Let me rephrase that. I realize you’re a war hero and you’re beautiful, but you move and talk with an attitude that seems to be beyond even that. You command the space you’re in just by entering it. Have you always been like that?”
Sin combed her thick, black hair with her fingers as she thought about how to answer the question. She made eye contact with the doc and leaned forward as her posture stiffened. “I don’t know if you’ve heard any gossip about me or not, but when I was a teenager I had a reputation―a bad reputation―one I didn’t deserve. I physically became a woman at a young age,
