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DREAM OF THE DREAMBOAT

Ric called ue?" I asked "You have so kinky in mind?"

"Always, but this is business Grady Bahr, the coroner, called me yesterday with info about the Sunset Park corpse couple I ue They’ll ave hiested I check with him earlier, so I did"

I didn’t mention that the "someone" was Snoho seemed to consider me his house detective at ti, with a guy whose hobby was addicting infatuated woe kisses

"Anyway," Ric went on, "he likes you enough that he’ll put you on the consultants’ list like me When can youto pick me up My independence seemed as important to hi one wrong off-putting ested

"Fine Maybe we can catch an early lunch afterward"

I laughed "The law enforceue"

"Shouldn’t be gruesome This pair has decayed down to the bones, reet? Yet those bones had coh with hi abilities had hit a double jackpot in tranquil Sunset Park

I was dying to hear what Grady "Grisly" Bahr had for us, but needed to grab an energy bar and take Quicksilver for a forty-minute run in the park across the street, then shower before leaving for the ue

Usually the desert air-dried sweat before it could form drops, but I did have to slather sun screen on ain after a shower If I went out early enough, I could let Quick run off his leash to take great galloping loops around the far bounds of the park before co back to me

I knew a responsible pet oould have him "fixed," but he’d already deift Did I want to elienetic line that could heal in this often-hurtful world? Besides, Quicksilver is s would be too I’d adopted him at Sunset Park pet adoption event when I overheard he was scheduled to be put down, but one thing was clear froaze of his baby blues: He had "picked" me He not only survived, but now did his considerable darnedest to ensure that I did too

Quick’s gait was loose and powerful, as beautiful as a thoroughbred’s to behold It et away from them

I’d probably never know, like I’d never knoho had dropped my infant self off on soo Or whatever exact day was ether or apart? I needed to look intomy "roots" as an abandoned baby, if any bureaucratic systeh on ht now I needed to find out more about hat vampire, that is-had died with hter in Sunset Park al or not?

RIC aiting for e bronze Corvette at the bland, boxy coroner’s building-waiting for me and my 1956 black Cadillac, Dolly

Dolly could have crushed the Sting Ray and maybe even outraced it She would be worth plenty on the collectible car market, but she was etting her and her chrome bumper bullets except oververy lively as I took in Ric’s usual business outfit: expensive vanilla-colored tropical weight suit, silky shirt and tie The look was great for corporate consulting work No one would ever take hiendary in his late twenties as the "Cadaver Kid" for his knack of finding corpses

Now he is ex-FBI and ere heading into Corpse Central to find out more about bodies we’d already found

I say "we" because I’d contributed to this particular find Ricardo Montoya could dowse for the dead since childhood, but walking skepticalprocess had raised more than a pair of buried corpses It had put us into close proxi a sensual overload (okay, it was a asm) and my scary new psychic visions of the dead a ability

Ric opened Dolly’s heavy driver side door for me, mainly to eye the pristine red leather upholstery I knew he’d love to take Dolly out on a lonely highway outside Vegas and run her up to full speed, but he kneouldn’t like that He’d just have to settle for taking hways at full speed

"Jeez," Ric said, sla, "the troops could use these in the Middle East"

When I stood up in h heels, ere nicely parallel in all the right places We just stood there, silent, savoring the heat between us

Ric took my elbow "So you went out and seduced the coroner on your own It took oat"

"You don’t haveWithout the grin, he continued, "I want to nail the identity of the dead guy fast You’ll get the Cicereau syndicate on your tail any day now for knowing his daughter is one of the two corpses Once the police can announce both identities, it’s out in the open and you won’t be worth going after" He paused "At least you won’t be worth going after in that way"

We stopped, gazed, smiled

I’d never felt that odd combination of lust, love and looniness Ric was much more sexually experienced than I, but I doubted he’d ever felt this way either Me twenty-four, he twenty-eight, both orphans in the thrall of first love, like the bodies we’d found Or had they found us and passed on the fatal infection?

Why did I think love was a lethal disease?

He shook my elbow a little to pull me out of my trance "Come on, but don’t lose the dewy look, Del Bahr likes lovely young women, especially if they’re alive We want to play on our source’s weaknesses"

"Is investigation work always this cynical?"

"Always," he toldus with a wall of icy air-conditioning as freezing as a casino’s Ever the gentleman "I’ll let you lead so you can cement your rapport with Bahr I’lad I’d dressed in the professional on-caladder that Ric was secure enough to defer to me Circumstance had made us momentary partners; only we could make that partnership permanent and professional The personal side of it was even trickier

Miss Ortiz (I read her ID) gave Ric the glad eye and raised her eyebrows to see me with him She hadn’t been on duty when I’d first coreeted her "The boss is expecting us and I think you have a new ID for Miss Street here?"

She passed hi me

Ric clipped esture with each other conveyed a certain sublirinned companionably at Yolanda "She’s new to the coroner business, not a pro like you Be gentle with her"