Page 5 (1/2)
Veck woke up on his living room sofa Which was sort of a surprise, because he didn&039;t have one
As he rubbed his eyes against the cheerful spring sunlight, he was amazed that he&039;d taken the desire to sleep closer to the fine Officer Reilly as far as dragging the POS in fro up, he looked out into the street The unone, and he wondered when she&039;d left Last he&039;d checked, she&039;d still been out there at four as a stretch, his shoulders cracking Details froht before filtered back, but he instinctually stayed away from the Monroe Motel & Suites part He already felt like hell; he didn&039;t need to add a headache to the stea
When he stood up, he had to rearrange an obsceneto studiously ignore He had a feeling he&039;d been wrapped up in a fairly raunchy and totally spectacular drea about her riding him rawhe&039;d been mostly clothed; she&039;d been completely naked -
No, wait, she&039;d had her badge and her gun and her hip belt on
"Fuck " As his cock kicked hard, he put in a prayer for another round of short-term meain, he could now see why guys found that shit attractive
Given the direction his brain was heading in, he wasn&039;t sure that adding caffeine to the ood plan, but his body needed the lift Too bad he&039;d discovered he&039;d lied to Officer Reilly: after co to her, he&039;d realize hern out of Folgers
Upstairs, he showered, shaved, and put on his working uniforh a lot of the detectives wore them No suit jacket; he didn&039;t wear one unless it was leather and of the biker or boot his backup coat out of the closet, grabbed the key to his bike, and locked things up As he walked over to the BMW, he was dogged by the night before, but also feeling too light: No cell to check for voice un in his holster No wallet on his ass
Officer Reilly had all of that And his BVDs
Squeezing on his helht and shiny for hiiven the squint he was rocking, it was a good thing his bike knehere he was going
De la Cruz had introduced him to the Riverside Diner just the other day, and already Veck wondered how he&039;dfor the place, he took the surface roads in, because even at seven forty-five, the Northas going to be crowded
The pe was right on the shores of the Hudson, only about four blocks fro lot full of unood that half the force was sucking java inside, as usual, but it was too late to go anywhere else
Just before he went in, he palrabbed a Caldwell Courier Journal froht on the first page above the fold, so he flipped the thing over, looking for an article -
And there was his na wasn&039;t about hi on his old man, and he quickly avoided the piece He hadn&039;t kept up with the charges, the trial, the death row sentence, anything that had to do with his father And gee whiz, when he&039;d been taking criminal justice, he&039;d been sick the day they&039;d covered the case
The rest of the first section was clear, so was the Local, and naturally, there was nothing in the Sports/Cooing to last, however: Reporters had access to the police blotter, and the story was probably on the television and radio news already A ho of a psycho? That shit sold papers and justified ad prices
Pushing open the glass door, he went into the Riverside&039;s cacophony with his face buried in the nonheadlines of the Sports section The place was packed, and as loud and hot as a bar, and he studiously didn&039;t make eye contact with anyone as he scanned around for a free stool at the counter or an e was vacant Damn it And he wasn&039;t about to join a table of CPDers The last thing he needed was a lot of questions froo on to HQ and hit the vending , Detective"
Veck glanced over to the right The fine Officer Reilly was sitting in the booth closest to the door, her back to him, her head cranked over her shoulder to look up at him There was a cup of coffee in front of her, a cell phone in her hand, and a whole lot of no-nonsense on her face
"Care to joinacross her table
h="1e There were about a dozenover at them - some more surreptitiously than others
"You sure you want to be seen with me?"
"Why? Do you have terrible table manners?"
"You knohat I ed and took a sip froeant is in about twenty minutes You&039;ll be lucky to have a seat by then"
Veck slid in opposite her "I thought in Internal Affairs you guys alorried about propriety"
"This is just two eggs over easy, Detective"
He put his newspaper aside "Fair enough"
The waitress came over with her pad out and her pencil ready "What&039;ll it be"
No reason to look at a , and toast known to man You wanted pie for breakfast? A BLT? Cereal, oatmeal, pancakes? Fine, whatever - just order quick and eat fast so soet a seat
"Three scrambled Hard White toast with butter Coffee Thanks"
The waitress smiled at him, like she approved of the efficiency "Coain with Reilly She&039;d had a shower and changed into a professional skirt-and-button-down combo The jacket that ith the outfit was folded neatly beside her on top of her coat Her dark red hair was once again pulled back from her face, and she had just a little lipstick on for makeup
Matter of fact, as she put down her coffee cup, there was a half-moon of pink where she&039;d put herfor details on her lips Really
"I have a preliminary report from the field," she said
Huhthose eyes weren&039;t just green, as he&039;d assumed before They were hazel-ish, made up of a unique coreen from a distance "I&039;ht&039;s prelim"
"And?"
"No other weapons were found in the area"
He kept his relief to himself out of habit
And before he could comment, the waitress put down his coffee and Reilly&039;s breakfast: a bowl of oatmeal with a side of toast No butter
"Is that whole-wheat?" he asked
"Yes, it is"
Of course it was She probably had a light salad for lunch with a protein, and one glass of wine, if that, with a dinner that was all about root vegetables, grilled chicken, and a low-glycemic-index starch of soht of the heart attack special he&039;d ordered
"Please don&039;t wait for me," he said
She picked up her spoon and added a little brown sugar and cream "You want to knohat I think happened?"
"Yeah, I do"
"It was a wild aniot knocked in the head in the process"
He brushed his face "No bruises"
"Could have fallen backward"
Matter of fact, he thought maybe he had? "But no bumps And then my coat would have been dirty all over"
"It is"
"Only from when I put it on Kroner"
She lowered her spoon "Can you verify that? How do you knohen it got soiled if you can&039;t reht, and PS, you&039;re doing it again"
"Doing what?"
"Arguing withyour te of coffee, she setting yourself checked out at HQ right after our "
"I&039;m fine" Christ, he could hear the bitch in his own voice
"Reht, Detective? That&039;s an order"
As he sat back and drank so finger Nothing there Not even a circular indent as if so had been there
He wished she was sporting a solitaire and a band: He didn&039;t do wives knowingly Ever No doubt he&039;d been with a couple in his long history of anonymous hookups, but it had been only because they hadn&039;t told him
He was a man-whore with standards, don&039;t you know
"Why aren&039;t you suspending ative"
"I don&039;t want you ruining your career over me," hethat to happen But there is no evidence that you were responsible for the attack, Detective, and plenty that says you weren&039;t - and I really don&039;t get why you keep pushing me on this"
As he stared into those eyes of hers, he heard himself say, "You knoho my father is, don&039;t you"
That put her in pause-oodness halfway back down to her plate She even stopped in midchew
But then the fine Officer Reilly recovered with a shrug "Of course I do, but that doesn&039;t mean you tore up somebody" She leaned in "But that&039;s what you&039;re afraid of, aren&039;t you And that&039;s why you keep playing devil&039;s advocate"
The waitress picked thatplate of cholesterol, and the arrival was a conversational lifesaver if he&039;d ever seen one
He salted Peppered Forked up and sucked down
"Would it help if you talked to someone?" Reilly said quietly
"As in a psychiatrist?"
"Therapist They can be very helpful"
"This from personal experience, Officer?"
"As a hed in a hard burst "Somehoouldn&039;t think you&039;re the type who needed one"
"Everybody has issues"
He kneas being a bit of a shit, but he felt naked, and not in a good way "So what&039;s one of yours"
"We&039;re not talking aboutup onstage all by my little lonesome" He polished off half a piece of toast in two bites "Co about yourself"
"I&039;m an open book"
"Who needs a therapist?" When she didn&039;t respond, he leveled his stare at her "Coward"