Cavanaugh's Secret Delivery. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      His smile was slow, making her heart flutter once it was out in full force. “Well, if that’s the case,” he told her, “maybe we can see what we can do about that after my shift’s over.”

      Just for the slightest second, there was a zap of electricity that traveled between them. She could hardly move. But then she rallied, backing away—gracefully, she hoped.

      “Sorry, I have a baby to see to once I’m through here.”

      He was wondering when she would get around to mentioning the baby. He’d started to think that maybe she’d given the baby to someone to watch over while she was on this assignment. She certainly didn’t act like any new mother he’d ever come across.

      “Maybe I could drop by to see her,” he said, inviting himself over without a hint of embarrassment. “She’s got to be what, two months old now?”

      Toni had to admit that he’d surprised her. Most men didn’t keep track of anything but their favorite team’s standing in whatever league they were in. When it came to anything else—babies, occasions, the women they’d gone out with—their minds were, for the most part, blank slates.

      This made him different, she thought.

      “Two months,” Toni repeated with a nod, then almost as an afterthought, added, “Maybe someday,” regarding his request to see the baby.

      “Sure,” he answered. “Just name the day, I’ll be there.”

      Okay, she had to ask. “You’re serious,” Toni said, more in wonder than to confirm what he’d just said.

      “Sure,” he answered. He didn’t understand her question. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

      She thought of her daughter’s father. The moment he had found out that she was pregnant—and that she wasn’t about to terminate the pregnancy—he had dropped out of the picture completely. He’d made it clear that he preferred not to know anything about the details, including if she’d had a girl or boy or a cockatiel. As far as he was concerned, they’d never even been together. She hadn’t heard from him in almost a year.

      “Most men aren’t interested in babies,” she finally said.

      To her surprise, Dugan laughed, then really laughed. Not at her, but at her statement.

      “What’s so funny?”

      He’d almost had tears in his eyes. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he said, “I was just thinking that I was going to have to introduce you to the men in my family.”

      Right, like that’s going to happen, she thought. The only time men talked was when they talked about women.

      “Let’s start out with something simple,” she told Dugan, changing the subject for the second time in less than half an hour. “Like one of those drug arrests you mentioned.”

      There was more to her than just being an annoying investigative journalist, he thought. There were layers to this woman. Layers he was going to enjoy peeling back when the time came.

      But for now, she was right. His case had been stalled for over a week and it was time to shake a few trees and see what fell out.

      “Okay,” he told her, writing down a couple of things in a very battered notebook he took out of his pocket, “Let’s get to it.”

      * * *

      “I need a hit, man,” the jittery woman told Dugan.

      Scrawny and unkempt, she looked older than her years. She had long since stopped caring if her hair was combed and her makeup was on correctly or even at all. A one-time picture of perfection, now Linda Tanner only cared about finding her next score and the sooner she found it, the better.

      Her window of comfort had come and gone and she was desperate now. A ring of perspiration circled her hairline and she was rocking in her seat as she talked to him, as if the perpetual motion would somehow help soothe her.

      It didn’t.

      “You wouldn’t have anything on you, would you?” she asked. She knew he didn’t, but she was hoping against hope anyway. Hazel eyes darted toward the woman sitting beside the cop. “How about you? You have anything? I just need a taste, just a little taste, that’s all. I’m going crazy here,” she told Dugan, her attention shifting back to him since he was the one she knew. Her fingertips turned almost pale as she dug them into his arm. “C’mon. Please,” she begged, looking from one to the other. “Just a little taste to see me through.”

      Toni had seen junkies before, some up close and personal, like this one. But there was something about this woman that seemed to hit closer to home than the others.

      Toni shifted uncomfortably, looking at Dugan. They were sitting opposite the woman in a communal room at the city jail.

      Toni turned her head so that only he could hear her. “Can’t you do something for her?” she asked.

      “Are you suggesting that I get her drugs?” Dugan asked, wondering just what it was that she wanted him to actually do.

      “I’m suggesting that you do something to help her get past this point. Something to tide her over,” Toni said. Otherwise, all they’d hear was her lamenting her situation.

      “Is that what you want, Linda?” Dugan asked, looking at the wild-eyed young woman. “You want something to tide you over?”

      “Yes,” she cried, saying the word with such emphasis her eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of her head if she squeezed them any more.

      Toni wasn’t sure what to expect. Part of her thought he’d tell the woman no. Instead, she heard Dugan say, “You know the game, Linda. You have to give me something to get something.”

      Toni looked at him. Then he was going to give the woman something?

      He’d done this before, she realized. It made him no better than some of the people he was looking to put away, but she supposed there was some sort of justification for what he was doing. In his place, she wasn’t sure just what she would do, especially if she had something in her possession to give to the woman.

      “I don’t have anything to tell you!” Linda cried, desperate.

      “Think, Linda,” Dugan said calmly, his voice a direct contrast to hers. “You haven’t heard of anything going down? No shipments supposedly coming in now or at a later date?”

      “Later, maybe,” Linda said, her eyes really wild now as she seemed to struggle to think. “Later,” she repeated. “Out of Baja,” she added. “The fifteenth of next month. Maybe the twentieth.” She licked her lips as she scratched her arms. She continued scratching, all but taking the skin off.

      “Is it a small shipment?” Dugan asked.

      She shook her head, her matted head moving like a separate entity about her head. “No, not small. Large. I overheard them. They said it was a large shipment.” Her breathing grew a little more shallow. Whether it was the excitement of what she was saying or the idea that she was going to get something to alleviate СКАЧАТЬ