Cavanaugh's Secret Delivery. Marie Ferrarella

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      Dugan had arrived just in time to see the ME begin to zip up the black body bag. Stopping the man, he looked down at Gomez’s lifeless face.

      “Three shots to the back of the head,” Jason told him. “Execution style.”

      Dugan blew out a breath. “Damn. Any chance we can get jurisdiction over the body?” he asked.

      The medical examiner didn’t answer him. Instead, he just finished closing up the bag, then with the help of his assistant, he took it away.

      Jason was left to answer the question. “Hey, it happened here, away from Aurora, but I don’t think they’re going to fight you for it if you want to claim the body as ours. Just remember, it becomes our unsolved murder,” the detective told Dugan. “Not exactly brownie points for that as far as I can see if we don’t solve it.” He looked at Dugan closely. “You sure you want to do this?”

      “He was my CI,” Dugan said, looking at the body as it was being taken away. “Hell, he wasn’t even old enough to legally drink,” he added, shaking his head. The next moment, he went after the ME and said, “Leave it here. We’ll take the body.”

      The medical examiner shrugged his shoulders. “Suit yourself. I’ve got more than enough bodies in the morgue as it is,” he told Dugan. “Leave it,” he said to his assistant.

      “He wasn’t legally old enough to do any of the things he did, but that didn’t keep him from doing it,” Jason told his partner. “Hey, it’s not your fault,” he said, seeing the look on Dugan’s face.

      “I know that. But it still seems like a huge waste. I can’t help but feel being my CI was what got him killed,” Dugan murmured. He took out his phone in order to call their medical examiner and tell her that they had another body.

      “Yeah, well, he knew what he was doing,” Jason argued.

      “Doc? Sorry to get you up at such an ungodly hour, but we’ve got a body for you.”

      “Flowers would have been nicer,” the voice on the other end of the line mumbled. He heard another voice in the distance asking something. “I think it’s one of your cousins,” Kristin, the head medical examiner said, answering the other voice. “He’s trying to cull my favor with a body.” Returning to phone, she said, “Okay, give me the address. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

      Dugan gave the woman the address then terminated the call. Tucking the phone away, he looked back at the body, hidden now beneath the black body bag.

      He had caught the one-time college student on a possessions charge and managed to flip him when Gomez said he had current intel he could trade. It turned out to be good information. Better than Dugan had thought, at first. So good, apparently, that it had wound up costing his confidential informant his life.

      “I don’t think he did know what he was doing,” Dugan said thoughtfully, referring to what Jason had said before he called Kristin. “I think that he thought it was all going to go his way and turn out the way he wanted in the end.”

      Looking at the black body bag, Jason shrugged. “Nothing we can do about it now.”

      “Except catch the son of a bitch who killed him,” Dugan pointed out, saying the words with such a passion it caused Jason to look at him uncertainly.

      “Yeah, there’s that, too,” Jason agreed, trying to lighten the mood. “Hey, I really didn’t roust you out of the arms of some nubile young woman?” Jason asked, curious.

      “Actually, I had just finished delivering a baby when you called me,” Dugan answered, turning away from the body.

      Rather than say anything, Jason just started to laugh. “Yeah, right.”

      “No, I’m serious. When you called, I had just finished delivering this woman’s baby and there was an ambulance on its way to take her to Aurora Memorial,” Dugan said, mentioning the name of the closest hospital to that particular place, which was also known as the best one in the county.

      Jason began to laugh again, but this time, his laughter was very short-lived. He paused, looking at his partner. Dugan wasn’t even smiling. Dugan usually smiled by now if he was putting him on.

      Jason eyed his partner. “You’re serious.”

      “You already asked me that,” Dugan pointed out. In the back of his head, he couldn’t help thinking that one life had just ended while another life had just started. He supposed that was what real life was all about, but somehow, it still didn’t really feel like things equaled out.

      “Yeah, but I didn’t think—damn, a baby,” Jason repeated, shaking his head and grinning. “So? How did it feel?” he asked.

      “Well, it all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to think or feel anything,” Dugan admitted. “And by the time I could, I was already on my way to the scene of the crime.”

      “And she’s no relation? Not a girlfriend or a...?” Jason let his voice drift off as he looked at Dugan, waiting for the other detective to fill in the blank about the woman’s relationship to him.

      “No, not a girlfriend or a...” Dugan repeated. “I was going toward my car when I heard this unearthly scream. I looked to see where it was coming from. This woman was sitting in her car, looking like she was about to pop at any second.”

      “So you delivered the baby?” Jason asked, as if he was trying to wrap his head around the whole scenario.

      “Well, I started out to do that,” Dugan answered. “But she actually wound up delivering the baby on her own for the most part.”

      “Wow.” Jason shook his head, envious of the experience. “All I did after I left the bar tonight was finish up the puzzle I was working on for the last week and a half,” he admitted quietly. “You going to go there now? To the hospital?” Jason prompted when Dugan just looked at him blankly.

      “No, not until we file all the paperwork on this,” Dugan answered. “He was my CI.”

      “Nobody else knows that yet,” Jason pointed out. “You don’t have to do that part right now.”

      “I know that,” Dugan said pointedly. “But I will. It’s only right.”

      Jason sighed, shaking his head. “Are all you Cavanaughs such sticklers for honesty when it comes to crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s?” the other detective asked. “Don’t any of you ever kick back?”

      “Not where it counts,” Dugan answered, then added with a grin, “Lucky for you.”

      Jason laughed. He saw the point. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

      “Okay,” Dugan said, taking a breath and telling himself that they were going to need a fresh start here. “Let’s see what we can find out about this murder. Before homicide starts horning in on our case.”

      Jason looked almost hangdog. “So much for going home tonight.”

      Dugan paused to look at the other detective. “Hey, you called me, remember?”

      Jason СКАЧАТЬ