Page 80 of Unbearable
The captain turned back to his reports. She would have argued with him, but it wouldn’t do any good. Once the boss made up his mind, there was no persuading him otherwise.
“What did he say?” Danny asked when she walked back into their office.
“No dice.”
“I really am sorry,” Dex added. He was perched on the edge of Danny’s desk. “This wasn’t my call.”
“We know,” Danny answered. “It’s how things work. The bastard has been running for two weeks now. The chances of him even being in the country still are slim. We’ve got other things to move on to.”
“Do we?”she wanted to scream. What was more important than finding a killer? Her brother, Bailey, and Ethan were still in hiding. Though they had moved on to Minnesota with Thayer to meet more family. She was a little jealous of that. Knox had givenup and returned home as well. He had to get ready for the new school year.
Everyone went on with their lives like nothing had happened—except her anyway. Even Dex was putting together a team to continue the job. In his world, it was just another workday. She was the only one left hanging with nothing to show for her hard work. There had to be something she could do.
“You should think about taking some time off,” Danny said. “When was the last time you got any sleep?” The bags under her eyes must be more pronounced than she thought.
“I don’t know. Months? Years?”
“That’s what I’m saying. You’ll burn out early if you don’t take some downtime occasionally. Go join your brother on vacation. I can hold down the fort here.”
“I don’t know. I’ll think about it.” She signed some paperwork that Dex handed her. This would be one of the smoothest transitions of a case ever. It still rankled her though. “I’ll head over to the medical examiner’s office and let them know to start pulling their files. See you later.”
“Take care. Get some rest.” Danny waved as she walked out the door. He would make sure Dex had everything he needed. She just wanted to clear her head for a while. The morgue seemed as good a place as any. Besides, she would much rather sit in a room and whine with Sean than Danny. Not that Danny wasn’t a good guy, but he didn’t hold a candle to Sean in the looks department.
She took her car this time instead of one of the cars in the detective pool. There was a very good chance she would head home after talking to Sean. She didn’t want to have to return to police headquarters just for her car. It would be time for dinner when she was done anyway. She just wished someone was left in town to eat with. It looked like it would be a heat-and-serve on the couch again tonight.
Finding parking in a civilian car was always a lot harder than in a city-owned one. She finally managed to wedge her car along the curb a block from the ME’s office. It was still hot as Hades outside, but there was already a whisper of fall beginning in the evenings. Just a whisper though, no verbose yelling.
“Hey, Detective,” Sean said as she walked into the building. He was leaning over the reception counter visiting with the woman who had worked there as long as Dover had been on the force. She was smiling widely and twirling her hair as she flirted with him. All fifty-plus years were working it hard enough for Dover to be impressed.
“Got a minute?” she asked.
“Yeah. I was just going to give you a call.” He motioned for her to join him as he walked to his office. The receptionist gave her a conspiratorial wink on the way by. “I was wondering if you have any plans for dinner tonight? Nothing crazy. I just thought we could grab a burger somewhere and talk. I heard the saint killer case is going to the feds.”
“The saint killer?”
“No?” He grinned at her. “I was trying it on for size.”
“Keep working at it.”
“Noted. Anyway,” he continued, ushering her into his office. “What about dinner?”
She had to think for a second about how to answer the question. What she wanted to do was jump up and down clapping her hands. No self-respecting police detective would do that, however. “Why not,” is what she finally settled on without looking too interested.
“Perfect. It’s the start of the weekend, but we should be able to squeeze in somewhere.” His voice drifted off as he started searching for open tables on a phone app.
“I have a better idea,” she said. A brilliant thought had suddenly struck her. “How about a weekend date. You have a bike, right? A mountain bike?”
“Yes?”
“Great. I’ll pick you up at your place in an hour. Pack for the weekend, and we’ll get some biking in somewhere in New Hampshire. What do you think?” She hadn’t biked in years, but it shouldn’t take long to pick it back up. She was still in decent shape.
“Umm. Sure, I guess.”
“Send me your address. I’ll see you in an hour.” Without waiting for him to come up with a reason to back out, she walked out of his office. She would heed Danny’s advice to get some rest.
A little mountain air would do her good, and if she just happened to check out a couple of abandoned cabins for a madman, so much the better. Especially if there had been sightings in the area.
An hour later she was pulling up to one of the many apartment buildings near the university area. She had wrestled her bike rack onto the top of her SUV and thrown some extra clothes into a bag. She had even managed to run through the shower. Sean stood waiting for her with his bike and a large backpack.