The Rookie's Assignment

by Valerie Hansen

  A shout and a heavy thud from above startled her out of her reverie. While other guests and employees froze and stared at the ceiling, Keira sprang into action.

  Her boots thudded up the carpeted steps. What was going on? And why did it seem as if the whole inn was holding its breath?

  I am, too, she realized, gulping air. The heel of her hand rested on the grip of her .40 Glock but she didn’t draw it. No sense brandishing a gun if calming words would do the trick.

  She reached the top of the stairs in time to hear another crash. And another. Then glass breaking.

  Inching her way down the hallway she tried to pinpoint the source of the sounds. There? No. Down there. One more door? Maybe.

  Pressing her spine against the wall she stood to the side, out of the line of fire, just as she’d been taught at the academy, before readying her gun and knocking. “Police! Open up.”

  The door swung in. A man’s shoulder and foot stuck out the opening for such a brief time they were hardly more than a blur.

  Before Keira could swivel fully to confront him, he was jerked backward. The door slammed. She wasn’t certain who or what she’d seen but she was positive one of the colors involved had been the sea-green of Nick Delfino’s pullover sweater!

  Hoping the door was unlocked she grabbed the knob. It turned! She was in. Almost.

  Someone or something crashed against the door on the opposite side just as she was easing it open. The sudden jolt staggered her. By the time she’d regained her equilibrium, the door had bounced against the cracked frame and was standing ajar.

  Keira gave it a shove with her free hand and peered inside. The room was a shambles. Its occupant didn’t look as though he was in very good shape, either.

  She didn’t need police training to tell that Nick had gotten the worst of the brief altercation. He was half sitting, half lying on the polished hardwood floor, while examining the back of his head with one hand.

  She directed the gun’s barrel at the ceiling as she crouched next to him. “What happened?”

  “Prowler.” Acting groggy, he pointed to the open window. “That way.”

  “Will you be okay if I leave you?”

  “Just get him,” Nick ordered, rapidly regaining his senses and with them his air of authority. “Be careful.”

  A quick trip to the window let Keira scan the snow- covered alley, then lean out just enough to see what lay directly below. There was no one visible.

  She raced downstairs, scanning the area and seeing no one but concerned residents. She ran around back. No one. With a final assessment, Keira rushed back upstairs.

  “He got away,” she told Nick as she holstered her automatic and reached for the radio clipped to her belt.

  By the time she’d made her report and was ready to quiz Nick further, he’d gotten to his feet and was in the bathroom, washing his face and peering into the mirror.

  Keira stood behind him at the open door, unable to keep from smiling. Except for a few bruises and a possible shiner, it looked as if her new partner wasn’t badly injured. That was a relief.

  Frowning, he met her eyes in the mirror. “What are you grinning at?”

  “Just glad to see you’re okay. How did he get the best of you, anyway? You look like a guy who can handle himself in a fight.”

  “A fair fight. He conked me when I opened the door. It would have been a lot easier to hit him back if I hadn’t kept seeing two or three versions of him coming at me at once.”

  Nick blotted his face with a towel, then turned to her and crossed his arms. “Which reminds me. When you went to school, didn’t they teach you to assume there’d be more than one perp at every crime scene? You came in here blind and didn’t even bother to check the closet or the bathroom.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Keira said, astonished and more than a little chagrined when she realized Nick had a valid point. “I chase away a prowler and rescue you, and all you can do is chew me out for how I did it.”

  “I’m trying to keep you alive,” Nick said flatly. “You can’t let your emotions get in the way of common sense and training when you’re on duty. The next time, that kind of carelessness might get you killed.”

  “I told you before. We don’t have serious violence in Fitzgerald Bay. It just doesn’t happen.”

  As Nick raised one eyebrow, he winced. “Oh, really? Tell that to Olivia Henry.”

  “That was a low blow.”

  “No,” Nick said, shaking his head. “It was a fact. One you seem to be forgetting. If I were you, I’d be on edge every second until her killer’s caught.” He paused, staring as if he could look right through his new partner. “Unless you happen to know who the murderer is and you’re not afraid of him.”

  “Why would I not…?” Keira’s jaw dropped. “Oh, no, you don’t. Forget any rumors that may be floating around town. My brother Charles is not only a doctor, he’s a kind, loving man. Olivia was his children’s nanny. That’s all. He didn’t have a thing to do with her death.”

  “Then prove it to me, starting by staying alert and on your guard.”

  “Against the murderer, you mean?”

  “Against everybody,” Nick said soberly. “Until we catch whoever hit that woman and pushed her off the cliff, a real cop would look at everyone as a possible suspect.” His eyes narrowed. “Even her own brother.”

  TWO

  Keira saw no reason to keep arguing with Nick about Charles so she decided to change the subject. “All right, I will admit I wasn’t in top form when I came to your rescue. I’ll do better next time.”

  That brought a chuckle she hadn’t expected. He gestured at the ruins of his room. “Let’s hope there is no next time. The proprietor will probably kick me out after she sees this mess.”

  “I was meaning to ask why you’d booked a room here. Wouldn’t you rather rent an apartment, even if it’s only for a month or two?”

  He paused for several seconds before saying, “Sure, but where would I find one?”

  “I think I may have an idea. I’ll have to check with Douglas—Captain Fitzgerald—first. In the meantime, you’d better find your uniforms and make sure they’re okay.”

  “Let’s wait till your lab techs have processed the scene, shall we? I’d hate to disturb any clues.”

  Keira had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. “Our what?”

  The befuddled expression on Nick’s face finally pushed her over the edge and she did chuckle softly before waving her hands in the air and apologizing. “Sorry. I was just imagining what it must be like to have specialists at your fingertips, night and day. Around here we do pretty much everything ourselves.”

  “Okay. I get it.”

  “I don’t think you do.”

  “Meaning?”

  She hesitated in order to choose her words carefully, then explained. “Meaning, the Henry case. Like I told you, the minute we suspected we had a homicide we treated that victim and the scene with the utmost care. Everything was handled professionally, even though there was a storm brewing and Olivia’s body was at the bottom of that steep cliff. Some of the evidence was probably affected by the fall, the surf and the weather but we did the best anyone could have. We’re not hicks. We know how important it is to preserve possible evidence.”

  “I read the reports,” Nick said.

  “Then you also know we didn’t write the parts dealing with the processing of the evidence. Everything went to Boston, with the body, for examination there.”

  “But you did investigate the whereabouts of possible suspects and check their alibis.”

  “Yes. So?”

  Keira had assumed he was going to want to question a few persons of interest again but she was floored when he looked straight at her and said, “So, how can you be certain that everything in the file is accurate?”

  “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” she countered, bracing for another dose of his unwarranted skepticism.

  Although Nick shook his head at h
er and appeared incredulous, he nevertheless answered, “Because not everybody in this world is on the up-and-up, rookie. One of these days you’re going to take off those rose-colored glasses and see people for what they really are. Liars. Cheats. Self-serving hypocrites.”

  “It must have been really hard to work in Boston,” she said with a tinge of sadness. “I’m sorry for you.”

  “Don’t be sorry for me. Be sorry for all the nameless, faceless victims who never get justice because others decide to bend the truth for their own sakes.” His pause didn’t give Keira time to reply before he added, “Or for the sake of their friends or family.”

  That was another veiled accusation if she’d ever heard one. “Knock it off, mister. My family is innocent of any crimes, now or in the past. We’re the good guys around here, in case you haven’t noticed. My dad has devoted his life to upholding the law, my uncle Mickey is the fire chief and my grandfather is mayor.”

  “And three of your brothers are cops. I’ve never seen a town with more nepotism or more chances to sweep dirt under the rug than this one has. Look at it from my point of view, Keira. If you were an outsider, what would you think?”

  “I wouldn’t condemn people just because they’re in a position to falsify evidence, that’s for sure. My brothers would never be a part of any kind of a cover-up.”

  The rumble of his voice made the hair on the nape of her neck prickle when he stared at her and replied, “I sure hope you’re right.”

  “I am. And once you’ve talked to all the people who were there and seen the truth for yourself, I’ll expect an apology.”

  “If it’s due, you’ll get it,” Nick said. “Nothing would please me more.”

  Nick welcomed the timely arrival of Captain Douglas Fitzgerald and one of the regular officers, a stocky guy named Hank Monroe. Monroe was a bit of a blowhard and thoroughly unlikable from the get-go but the captain seemed genuinely concerned about the incident.

  “You didn’t get a good look at the guy?” Douglas asked, his pen poised to take notes.

  “No. Sorry.” Nick was only half listening as he watched Monroe dusting for prints. “He was wearing a ski mask and a knit cap. I think he probably had on gloves, too. It felt like it when he hit me.”

  “Age? Weight? Distinguishing marks?”

  Shrugging, Nick felt a muscle in his shoulder cramp so he kneaded it as he answered. “I’d have to guess by the way he moved. Maybe forties, maybe a little older. And he outweighed me, although it was hard to tell if it was muscle or flab under his heavy black coat. Like I said, I was pretty groggy after he conked me.”

  “Any notion what he might have been after?”

  Nick shook his head. “Not a clue. I don’t think he’d been in the room long because he didn’t touch my suitcases or my laptop. Most of this damage was caused when we fought.”

  He could tell that Douglas wasn’t satisfied but there was nothing he could do to remedy the situation—other than suggest that someone might have targeted him because he had come to Fitzgerald Bay to investigate the unsolved murder. It would be interesting to find out how many people already knew why he was in town.

  “Okay,” Douglas said. “If you think of anything else, you know where to find me. What are you planning to do for the rest of the day?”

  “That’s up to Keira.” Noticing the other man’s raised eyebrow Nick smiled and added, “I’d call her Officer Fitzgerald but there are so many of you floating around, I figured it would get too confusing.”

  “Sometimes it does,” the captain replied. “See you later, then.” He touched the brim of his cap, nodded to his sister and started to leave.

  “Wait, Douglas,” Keira said. “Nick needs a place to live, especially now. How about renting him the condo?”

  “Well…”

  Nick could tell the other man wasn’t particularly keen on having him for a tenant so he provided a way out. “Don’t worry about it. I can stay here.”

  “That’s okay,” Douglas said, visibly relaxing as he spoke. “I converted an old flour mill down by the river. It’s not fancy but I’d be glad to rent to you. Just got the second unit finished, as a matter of fact, and my sisters decorated it a bit.”

  “Sisters?” Nick eyed Keira. “Oh, that’s right. There is one more sibling, isn’t there?” He grinned. “Is she a cop, too?”

  “No way,” Keira said. “I wasn’t supposed to be one, either. Everybody expected me to go to work with my big sister, Fiona, in her bookstore, but I had other ideas.”

  “Now, why does that not surprise me?” Nick said, sharing a conspiratorial glance with her brother.

  “That’s what we got for letting Keira tag along too much when we were kids. She was always trying to outrun or outclimb or outswim us boys.” Douglas smiled. “And she did, too. More often than I care to admit.” He reached over and playfully attempted to ruffle her hair as she ducked out of reach. “She’s one tough cookie.”

  “You could have fooled me until I saw her in action,” Nick said, figuring it was better to join in the teasing than to behave too stiffly.

  To his surprise, the captain sobered as his gaze swept the messy room. “I don’t like this. See that you look after her well, Delfino.”

  “Spoken as her brother or a brother officer?”

  “Both,” Douglas assured him.

  One glance at Keira told Nick she was not happy with the direction their masculine discussion had taken. That was no surprise. Her academy records had already told him she was smart as well as being a crack shot.

  Although he understood her desire to serve in her hometown with other members of her family, she would have been able to pass muster in just about any department in the state. Given the way her brothers and father were trying to coddle her, perhaps that career choice would have been a better one.

  Nick began to smile as he made up his mind how to play this. “Okay, if you insist,” he drawled. “But only if she promises to keep saving my skin, too, like she did a few minutes ago.” He held out his hand to her. “Thanks, partner. I owe you one.”

  Keira grinned from ear to ear as they shook hands.

  It was not going to be a struggle to treat her as an equal, Nick decided. She’d worked hard to make it this far and she deserved the badge she wore so proudly.

  He just hoped the rest of her family was as upstanding and honest as he’d already judged her to be. If, as he suspected, the Fitzgeralds were the only ones who had known why he was in town—to a point, anyway—then the ransacking of his room led straight back to them.

  In that event, would it be foolish to rent an apartment from Douglas? No, he decided. Although Douglas probably thought he could keep an eye on Nick that way, there was a good possibility Nick could turn the tables and do a little snooping of his own.

  There was an old saying he often thought of in situations like this. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  That motto had never failed him before. The hardest part of his Internal Affairs job was telling the difference between his friends and his enemies.

  After Nick had returned from a working lunch with the chief, Keira had spent the rest of the afternoon listening as Nick casually interviewed her brothers Ryan and Douglas, plus Hank Monroe, mainly because they happened to be the ones he encountered in the office.

  When Nick arrived at the station the following morning she jumped to her feet, more than ready to give him a promised tour of the town.

  “How about driving around a little to orient you?” she asked before he had a chance to even remove his jacket. “I know you’ll want to talk to some of the witnesses besides us.”

  It wasn’t exactly comforting when Nick arched a brow and asked, “Why the big hurry?”

  “It’s not that I’m trying to rush you off,” Keira said. “I just feel dumb sitting here like a barnacle on a pier piling and not accomplishing a thing. We’ve all been through this before. You’ve read the reports. Surely there’s somewhere you want to go or som
eone you want to question.”

  “As a matter of fact, I’ve already talked with the lady who owns the inn and café and her staff,” Nick said. “Last night, I had her move me into the same room Olivia Henry occupied when she first came to town.”

  “Why? I thought you were going to rent from my brother.”

  “I probably am. But I needed a handy place to sleep that wasn’t a shambles and I also wanted to have a chance to go over the victim’s former suite at my own pace. Didn’t your department do that?”

  Keira made a face. “I don’t think so. It had been months since Olivia had stayed at the Sugar Plum.”

  “Still, there’s always a chance she left something behind, either by accident or on purpose.”

  “Well?” Keira faced him, hands on her hips. “Did you find any clues?”

  “No. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have looked just the same. You never know. She did leave that letter to her ‘Sweetheart’ with—who was it? Merry?”

  “Yes. I told you they were friends. That info is all in the file, too. Why do you keep acting as if we’re either foolhardy or hiding something?”

  “I don’t mean anything of the kind,” Nick insisted. He squared his cap on his head. “So, where shall we go first?”

  The car Keira chose for their official use was a black-and-white, four-wheel-drive, short-bodied utility vehicle. Other than her personal motorcycle, which she’d had to forgo riding due to the snow and ice, she liked this unit best.

  Right now, she figured it was important to acquaint Nick with her town, with the interesting if quirky residents, and get him used to patrolling these narrow, cobblestone streets. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to her spiel or to the passing points of interest she was mentioning.