Cavanaugh's Bodyguard

by Marie Ferrarella

  That didn’t sound like a half-bad idea, he supposed since he didn’t really know what he was doing. When he was a kid, he’d never owned a dog, never wanted to get attached to anything after his father’s death.

  “Maybe I will.” He flashed Bridget a grin as he sailed through a yellow light. “When I talk to her, can I tell her that her ‘Cousin Bridget’ sent me?”

  If he was going to use every topic to make another joke about her new family, then she shouldn’t have even bothered making the suggestion.

  She waved a dismissive hand at her partner. “Forget I said anything.”

  He was silent for a moment, as if content to let the quiet in the car prevail. But he’d been chewing on something for a while now. This last display of irritation on Bridget’s part told him that his observation over the last two months was probably right. Ever since his partner had learned about the mix-up in the hospital nearly fifty years ago, a mix-up that made her a Cavanaugh instead of a Cavelli, she’d seemed somewhat preoccupied and not quite her usual self.

  “This really bothers you, doesn’t it?” he asked in a voice devoid of all teasing.

  “You getting a dog for your mother instead of growing up and having a meaningful relationship with a woman that lasts longer than a half-time program at the Super Bowl?” she asked glibly, deliberately avoiding his eyes. “No, not really.”

  She’d used a lot of words to describe a topic that she supposedly didn’t care about, but that was a question to explore some other time, Josh thought. Right now, he was more concerned about Bridget’s state of mind regarding the recent change in her immediate family. He might get on her case from time to time, but his three-year relationship with Bridget was the longest one he’d ever had with a woman, besides his mother. Beneath the barbs, the quips and the teasing, he really did care about Bridget. Cared about her a great deal. Sometimes more than he should, he told himself. He definitely didn’t like seeing her like this.

  “You know damn well I’m talking about the fact that your father found out that he’d been switched at birth with another male newborn and that he—and consequently you and those brothers and sisters of yours—are really Cavanaughs.”

  Bridget blew out a breath as she stared straight ahead at the road. “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about, I was just hoping you’d take the hint and back off.” She spared him a frown. “I should have known better.”

  Yeah, she should have, Josh thought. “So why does this bother you so much?” he wanted to know. “I know people in the department who’d give their right arm to wake up one morning and find out that they’re related to the Cavanaughs. The very name carries a lot of weight in the department. I mean, think of it, they’re an entire family of law enforcement agents and not a dirty one in the lot.” He wasn’t saying anything that they both didn’t already know. “Hell, it’s like the city’s own personal branch of Camelot.”

  “So what’s your point?” she asked, annoyed.

  Driving into the parking lot of an apartment complex, Josh brought the car to a stop in the first empty space he saw.

  “My point is, what’s the problem you seem to be having with this?” he asked.

  He was a guy. She didn’t expect him to understand. Hell, she could barely understand all the tangled emotions herself. This unexpected twist made her life seem so confused, so jumbled up. There were times when she didn’t know what to think, what to feel.

  “The problem, oh insensitive one, is what do I do about my ‘old family?’ Uncle Adam, Uncle Tony, Aunt Angie, Aunt Anna.” She went down the list of the people she’d believed until two months ago were her father’s brothers and sisters. “Are they just strangers to me now? What are they to me and to the others?” she demanded with frustration. “Not to mention what are they to my dad? How am I supposed to regard them now that I know we’re not blood relatives?” she asked, frustrated.

  Everything had turned upside down for her. She couldn’t be laid-back about the whole thing, the way her older brother Tom was. For her, all this had brought up real questions, real concerns. Moreover, it had left her with a dilemma on her hands that she had no idea how to resolve. Who was her family?

  Josh still didn’t really see what the problem was. Maybe because, in a remote way, he’d found himself in the same sort of position, except that in his case, the positions had been reversed. He’d lost his real father and found himself on the receiving end of a whole handful of generous “fathers.”

  “Well, speaking for myself, the word ‘family’ doesn’t strictly refer to people with the same blood in their veins as you. After my dad was killed, a lot of his old buddies made it a point to come around to check on my mom and me to see if we were okay. The lot of them took turns looking out for us. After a while, it was like having five surrogate fathers around. They weren’t my dad and they couldn’t take my dad’s place, but they did help to fill the void he left. They were the ones who got my mother through those dark times. I loved the lot of them and I think of all of them as family.

  “The uncles and aunts you started out with before all this came to light are still your uncles and aunts in spirit if not in the strict definition of that according to the law. And let’s face it, the way you feel about a person is all that counts.”

  Bridget looked at her partner for a long, silent moment, more impressed than she wanted to let on. “That’s pretty profound coming from you. I guess even a stopped clock has to be right twice a day.”

  He grinned. Now that was the Bridget he knew and loved. “I have my moments,” he acknowledged.

  “Yeah,” she agreed with a half smile. “Every twenty years or so, you do.”

  “Have you thought about talking to your Uncle Adam about how you feel about this? I mean, he is a priest and all and they’re supposed to be able to offer guidance when one of their ‘flock’ has an emotional crisis to deal with.” He raised his eyebrows in a unified query. “Right?”

  She shook her head, vetoing the idea. “It might feel a little weird for both of us, considering that he’s part of that crisis.”

  “He might surprise you.”

  “Two surprises in one day? I don’t think I could handle that,” she said flippantly. “Having you actually make sense is earth-shaking enough for me to try to come to terms with. Going for two might be asking for trouble. Who knows, the next thing that might happen is I’ll be hearing the hoofbeats of the four horsemen.”

  Getting out of the car, he looked around the sprawling, newly upgraded complex. “I’d rather settle for that than what we’re about to do next,” he murmured under his breath.

  They’d arrived at the apartment complex that was listed as Karen Anderson’s last known residence. A residence the serial killer’s latest victim had shared with her boyfriend.

  Remaining beside the car, Josh scanned the area more intently, searching for apartment number 189. He was in no hurry to find it and in less of a hurry to do what he had to do.

  His feet felt glued to the asphalt.

  “Poor guy doesn’t know what’s about to hit him,” he muttered grimly. Spotting a map of the area posted behind glass and next to the mailboxes, he made his way over to it. Bridget followed. “His girl goes out without him for a night out on the town and comes back dead.”

  “Ordinarily, if this didn’t have the Lady Killer’s MO all over it, I would have reminded you that your ‘poor guy’ would most likely be considered a person of interest. First rule of thumb in a homicide investigation, remember?” she said glibly.

  “Thanks,” Josh said with a touch of sarcasm. “I didn’t know that.” And then he grew a little more serious. “He still might be a person of interest, you know,” Josh speculated.

  That caught her by surprise. “You think this guy’s our serial killer?”

  “No.” He doubted if they would get this lucky this early in this year’s cat-and-mouse game with the Lady Killer. “But I think he might have taken advantage of the fact that there was a Valentine serial killer
on the loose the last two years, done his homework and done away with his freewheeling girlfriend by copying the serial killer’s MO. It’s not like that hasn’t been done before,” he reminded her, “hiding a murder in the middle of a bunch of other murders.”

  Bridget nodded. The theory did make a lot of sense—as if they needed the extra confusion. “Just when I start to think of you as just another handsome face, you actually have a thought and blow everything out of the water,” she pretended to lament.

  “I am another handsome face,” he acknowledged teasingly, “but I also like keeping you on your toes, Cavanaugh.” The moment the surname had slipped out of his mouth, he slanted a look at her face, waiting to see—or hear—her reaction.

  As expected, she frowned—but not as deeply as he thought she might.

  “Don’t call me that yet,” she requested. “Not until I get used to the sound of it. Deal?”

  “Deal,” he echoed. “Whatever you want.” And then he pretended to be feeling her out. “Is it okay to call you Bridget?”

  Bridget laughed and shook her head. Leave it to Josh to lighten the moment. It was a quality she really liked in him. “That’s not about to change, so yeah, you can call me Bridget.”

  “The apartment’s over in that direction,” he announced, pointing to an area to their left. “It’s just after the duck pond.”

  “Duck pond?” she echoed.

  “That’s what it says on the map. Looks more like a duck puddle if you ask me,” he declared as they walked by it. “One way or another, we need to get this over with sooner than later.”

  She completely agreed. She never liked putting off anything just because she found it unpleasant to deal with. “Man after my own heart.”

  Leading the way, Josh turned and looked at her over his shoulder and winked. “You should be so lucky.”

  The wink sent a ripple through her that she deliberately ignored. “Ha! The luck,” she fired back, happy to be bantering with him again, “would be all yours.” What they did, day in, day out, was dark enough. A little lightness was more than welcome.

  He probably would be the lucky one in this, he thought. If he were in the market for something stable and permanent—

  Which he wasn’t, he reminded himself firmly before his mind could go wandering.

  This wasn’t the time.

  They stopped in front of the ground-floor garden apartment door with the appropriate numbers affixed on it and rang an anemic-sounding bell.

  When no one answered, they rang it again.

  Bridget raised her hand to try ringing the bell for a third time when the door suddenly opened.

  “Finally decide to come home?” a deep, humorless male voice asked. “What’s the matter, lose your key again? Or did you throw it away?”

  Both questions came from a semi-wet man wearing a bath towel precariously wrapped around his rather lean hips. He was standing in the doorway and his eyes filled with wonder as he looked at them with surprise. He stopped drying his hair.

  His demeanor changed instantly and his expression darkened.

  “Hey, I’m not giving to anything or converting to anything so go bother someone else,” he said curtly. With that the man grabbed the doorknob and started closing the door.

  Josh put his foot in the way and effectively provided an immovable object that stopped the other man from closing the door.

  “We’re not selling anything,” he told the other man. “Are you James King?”

  “Yeah,” the man answered, his eyes shifting suspiciously from one to the other. “Who are you?”

  Bridget took out her badge and ID at the same time that Josh did.

  Josh made the introductions. “I’m Detective Youngblood. This is Detective Cavelli.” He’d faltered for a second, then decided, in order to avoid any confusion, to state the name that she still had printed on her identification. “We’d like a few words with you. Mind if we come in?”

  The man remained standing exactly where he was. The suspicion deepened on his face. “What’s this all about?” he demanded.

  “Mr. King, really, this will be a lot easier on everyone if we step inside your apartment. You’re not going to want to hear this standing out here like this, half naked,” Bridget told him, her voice taking on a gentle note.

  After a moment, the man took a step into his apartment, opening the door wider so that his unexpected visitors could enter.

  Chapter 4

  Looking somewhat perturbed and confused about this unexpected invasion, King turned around just as Josh closed the door to the apartment behind them.

  “Look, I just got home from the gym and I was taking a shower when you started leaning on my bell,” he told them irritably. “You mind if I get dressed first before you ask whatever it is you’re here to ask?”

  “No. As a matter of fact, I’d highly recommend it,” Bridget replied as the man tugged his sagging bath towel back up to his waist.

  King looked slightly amused at her answer. For a moment, it seemed as if he forgot he was annoyed and transformed into a player right before her eyes. “Really? Most women don’t say that to me.”

  It was Josh’s turn to be annoyed. He didn’t particularly like the way the victim’s so-called boyfriend was eyeing Bridget. He moved forward, placing himself between King and his partner. “What are you doing going to the gym in the middle of the day? Don’t you have a job you’re supposed to be at?”

  King had already walked into his bedroom to get dressed. He left the door open; whether it was as an invitation or just to be able to hear better wasn’t clear.

  “Not anymore,” the man bit off. “My company decided to relocate to Utah last month—without me.” There was a bitter note in his voice. “I’ve got to do something to keep myself occupied during the day so I go to the gym. I’ve got seven months left on the membership. No sense in letting it go to waste,” he retorted defensively. It was obvious that this wasn’t the first time he’d been asked about his free afternoons.

  King walked back into the living room where he’d left them. He wore a pair of beige slacks and a light green golf shirt. He was still barefoot and he hadn’t bothered to try to towel dry his wet hair.

  “Look, what’s this all about, anyway?” he asked, looking from one to the other. “Is this Karen’s idea of some kind of a joke?”

  “Why would you think that?” Bridget asked. It seemed to her rather an odd thing for the victim’s boyfriend to think, especially since they hadn’t told him anything yet. Just what sort of a relationship did King and the dead woman have?

  “I dunno. Maybe she thinks sending over two pretend cops might get me to find a job faster. Well, it can’t. I already told her, there’s nothing out there. I’ve been looking my butt off and I can’t find anything decent to even apply for,” he answered angrily.

  Bridget didn’t bother pointing out that they weren’t “pretend cops.” He would realize they were real soon enough. “You didn’t go out with her last night.”

  She didn’t make it sound like a question, but he answered it anyway. “We had a fight.”

  “About what?” Josh asked.

  “Aren’t you paying attention?” King demanded, clearly annoyed at the interrogation. “About me not working. She hates it,” he complained. “Karen earns a boatload of money at that place she works, but she wants me to be paying all the bills. She thinks that’s what a ‘real man’ is supposed to do.” He sneered at the very thought. “Well, the hell with that and the hell with her!”

  Josh continued asking questions. He kept his voice mild, as if they were just having a harmless conversation instead of King just possibly painting himself into a corner. “Just how heated did the argument get between you two yesterday?”

  King shrugged, as if this was nothing new. “We got a little loud, she threw a few things at me, missed, then stormed out.” And then King narrowed his eyes, asking a little uneasily, “Why? Where is Karen?”

  “Didn’t you wonder that before
now?” Bridget asked, curious.

  King’s temper flared. He was the kind of man who didn’t like to be questioned about his behavior. “I thought she crashed at one of her girlfriends’ places. Frankly, I liked the peace and quiet for a change.”

  What a bastard, Bridget thought. This was why she steered clear of relationships. It was all sweetness and fun in the beginning. And then the gloves came off and people started to be themselves—people she could very well live without. Or at least that’s the way it had been with the few relationships she’d had. Most of the time, the guys either wanted her to stop being a cop—or they wanted to handcuff her with her own cuffs. Which was why she was currently taking a break from dating altogether.

  “That’s good,” she told him coolly, “because that’s something you’re going to have to get used to.” Unless the county decides you killed her and then you’ll be getting a whole bunch of new roommates.

  “What are you saying?” King demanded, letting his temper flare. “Where is she? Where’s Karen? Something happen to Karen?” he asked, the tone of his voice taking on an unsteady lilt.

  Bridget exchanged looks with Josh.

  One of them would have to tell the annoying man the woman he’d just been ranting about was dead. She decided to spare Josh since he’d just made her realize that it brought back such harsh memories for him of the time he and his mother had been on the receiving end of those awful words.

  “Mr. King, I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but your girlfriend was found dead this morning in the alley behind The Warehouse Crowd,” Bridget told him. She assumed the victim’s boyfriend was familiar with the club that was predominantly frequented by an under-thirty crowd.

  King looked utterly stunned as he stared at her. “Dead?” He repeated the word as if he didn’t quite understand what it meant. His breathing grew noticeably more shallow and faster as he asked, “You mean like in a homicide?”