The Detective

Jenna stepped farther into the room to make way for Alexis. “I could have Mr. Hennings contact her.”

Alexis dragged her phone from her jacket pocket. “I’ll call her.”

Maybe the sexy decorator wasn’t so bad after all. Brodey grinned. “Thank you.”

She gave him a sarcastic, bunchy-cheeks grin. “It has nothing to do with your enormous charm. It’ll be faster if I call her. By the time Jenna tracks down her boss and he calls my client, you could be on your way over there. I’m all for efficiency.”

That made two of them. And when efficiency looked like Alexis Vanderbilt, preferably a naked Alexis Vanderbilt because yeah, he was wondering what that looked like, he’d welcome it any day, any time without a doubt. Professionalism aside, he was still a guy who liked action. Plenty of it.

“Brenda?” Alexis said into her phone. “Hi. It’s Lexi Vanderbilt...yes...I’m fine.”

Lexi. He liked that. It fit with her sassy attitude. She bobbed her head while going through the pleasantries with her client and Brodey surmised that, like him, she had issues being idle. For any length of time.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m at the house now. There are two investigators here from Hennings & Solomon.”

Technically, Brodey wasn’t from Hennings & Solomon, but he’d let that go. Not worth the hassle.

“They got here a couple of hours ago,” Lexi continued, “and they have questions for you. Would you be able to speak with them?”

Three seconds passed. Then she handed Brodey the phone. He immediately looked at his sister, waggling the phone at her to make sure she didn’t want to take the lead. She shook her head.

Excellent answer. Not that he would have minded her taking the call, but when the phone hit his hand he got that familiar push of adrenaline, that spark that came with a fresh case and the possibility of leads. At the age of thirty-two, he hadn’t been a detective long enough to turn jaded. The older guys on the squad liked to call him Greenhorn. Being the youngest—and newest—detective to join his squad, he still viewed every case as an opportunity to make a difference while the old guys hoped to retire with their sanity. Twenty years of working homicides on the streets of Chicago would emotionally annihilate even the toughest of the tough. Brodey hoped to retire long before annihilation occurred and already had a start on a healthy nest egg.

He held the phone to his ear. “Mrs. Williams, this is Brodey Hayward. Thank you for taking my call.”

There was a short pause and Brodey checked the screen to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. Nope. Still there. “Hello?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m here. I needed to step into the other room. My youngest is playing and I didn’t want her to hear.”

The youngest, according to Jenna, had been three when her father died. So, she’d be five now and Brodey tried to imagine that, tried to imagine growing up without his own father, without the memories of ball games and amusement parks and beach visits. All of it a dead loss. Poor kids. A squeeze in his chest ambushed him and he held his breath a second, waited for the pressure to ease before exhaling and clearing his throat.

Stay focused. Forget the kids. That was what he needed to do. “No problem. Are you able to answer some questions for me? I could drop by.”

Because really, what he wanted to see was her. Study her body language and responses. Call him cynical, even as a rookie detective, but the spouse—particularly an estranged one—always got a solid look.

“Now?”

“Yes, ma’am. If it’s convenient.”

“I need to pick up my son from school and then take him to basketball practice at four-thirty. Lexi is coming by at four with samples. I can’t imagine that will take long. I could meet with you then, also. Would that work?”

He wasn’t sure how Lexi would feel about that, but in his mind, murder trumped decorating, so he’d make an executive decision. “I’ll make it work, ma’am. Thank you.”

Brodey disconnected and handed Lexi the phone. “We’re riding shotgun on your four o’clock.”

“Say again?”

“She said you were meeting with her at four and we could meet with her then, too. She’s busy running kids around. We need to maximize our time.”

“She only gave me thirty minutes.”

“She’s now splitting that thirty minutes between us. You’ll need to shorten your list.”

* * *

SHORTEN HER LIST? Brodey Hayward had a serious superiority complex if he thought she’d let him dictate how to do her job. First he horned in on her meeting and now he was trying to take over?

“Uh, Brodey?” Jenna said from her spot against the wall. “I can’t meet with her at four. I have another meeting.”

Thank you. At least now Lexi would still get her measly thirty minutes for what could evolve into a two-hour discussion.

Brodey turned to his sister, his posture stiff and unyielding. He held his uninjured arm out. “What do you want to do, then?”

“Hey,” Jenna shot, “don’t get snippy with me. You’re the one who booked a meeting without checking my schedule. If you want to meet with her on your own, go to it. All I’m saying is I can’t be there.”

“I’m not getting snippy.”

“Yes, you are.”

And now the two of them were going to argue. Terrific. Lexi held her hand up. “Can you two fight about this later?”

“We’re not fighting,” Brodey said.

Patience. Lexi squeezed her eyes shut, begging her beloved and departed grandmother to channel some of her legendary patience. Just a bit. Lexi had inherited her gram’s artistic ability, as evidenced by the stack of patchwork quilts she kept in her closet, but she’d be selfish now and ask for patience, too. Just a little. She breathed in and opened her eyes.

“For the record,” Brodey said, “if we were fighting, there’d be yelling.”

Jenna nodded. “And I might throw something.”

“That’s true. She gave me a black eye with a hockey puck once. And somehow, I got in trouble. Figure that one out.” He stepped over to her, lifted his arm, the one in the sling, and winced. “Ow. Forgot about the bum arm.”

“Ha!” Jenna said. “That’s what you get for thinking you’d give me a noogie.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Liar. I know you. And now that you’re injured, you’re a lame duck. Lame, I tell you.”

He and Jenna both laughed. And just that fast—boom—the tension flew from the room.

Being the only child of an artist and a musician, both of whom enjoyed their alone time, Lexi hadn’t experienced sibling rivalry. She wasn’t sure she wanted to, but this? This was different. This was about love and family and history. As much as she wanted to be irritated with these two, watching them snark at each other and then laugh about it tickled something down deep.

But she wouldn’t show them that. Instead, she rolled her eyes. “Okay, you’re not fighting. Glad we cleared that up. What are we doing about this meeting at four?”

“I’ll do it alone.” Brodey turned back to Jenna. “You sure you’re okay with that? It’s your case.”

“It’s fine. Just make sure she knows you’re only helping. I don’t want her upset when you disappear.”

“I will.” He faced Lexi and pulled a pocket notepad from his jacket. “I guess it’s you and me. Where am I meeting you?”