Forbidden Lover

Detective Gallagher shot her a bemused glance. “Thanks, but I can take it from here.”

A blush sneaked up Gloria’s neck, fascinating Erin. Outspoken, flirtatious, occasionally obnoxious, Gloria Maynard was not the type to embarrass easily, but Detective Gallagher had definitely flustered her. She seemed torn between wanting to escape from the lab, and hanging around long enough to somehow get his phone number.

“What can I do for you, Detective Gallagher?” Erin asked him.

He took a few steps into the lab. “Could we speak in private?”

The blush on Gloria’s face deepened. “I’ll be at my desk if you need me,” she muttered, spinning on her heel and closing the door with a soft thud behind her. Erin was fairly certain that Gloria wasn’t used to being dismissed so curtly—at least not by a man. Her shiny black hair, short skirts, and tight sweaters usually drew lingering and longing stares from the male members of the faculty and student body alike. But Detective Gallagher didn’t even seem to take notice of her leaving. Erin warmed to him a little.

“We’re alone now,” she said, then felt her own face color at the suggestive way she’d phrased her observation. She pulled down her goggles and plunked them on her nose as she turned back to her worktable. “Mind if I work while we talk?”

“Not at all, as long as I have your attention.” Detective Gallagher walked around the table, so that they were facing each other. Erin drew on a fresh pair of latex gloves and handed him a pair. “Just in case you get curious.”

Reluctantly, he took the gloves. Erin had never understood the mindset of police officers who could work bloody crime and accident scenes so coolly and calmly, but then grew uneasy—some downright green—at the sight of skeletal remains. Detective Gallagher didn’t particularly strike her as the squeamish type, but he did seem to have a healthy respect for his surroundings.

At any rate, the bones spread over Erin’s worktable were nearly pristine. All that remained were the clues that would unravel the woman’s identity and cause of death.

“Do you know who she is yet?”

Erin glanced up in surprise. “How did you know it’s a she?”

He shrugged. “I’ve learned a few things over the years. So, who is she and what happened to her?” His tone was faintly challenging.

“I haven’t finished my examination,” Erin said almost irritably.

“Oh, come on.” His blue gaze taunted her. “Your reputation precedes you, Dr. Casey. According to Dr. Wyman, your abilities are nothing short of mystical.”

Erin had met Dr. Lawrence Wyman, the Cook County Medical Examiner, a couple of years ago at a conference in New York. They’d hit it off, spent several hours together, and since then had kept in touch by e-mail. He’d been ecstatic when he’d learned she was moving to Chicago.

“Did Dr. Wyman send you here?” Erin asked.

“Like I said, you come highly recommended.”

She frowned at his evasion. “What kind of case do you want me to consult on?”

He nodded toward the skeleton. “Tell me about her first.”

A test, Erin thought. He wanted to see for himself how good she was. Not that she needed to prove anything to him, but Erin began reciting in a monotone everything she had learned from the bones. “She gave birth to at least two children. Mongoloid, more than likely Asian. Height, around five feet. Weight, around 110, 115…” she trailed off, examining the muscle attachment markings on the tibia.

“Anything else?” Detective Gallagher quizzed her.

“She was a fairly accomplished athlete. A runner, I’d say.” Erin smiled slightly. “And of course, she was murdered.”

ERIN CASEY was a strange little woman, not at all what Nick had expected. He studied the framed diplomas, certifications and professional affiliations on her office wall with half his attention while the other half tried to reconcile his preconceived image of her with the actual person.

For one thing, she was a lot younger than he’d imagined. Dr. Wyman was in his sixties, but he’d spoken of Erin Casey with the reverence and respect usually reserved for one’s contemporaries and elders. He doubted she was even thirty, and her slight stature made her seem even younger. Nick was willing to bet she was often mistaken for a student on campus, although her intensity, her almost trancelike absorption in her work was far from juvenile. She was good at what she did. She was very, very good.

Not only had she determined that the subject on her worktable had been murdered, but also that she was likely a runner, an important detail because the habits of a victim could often lead back to the killer.

Nick needed that same resourcefulness and intuition, that same thoroughness, to tell him if the remains that had been discovered yesterday were also those of a murder victim. And, of course, he needed the identity of the dead man. But if he turned out to be who Nick suspected he was…

His thoughts broke apart and scattered. He wouldn’t allow himself to think about that. Not yet. First things first. Excavate the remains. Bring them here to Dr. Casey’s lab. Let her work her magic. And then Nick would take over from there.

He felt the rage building inside him again at the injustice that was about to be perpetrated by the legal system, but he couldn’t let his anger take control of him. Too much was at stake. A murderer was about to go free, but the discovery of the skeleton yesterday could change everything.

If Daniel O’Roarke’s death sentence for the brutal slaying eight years ago of a beautiful, young coed was overturned, he could never again be tried for her murder. But if he’d killed again…if the remains of his second victim suddenly turned up after eight long years of searching…he could be sent back to death row, this time for killing a cop.

The door of the office opened, and Nick felt his nerve endings jump slightly. He was edgy and he knew it, but he’d never worked on a case this important. This personal. And because of the potential for publicity—and danger—discretion was a primary concern. Could he trust Erin Casey?

Dr. Wyman seemed to think so. “The woman’s as honorable as she is brilliant. A very rare combination,” he’d mused wistfully.

The old man was probably half in love with her, Nick decided, as he gazed at Erin Casey with a new eye. He supposed she was attractive, in a scholarly, nondescript sort of way. She was tiny, probably not much over five feet, and Nick doubted she’d weigh more than a hundred pounds soaking wet.

Her hair was dark blond, and she wore the long, wavy strands pulled back and twisted into a thick braid that thumped against her back when she walked. The wire-rimmed glasses perched on her nose made her light-blue eyes appear huge and misty and gave her a dreamlike quality that seemed almost otherworldly. Her skin was smooth and pale, as if she spent most of her time bent over a worktable in her basement lab instead of out in the sunshine with the rest of the human race.

She looked freshly showered, having changed from the disposable scrubs into jeans and a yellow cotton shirt that had an ink stain on the front. Nick was willing to bet she hadn’t even noticed the stain, and if she had, she wouldn’t care anyway. Appearance was obviously not high on her priority list, and yet, she managed to convey a kind of absentminded sensuality that she would undoubtedly find surprising, and Nick found more than a little disturbing.

She sat down behind her desk and gazed up at him. “Have a seat, Detective Gallagher.”

He didn’t want to sit, but it would be rude not to, and besides, his pacing drove most people crazy. The only other chair in the room was stacked with books and papers, and she gave a careless, sweeping wave, which Nick took as permission to transfer the heap to the floor.

When he was finally seated, he could feel the impatience burning inside him again, mingling with the raw energy flowing almost like a drug through his veins. They had to get moving on this, he kept thinking over and over. There was no time to waste.

“Tell me about the remains you’ve found.” Her soft, southern accent was discordant with the topic of their conversation. Her voice came straight from the pages of Gone with the Wind. But there was nothing fragile or coy about Erin Casey.

“A hunter found the bones yesterday morning,” he told her. “In a remote, wooded area in Wisconsin.”

Her brows lifted slightly over the rim of her glasses. “Hardly CPD’s jurisdiction, is it?”

“No, but I know the county sheriff in that area. He called me when the remains were discovered.”

“Why?” Her blue eyes behind the glasses were gently probing.

Nick frowned at her persistence. “He doesn’t want any publicity until he has a handle on what he’s dealing with.”

“You mean until he learns whether the bones are forensic or archaeological?”

“Yes, but his concern is even more basic than that. It looks like a human skeleton, but who knows?” Nick shrugged. “Remember that case down south a few years ago where a man digging in a flower bed in his backyard uncovered several coffinlike boxes that contained what the local authorities thought were the skeletal remains of infants? The sheriff even went so far as to call in the FBI, thinking he had some kind of gruesome serial killer on his hands. Turned out the previous owners of the house had used that spot for their pet cemetery. The remains were a dog, two cats, and a canary. The media had a field day with that poor sheriff and his deputies.”

“Actually, I do remember that case,” Erin said. “I’m the one who examined the bones.”

“No kidding?” Nick had already known that, of course, but he thought it was a good way to make his point. “Anyway, my friend would like you to come up and take a look at the remains, see what you think.”

“Where is the skeleton now?”

“Exactly where it was found. We want you to oversee the excavation.”

“I see.” She was intrigued by the prospect, Nick could tell. Too often, remains were sent prematurely to the pathology lab or to the morgue before a proper excavation and search of the area were conducted.