Silent Night Stakeout

So he was one of those. A cop who viewed her as the enemy.

She wasn’t surprised, of course. It went with the territory. She was comfortable with her career. She’d learned a long time ago that the police weren’t always right and that not all police officers were good people. But there was still something uniquely disappointing about having as fine a male specimen as the man before her looking at her like that.

She swallowed the disappointment that rose in her throat. Hadn’t she just been thinking how difficult it was to find a good man? She should know better than to let herself be so affected by a physical reaction, a reaction that was no doubt caused just as much by the stress of everything that had happened in the past few hours as the man himself. Finding Jeremy. Talking to the first officers on the scene. The endless waiting. It was no wonder her emotions were off-kilter. She sucked in a breath, trying to regain her senses.

Then he was in front of her, bigger and more overwhelming than before, and she suddenly had to try to recover from his appearance all over again. “Ms. Garrett?”

Damn. His voice was as sexy as the rest of him, a low rumble she felt quake through her. She nearly shuddered. “Yes,” she said, her tone admirably smooth.

“Detective Marcus Waters,” he said, all business. “I was told you found the body.”

The subject matter thankfully brought her back down to earth. “That’s right.”

“And the victim was a client of yours?”

“Yes. He called earlier this evening and asked to see me.”

“About what?”

“He didn’t say. I tried to get him to tell me, but he would only say it was very important. I was expecting him at six. I called him a few times when he didn’t show, and finally gave up around eight. I was driving by when I saw him.”

“And he was already dead?”

“Yes.”

“You represented him on a burglary charge, is that correct?”

“That’s right.”

“Did he do it?”

For a second, the blunt, wholly unexpected question caught her off-guard, as she suspected he’d intended. Fortunately she had plenty of practice at keeping her expression from revealing anything but what she wanted it to. She never blinked, meeting his gaze head-on. “The charges were dismissed, Detective. That makes him innocent in the eyes of the law.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“I’m afraid anything he might have told me is covered by attorney-client privilege.”

“Even if it’s relevant to his death?’

“Even then.”

The corners of his mouth twitched, turning downward the slightest bit, the only sign of his displeasure. She had to fight the urge to stare at those dangerously tempting lips. “What can you tell me about the case?”

“I imagine not much more than you could find in the police file.”

“Since I don’t have the file on me, any insight you could provide would be appreciated,” he said with a trace of sarcasm.

“Jeremy was arrested in April after the police responded to an alarm indicating a break-in at a home in Lincoln Park. He was found at the scene and was unable to provide a reasonable explanation for his presence, so he was arrested and later charged with burglary.”

“You said the charges were dismissed. So the case never went to trial?”

“No, it never got that far. He was released a few days ago.”

“And was murdered soon afterward.”

“You think there’s a connection.”

“Wouldn’t you?” he said sensibly. “Or maybe I should ask, don’t you?”

“I can see why you would think that,” she said carefully.

“So is there anything you want to tell me about the case? Anything I should know?”

Regina sighed. “Detective, I promise I’m not trying to be difficult. I want whoever did this to Jeremy to be caught just as much as you do. But frankly, it’s been a rather difficult evening and I’m not at my best. Let me take a look at my notes when my head’s a little clearer and see what I might be able to share with you.”

Eyes narrowed, he looked at her, long and probing, his gaze feeling as though it was peeling away the layers of her skin and exposing her to the core. Finally, his expression eased, like he’d come to the conclusion she really wasn’t trying to be a pain. “I would appreciate it.”

“Has his sister been informed?”

“His sister?”

“Lauren. She’s his next of kin, the only family he had left other than the baby she had a few months ago.”

He nodded. “I’ll take care of that next.”

“I’d like to be there when you do.”

“Why?”

“Lauren Decker just lost her only sibling. She’s going to need a kind face to break the news.”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve had to inform someone of the death of a family member.”

“A family member you didn’t view as nothing more than a no-good criminal? That’s what you’ve already decided, isn’t it? That Jeremy Decker was nothing but a lowlife who probably deserved what was coming to him?”

“I’m not sure anyone deserved this, but just because you got him off doesn’t mean he was truly innocent.”

“And just because he was arrested doesn’t mean he was guilty.”

From his expression, he was biting back the response he wanted to offer. After a moment, he said, “Either way, I’m capable of breaking this news to her gently.”

“Then I look forward to seeing that. Because Lauren Decker is a young woman who just had a baby, which she is raising on her own. I suspect her emotional state is already fragile, and I can’t imagine this news is going to help that. Besides, who do you think she’s more likely to confide in, someone she just met who’s a member of the same police department that recently arrested her brother, or someone she’s met before, someone her brother trusted?”

Regina could tell he wanted to argue the point, those lips now compressed into a thin, frustrated line.

“Besides, like you said, you don’t have the file, so you’d have to look up the address. I already know it.”

“Fine,” he practically growled. “You can come.”