Alone in the Dark

With swift, sure movements, she worked her fingers around the animal’s back and hind quarters, checking for any new lumps. Usually, they represented fatty deposits that eventually disappeared, but she liked staying on top of everything.

She spared Josh a look. “Funny philosophy, coming from a cop.”

The grin never dimmed. “It’s because I am a cop that I know just when they need to be adhered to and when they need to be broken.” He moved as she did, slowly shadowing her path around the examination table. “Now, your rules are fine when it comes to other cops, like say Coltrane over there.” Emphasizing his point, he nodded at the door as another patrolman, Braden Coltrane entered with his four-footed partner, King. “Word is that the reason he’s partnered with one of the dogs is because no two-footed cop could put up with him.” She was finished feeling her way around the dog’s fur and Josh made it a point to be right in front of her again. “But me, well, your rule really shouldn’t apply to me.”

Humor curved her mouth. They both knew she wasn’t going to say yes. And they both knew he was going to push, just a little. It was a game at this point, and diverting. “And why’s that?”

“Because we’re soul mates, Patience. I can feel it.” He placed his hand over his heart.

Patience turned her attention to checking Gonzo’s teeth and gums. The former were turning a bit yellow. She was going to have to step up the cleaning schedule, she thought. “Well, I can’t.”

He cocked his head appealingly. “You would if you went out with me.”

She spared him a glance, suppressing the sigh. Another woman, she knew, would probably have been worn down by now. But another woman hadn’t held her comatose father’s hand in the hospital, praying that he wouldn’t slip away; that there would still be a chance for them to find a better footing. To finally be a real father and daughter instead of what they’d been: two hollowed-out shells with appropriate labels affixed to them. She’d needed more from him, wanted more. Surly or not, he’d been her father and she hadn’t wanted to lose him to a gunman’s bullet.

But she had. And no more restitutions were ever made. It made her feel cheated and angry. And guilty because she’d been relieved that the tension her father generated in their home was finally gone. The angry man who should have never been a cop was no more. She missed the idea of him, if not the man himself.

A small smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “I’d just rather stick to the rules right now, Josh, if you don’t mind.”

“‘Right now,”’ he repeated. “Which means you might not later.”

She supposed this was what was meant by a never-say-die attitude. “Which means I’m being polite.” She picked up the dog’s chart and made the proper notations. She was aware that both dog and master were studying her every move.

“I’m not giving up, you know,” Josh told her the moment she laid down the chart.

Patience sighed. “Yes, I know, but you are wasting your time. Really. I’m flattered, Josh, but I’m also serious.”

“We’ll see,” was all he said, flashing her a grin that he’d used to melt kneecaps at forty paces.

She merely laughed and shook her head. “Gonzo’s ready to go,” she told him. “He’s fine and fit for duty.” Because the dog nudged her, she petted the animal and was rewarded with a big, sloppy kiss. Delighted, Patience ruffled the dog’s fur.

“Never thought I’d envy a mutt. Down, Gonzo.” The dog obediently jumped down.

She patted the animal’s head. “On behalf of Gonzo, I take offense at that.”

Josh never missed a beat. “You could plead his case over dinner.”

She shook her head, laughing. “Go.” She fairly pushed Josh out of the room and into the hall. “You have a beat to patrol.”

With that she looked out into the waiting room. It was early, before the official start of her day. Her clinic was open from eight until five, but she made exceptions for the police department, having them bring in the canines before office hours so that they didn’t have to spend any time in her waiting room.

She made exceptions for any emergency that might come up, as well. Like people, animals didn’t always come down with something during prescribed business hours. More than once she’d been on the receiving end of a frantic call that came to her in the middle of the night. Never once had she turned down a sick animal.

Which was how Walter Payne had come into her life. The meek software technician had called her, beside himself over his prized cockatiel. The bird had become ill at two in the morning. She’d never asked what he was doing, keeping company with the bird at that hour. Looking back, she thought perhaps that had been her initial mistake.

Because Walter’s effuse gratitude had turned into something more. The flower he’d claimed came from the bird swiftly became bouquets left on her doorstep. There were poems and candy, all of which she politely but firmly declined, saying that payment of his bill was all that was necessary. But it wasn’t all that was necessary from his point of view. The visits, with and without the accompanying cockatiel, increased until she’d begun to feel as if she were being stalked.

Not that Walter ever really worried her. She’d felt that the man was harmless in his adulation. But she couldn’t get a case her father had been investigation out of her mind. She’d been ten at the time and maybe that was why it had left such a chilling impression on her. There’d been a young woman who’d been repeatedly stalked by a man she’d hardly known. He’d wound up killing her.

Patience had tried to tell herself that Walter and the other woman’s stalker were nothing alike. Walter was a sad little man who wouldn’t hurt a fly, but she’d struggled against ghosts from the past and at times it wasn’t easy not to give in to the fear. Just to play it safe, Patience had made sure that the group photograph of her entire family, all in dress uniform—save for her and Janelle—was prominently displayed where Walter could see it.

It was a silent warning and, evidently, he got it. His attentions faded. Which was a good thing because she’d been certain that her big brother, Patrick, was just inches away from nailing the computer enthusiast’s skinny hide to the back door. She’d made the mistake of mentioning it to him in passing and he’d been ready to take her in to file a restraining order against Walter. It had taken a lot of talking on her part to make him give up the idea; she’d known Patrick had been thinking of the same case her father had had.

Shoving her hands into the deep pockets of her white lab coat, Patience stood in the waiting room doorway and looked at her only other K-9 patient for the day. The other three had come by yesterday.

“Brady, you’re up next.”

“Don’t forget to give him his distemper shot,” Josh cracked, nodding at Brady as he passed by the tall, solemn dark-haired man.

Gonzo and King remained oblivious to one another as if they were wearing blinders. Brady gave a slight nod of greeting in response. His mouth never curved in the slightest.

Brady followed Patience into the examination room. “Graham giving you a hard time?”

Not looking in her direction, Brady gave King the command to get on the examination table. The sleek three-year-old German shepherd glided on as effortlessly as if he were a mere ten-pound puppy instead of the one-hundred-and-twelve-pound dog that he actually was.

Patience raised a shoulder, letting it drop again dismissively. “He’s just being Josh. Persistent,” she added when Brady didn’t say anything. Not that he would. In all the time that she’d known him, she’d found Brady to be just a little more talkative than a sphinx. “I just think it’s hard for him to believe that any woman would turn him down.”

Brady said nothing for a couple of seconds, letting her lay out her instruments and get to work. “And did you?”

“As always.” It was no secret how she felt about dating policeman. Everyone knew. She smiled at Brady. “Like I told Josh, I have my rules.”

“Otherwise you’d go out with him,” Josh answered.

Since he’d actually volunteered a sentence, she thought for a moment. “Maybe.”

There was no question that she did find Josh almost as charming as the patrolman found himself. He had an engaging personality and she saw him frequently enough, either for the dog’s routine exams or whenever her uncle Andrew, the former police chief of Aurora, threw a party. Her uncle did that with a fair amount of regularity and he usually invited half the police force. Josh was among that half.

As was Brady, from what she’d heard, but the latter never turned up. Word was he preferred his own company to that of others.

She glanced at Brady before she turned her attention to the dog’s examination. Josh and Brady were as different as night and day, beginning with their coloring. Brady had black hair to Josh’s blond. The only thing the two men had in common beyond their uniforms was that they were both good-looking. While Josh was outgoing, Officer Braden Coltrane was quiet. If she wanted more than a single-syllable conversation with King’s two-legged partner, she had to go in search of it herself, often dragging words up Brady’s throat and out of his mouth.

Silence obviously didn’t bother him. He seemed to enjoy it. Even his commands to his dog were usually silent, as opposed to Josh’s verbal ones. Each man, she thought, gave the kind of commands he was most comfortable with.

Because cultivating a conversation with him required so much effort, Patience found she had to live up to her name whenever she dealt with Brady.

She began working the animal’s thick coat, going slowly. “But there’s no point in speculating about whether or not I’d go out with Josh because I do have my rules,” she said over her shoulder at Brady. She kept her explanation simple. “There’s no way I’m going to go through what my mother did, waiting for my husband to come home every night.”

Brady laughed dryly. “There are worse things than that.”

Patience was quick to jump on the offering, looking to expand it. “Such as?”

He shrugged carelessly, looking away. “Having him come home.”

Patience looked up sharply.

The sentence hung in the air between them. Had he known her father? she wondered. Because of his family name more than anything else, there were rumors that Mike Cavanaugh had been a disgruntled, dissatisfied man. The Cavanaugh brother who couldn’t measure up. Was Brady referring to that, to the hearsay?

Or was he talking about something more close to home? She, along with most of the force, she surmised, knew next to nothing about the man.