It occurred to her that she hadn’t heard from Ethan in a month.
She’d just chalked it up to his being busy. She didn’t want him to feel as if she was breathing down his neck, but she really did want to know where he was.
Where are you, Ethan? she silently demanded as she stared at her phone.
“Checking for messages from your boyfriend?” Bryce asked.
Scottie swung her chair around, narrowly avoiding hitting the detective smack in his knees.
“Don’t you make any noise when you sneak up on people?” she accused.
“I think the answer to that is self-explanatory, otherwise it wouldn’t be called ‘sneaking.’ But since I have your attention, I was just curious. You’ve checked your phone at least once every hour since you started working those files. Hot date?” he asked, amused.
“To answer your question, no, I’m not checking for messages from my boyfriend. I don’t have a boyfriend, consequently there is no ‘hot date,’” Scottie informed him rather coldly.
Now that, Bryce thought, he found very hard to believe, given the way the woman looked.
But he let the topic drop, to be followed up some other time.
“Well, it’s time to call it a day, anyway. Why don’t you join me for a drink at Malone’s?” he suggested.
Malone’s, run by a retired policeman, was where more than one officer of the law could be found unwinding and temporarily setting down the burdens of the day. Bryce assumed she was familiar with it since, at one time or another, they’d all frequented the establishment.
“I thought we could celebrate your first day on the job. I’m buying,” he added, hoping that would erase any objections she might voice at the idea.
Scottie shook her head. “Thanks, but I’ll have to pass. I have somewhere else I have to be.”
Before he could ask her where, Scottie had picked up her slim messenger bag, slung the strap over her shoulder and walked quickly out of the squad room.
It wasn’t until a couple of minutes later, when he started to leave the squad room himself, that Bryce saw the cell phone still laying on his new partner’s desk. The cell’s black case made it easily blend in with the desktop.
Snatching it up, Bryce quickly hurried out of the squad room and to the elevator to catch up with his new partner. But he was too late. She had already gotten on and went down.
Not bothering to wait for another elevator car to arrive—that would only cost him more time—Bryce opted for the stairs. He fairly flew down the three flights to the ground floor. But as he emerged out of the stairwell, he found the elevator car standing open and empty. Scottie was nowhere to be seen. She must have just left the building.
Just how fast did this woman move?
Not bothering to contemplate the question, Bryce exited the building via the rear entrance. The second he got out, he saw Scottie in the distance. She was just getting into her car. He whistled and called out her name, but she obviously didn’t hear him.
Bryce regarded the phone in his hand. He supposed he could just give her the cell phone tomorrow when she came in. That would be the simplest thing to do. But since cell phones were no longer just phones but the owner’s vital connection to the world, Bryce decided to give it one more try and go after her.
Pocketing the cell, Bryce hurried over to his own vehicle and got into it. After he started the car, he went out the same way he assumed his partner had.
When he left the lot, he just barely managed to catch sight of her silver subcompact making a right at the corner.
Employing his best tailing skills, Bryce followed the silver Honda for several blocks. He made sure to keep one car length behind her. He knew that he could just speed up, flip on his siren and catch up to her, but he had to admit his curiosity had been aroused. Just where else was it that his partner just “had to be” that had caused her to turn down a friendly drink and forget to take her phone?
Keeping her in his sights, Bryce wound up following his new partner beyond the city limits into the next city. Vaguely familiar with the area, he saw that she was driving toward a less than upscale neighborhood.
Just where the hell is she going at this time of day in this area?
By the time he saw Scottie’s car pull into a parking lot, his curiosity was not just aroused but fully engaged. Especially when he looked around and realized she had parked right in front of a homeless shelter.
That did not look like the kind of place someone like Scottie would go to, he thought. At least not unless she was following a lead.
Could that be it? Had she picked up something in all those files he’d given her to review and not said anything to him? Just exactly how much of a Lone Ranger was this woman?
Needing answers, Bryce pulled his car up into the lot and parked several spaces away from hers in the first spot he could find. Shutting off his engine, he sat back and waited.
And waited.
Since it was still light out, it allowed him to absorb the details of the squat, two-story building and its surrounding area. He supposed, as far as homeless shelters went, this one looked to be in decent repair. As he sat, he watched several people enter the building, all looking as if what they needed most was a bath and a container of hope.
Thirty-five minutes later, he saw the door open from the inside and watched as Scottie finally came out. He snapped to attention. She did not look happy, he noted.
Judging from the scowl on her face, she appeared to be frustrated.
“Okay, time for some answers,” Bryce muttered to himself as he got out of his car.
Ever alert, the sudden movement caught her eye and Scottie swung around to face it. When she realized who it was, she frowned. Deeply.
What the hell was he doing here?
Incensed, she strode quickly toward the man and his vehicle.
“Are you following me?” Scottie challenged, not bothering to hide the fact that she was less than happy about the prospect of finding him there, obviously watching her.
“As a matter of fact, yes, I am,” Bryce admitted, seeing no reason to hide the fact. “It didn’t start out that way but, well, here we are.”
Didn’t he even have the decency to be embarrassed about being caught?
“Where the hell do you get off, following me?” Scottie demanded. By this point, she was standing next to Cavanaugh, glaring up into his face, her eyes shooting daggers. “Is this some kind of weird hobby of yours? I can’t think of a single reason for you to be following me.”
He appeared completely unfazed by her growing anger even though it looked as if she was going to explode at any moment.
“Can’t you? Try harder,” he coaxed. In response, he saw her anger spike up to another level.
“What is this, a game to you? Are you hazing me? Hazing the newcomer, is that it?” She struggled not to shout the question into his face. “Because I’m not a newcomer. I’ve been on the force for five years and I have—”
Part of him wondered just how angry she could get and just what she would wind up ultimately threatening him with. But if he let her detonate like that, there’d be no coming back. And it wasn’t exactly going to guarantee that they’d work well together. No, he needed to dial this back a bit because they were obviously going to be working together, at least until she