“And they found a dead body in the apartment who wasn’t the guy who lived there,” Kendra guessed.
Holmes nodded. “I want you to find out whose body’s in the apartment and see if you can get a handle on where the guy who pays the rent is. Apparently, he’s still missing.”
“You got it, boss,” Abilene promised as he fell into step beside Kendra.
“Jump right in, don’t you?” Kendra commented as she increased her pace. But even so, Abilene more than kept up. Man had legs that belonged on an ostrich, she thought darkly.
“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?” he asked innocently as they went into the hall. If this wasn’t going to be an all-out territorial war, he needed to do what he could to put her mind at ease. He was definitely not out to become king of the hill—at least, not this hill. “Look, I’m not trying to snag your territory, if that’s what you’re worried about. From what I hear, there’s more than enough work to go around for everyone. This isn’t a competition.”
He was analyzing her again. Kendra gave him a cold look as she yanked open the door to the stairwell. She hated being analyzed. “Nobody said it was.”
Abilene stopped short. Was she taking the stairs? “Hey, aren’t we supposed to be taking the elevator down?” he asked.
“Go ahead,” Kendra tossed over her shoulder. “Nobody’s stopping you.”
Like a door to a tomb, the stairwell door all but thundered as it closed behind her.
Peace at last.
Kendra’s heels met the metal steps, emitting a quick, rhythmic staccato sound as she hurried down to the first floor. She was only halfway down the first flight with three more to go when she heard the stairwell door above her opening again. She didn’t have to look to know that Abilene was now behind her—and catching up fast.
Couldn’t she get at least a couple of minutes away from this man? She wanted to be able to clear her head and having him around was not at all conducive to that.
He had no idea how the woman’s mind worked. Was she intent on trying to ditch him, or make him fail in front of the boss? Was she just playing some sort of a game where only she knew the rules? He wasn’t about to take a chance on being left behind on the first assignment that he—that they—had just caught.
He was a firm believer that you never got to redo a first impression—and he knew that they were the ones that tended to last.
Shadowing his new partner’s every step, Matt was half a beat behind her as they came to the bottom of the last staircase. She’d just reached the door when he stretched his hand over her head and pushed it open as she turned the doorknob.
Kendra bit back an annoyed retort. She felt as if she was almost encompassed by the man’s long arms. He seemed to take up all the space around her, she thought grudgingly. And all the air. There was no other reason why, just for a second, she’d felt so hot and so light-headed.
“I can push open my own door, Abilene,” she informed him crisply. Out of the stairwell, she took the opportunity to pull fresh air into her lungs. The feeling of heat began to recede.
“Nobody said you couldn’t, Good,” Abilene replied mildly. “Just doing what I can to help. It’s a heavy door.”
It was a heavy door, but she wasn’t about to say anything to that effect. She didn’t need some hotshot thinking he was her knight in dented armor.
Muttering a couple of choice words under her breath, Kendra all but marched into the parking lot. She went straight for her old Crown Victoria. Number 23, the one she used to share with Joe, before the man had been seduced by the idea of retirement.
“I’ve got the address, I’m driving,” she crisply informed Abilene.
Wide shoulders rose slightly, then lowered again in what seemed like the most careless of fashions, as if the matter of who drove was the last thing on her partner’s mind.
“Fine with me,” he told her. “I like riding shotgun anyway.” Opening the passenger door, he folded his long, lanky frame into the seat, then pulled out the seat belt and secured it. “Never cared much for driving in traffic.”
Kendra frowned as she started up the vehicle. So far, Abilene seemed to be going out of his way to come across as agreeable. But she wasn’t about to be lulled into a false sense of security. Joe had tripped her up several times before they’d found their work rhythm. Since he was her first partner after she’d been awarded her gold shield, she had nothing to compare the older man to and assumed that all male partners were going to challenge her straight out of the box until she proved herself capable.
After being on the job for over two years in the Homicide Division, she found it more than a little annoying to be sent back to square one. But that was the price she had to pay for being a woman—and for being related to the brass. Because her father was head of the CSI lab, she was acquainted with accusations of nepotism. But now that she was connected to the Cavanaughs, she had a feeling that she would never know a peaceful moment again.
She spared Abilene a glance as they took off. Nope, she thought. Never again.
The five-story apartment building where Lt. Holmes had sent them was located in the more well-off—although by no means rich—section of Aurora. Leaving the unmarked Crown Victoria parked in a space intended for deliveries, Kendra made sure that the police light was visible before she and Abilene went up the four flights in the elevator to the scene of the crime.
“What, no stairs?” Abilene asked, amused when she opted for the elevator.
“I thought I’d let you save your energy in case there’s a need for some heavy lifting,” Kendra told him without missing a beat.
“Thoughtful,” he quipped as they got off.
The forced smile came and went in a blink of an eye. “I try.”
“Yeah, me, too,” he said, looking at her significantly.
Something in her gut undulated for half a heartbeat. She banked it down and walked faster.
The apartment in question wasn’t hard to find. The immediate area directly before the crime scene was crowded with curious people. Apparently people from the building’s other apartments, as well as an influx of others drawn by word of mouth, were gathered about the hallway in clusters like bees circling a hive.
The yellow tape strung across a doorway must have attracted them, Kendra couldn’t help thinking.
The superintendent, when they finally located him, appeared rather young, inexperienced, and seemed completely distraught. Every few minutes he kept nervously repeating that this was his “first dead body” and that viewing it wasn’t nearly as “cool” as he’d thought it would be. He seemed genuinely disappointed about that.
Kendra called the slight man a few choice names in her head, but for now kept them to herself. She glanced in Abilene’s direction and guessed by his expression that perhaps a few of the same names for the super had occurred to him as well.
Maybe they weren’t that different after all, she mused.
Getting down to business, Kendra went directly toward the body. Lying facedown in the middle of the living room, the victim was completely covered with a king-size blanket that appeared to have been taken from the lone bedroom. No limbs were peeking out at either end, but a pool of angry dark red blood haloed the blanket, bearing silent testimony to the fact that someone had indeed died in this apartment. No one ever lost that much blood and survived.
Squatting down beside the victim, Kendra raised a corner of the blanket and got her first view of the dead woman. Her reaction was always the same. Her heart would feel as if it was constricting in her chest as sympathy flooded through her.
The victim, a