„We canvassed the pawnshops,“ Murphy said. He was a serious man with a rumpled suit. Kristen knew him to be a good cop. Methodical. „We found the gun late last night.“
„Any useful prints?“ Abe asked.
Murphy nodded. „Yeah, they were in the system. Street punk, goes by Boom-Boom. We’ve got out an APB. Hopefully we’ll find him and hopefully he saw something useful Monday night.“
Spinnelli capped his markers. „And I’ll get Aaron Jenkins’s juvie record unsealed. Now that he’s dead, there shouldn’t be a problem.“
Mia stood up. „Records opens at nine and I want to be first in line. You ready, Abe?“
Abe pulled on his coat and Kristen had to look away before her mouth started watering. They’d done nothing sexual the night before and somehow that made her wish they had. First they’d dealt with CSU, then the Medical Examiner’s Office as they’d picked up Jenkins’s body. Then when everyone had gone, Abe kissed her good night, a long, liquid, yearning kiss after which he patted her behind and sent her off to bed. He’d bedded down on the sofa, just as he’d promised, leaving her heart thundering and her mind wondering what would have happened had she asked him to tuck her into bed. He’d checked on her several times during the night and each time she’d been so tempted to ask him to stay. But she didn’t, and when sleep finally came, her dreams were full of hot images that still had her nerves humming.
„I’m driving, Mitchell, so I can pick lunch.“ He stopped by Kristen’s chair and bent down to murmur in her ear, „Don’t go anywhere by yourself. Not even to Owen’s. Please.“
Her heart clenched at the tender worry in his eyes. „I promise. I’ll stay here all day.“
Abe straightened. „Maybe not all day,“ he said cryptically.
„Abe,“ Spinnelli said soberly, „I heard about what happened to your dad last night. Until we can get something concrete on Conti, be careful, all of you.“
Wednesday, February 25,
10:00 A.M.
„All those?“ Abe asked, eyeing the stack of huge volumes. „We’ll be here for days.“
The clerk, whose name was Tina, shot him a sympathetic look. „The marriage licenses from the forties aren’t computerized yet,“ she said. „But it isn’t as bad as it looks. What’s the name and the date?“
„Genny O’Reilly,“ Mia answered, looking over the woman’s shoulder. „She got married sometime in the fall of 1943.“
Tina slid index cards in the volume to mark the pages. „It will be between these cards. If you look yourselves I can find those property listings you were looking for.“
„We’ll look for Genny,“ said Mia. „You can help us find land owned by a man named Worth. We don’t know exactly where it was, just that it was north of the city.“
Tina bit her lip. „You have a first name, maybe?“
Abe shook his head. „Our source just called him Mr. Worth. His son’s name was Hank, if that helps. Maybe Hank was a junior.“
Tina shrugged. „I’ll do my best. Happy hunting, Detectives.“
When she’d gone, Mia slumped into a chair. „We have to stop all these late parties.“
Abe opened the big book. „What’d the surgeon say when you left your date early?“
„He was a bore. I was ready for any excuse for him to take me home.“ She cocked a brow. „And you? Once the infantry marched away last night, how was your evening?“
Long. He thought of Kristen now, of the way she’d looked last night. She’d been at her kitchen door, locking it as the last person left, prudently setting the alarm. She’d turned and just that fast the very air was charged, practically sizzling as they’d stood at opposite ends of her kitchen, staring. Then she’d simply walked into his arms as if she’d been doing so all her life. He’d kissed her. And kissed her. And God help him, he’d kissed her some more, until she was trembling and so was he, his hands clamped on her hips, wrestling with his best intentions. In the end he hadn’t dragged her against him as he’d so longed to do. He’d gently pushed her away, then turned her toward her bedroom with just a „good night.“ If she’d even hinted she wanted him to join her, he would have. He would have scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed and helped her have another… watershed moment.
But she hadn’t hinted. She’d walked away, stopping once to look back and the look in her eyes was worth more than ten watershed moments. It was trust mingled with heated want, and the combination triggered something inside him so profound… So he’d let her walk away and listened to her get ready for bed, his body still clenched and aching. She hadn’t slept until after three A.M. He knew because he’d checked on her, quietly, every half hour. He wanted to think he was checking because he’d been worried. She’d been shaken at finding Jenkins’s body in her backyard, at the implicit threat. He wanted to think that, but he knew he was hoping that she’d change her mind and ask him to stay. She’d wanted to. He could see it in her eyes. But she hadn’t and in the end she’d curled up and slept like an angel.
While he felt like anything but. He wanted her with a fierceness that left him breathless. He’d thought about it a great deal as he’d lain awake, staring at the blue-striped wallpaper from her uncomfortable sofa. She was a beautiful woman, no question of that, but he’d met other beautiful women in his life. Kristen had something more, something deeper – integrity, courage, kindness, a tender heart that she hid so well. A heart she was just now allowing to be seen. A heart that he wanted for his own.
In only a week she’d stolen his.
He looked over to find Mia studying him intently, understanding in her round blue eyes. She was an attractive woman as well, but he didn’t want her. He wanted Kristen.
„I could tell you to be careful with her, but I think you know that,“ Mia said soberly.
Abe frowned. „Why? What do you know?“
Mia lifted a shoulder. „I’ve suspected for a long time that there was more to Kristen’s dedication than simple zeal for justice. I went as far as to check once, to see if she’d filed a complaint. I have a very close friend who counsels women for these things. I thought maybe Dana could help Kristen. But there was no complaint here in Chicago.“
„I wanted to check,“ Abe admitted.
„But you want her to tell you herself. Be patient, Abe. She’s been alone for a long time. It takes some time to get used to having someone to lean on.“
Abe heard something in Mia’s voice, a yearning of her own. „Who do you lean on?“
One side of her mouth curved, a sad little half smile. „Me.“ She blew out an exaggerated sigh. „Even tomboys can dream of Prince Charming. Unfortunately, all I ever get is frogs.“ The half smile became a rueful grimace and she pulled the big book closer. „Well, let’s get to it. How many Genny O’Reillys could have been married in 1943?“
Wednesday, February 25,
10:00 a.m.
Hunting the judge was proving easier than he’d anticipated. Funny how having a little insider information made all the difference in the world. Before, he’d planned to catch the judge getting into or out of his chauffeur-driven Lincoln with its bullet-resistant glass. It would have been difficult to say the least. He might have been caught.
But now… He smiled, thinking of the miracle of the little electronic gadget he’d found in Trevor Skinner’s pocket. It was a cell phone, a date book, a phone book, and so much more. Apparently Skinner left little to chance and even less to the jury. There was enough dirt on every defense attorney and judge in the city to keep him busy for weeks and weeks. He was almost sorry he’d gone public. But he wasn’t sorry. The criminals and the scum who defended them were shaking in their boots, afraid to leave their homes alone, looking over their shoulders like their victims did every day. Thanks to Zoe Richardson’s tabloid-style reporting he knew the man with William Carson had been his bodyguard and that the prominent defense attorneys in town were fighting over the best hired guns to keep them safe.