“Chief Causey said you have a twenty-four/seven watch on Abby and Kayla.”
“If his plan was Jodi all along, and Becca was just convenient, then Abby and Kayla could very well be in danger.”
“I agree. I also think he has other women he’s stalking. Probably connected with where he goes to school or where he works.”
“I have an undercover cop at the library during the hours he is most likely to be there, but now I’ll put one on-site full-time.”
“Good.”
Carina glanced at her watch. “Jodi Carmichael’s autopsy is in an hour. I have to pick up Nick and head over there. Do you want to observe?”
“At the beginning, then I need to meet Andrew at the courthouse. By the way, I like him,” said Dillon.
“Him who? Andrew?” She scrunched up her nose. Though she respected her former brother-in-law as the district attorney, she and her brothers had never liked him.
“The sheriff.”
“You were just lecturing me about what he was doing hanging around the case.”
“Hmm, not quite. I was just curious, mostly.”
Carina playfully hit him.
“Seriously, I like him. He’s one of the good guys.”
Carina shook her head. “Get out of here so I can lock up. I’ll meet you at the morgue.” She didn’t know what to make of Dillon’s pronouncement, but decided not to look too deeply at it. It made her feel, well, like a teenager again when Dillon put his stamp of approval on her boyfriends.
But she was secretly pleased. Dillon’s instincts about the men in her life were usually accurate.
It took less than two minutes to back out of her garage and drive the block to her parents’ house. She ran up the stairs to the garage apartment and pounded on the door. “Hey Nick! You decent?”
No answer.
She ran back down the stairs and through the side door into the kitchen. Nick was standing at the sink rinsing dishes and loading the dishwasher. Nick was a big guy, broader than her dad, built more like her brother Connor, the PI. He looked strange in her mother’s kitchen, but at the same time oddly domestic, almost like he fit.
She shook her head. It was all Dillon’s fault, coming into her house telling her he liked Nick. What was with that? She knew better than to get involved with cops. No matter how sexy they looked doing dishes. Especially since he would be going back to Montana, and that would be that.
But it wasn’t like he worked in the San Diego Police Department, so technically he wasn’t a colleague, so she wouldn’t be breaking her rule.
That’s it. She had to do something to stop thinking about Nick carnally. Right now she was thinking about him doing the dishes naked. Now that was sexy. A man doing the dishes was one thing, doing them sans clothing was just plain fun.
She really needed to get him out of her system.
“Cara, darling.” Her mom came out of the walk-in pantry, a smile on her round face. “Let me get the fruit salad from the refrigerator. Do you want some toast?”
Carina jumped, blushed. Had she ever blushed before? She didn’t think so. But her mom had caught her thinking about sex, and Carina was positive her mother could read minds.
“No, Mama, I’m fine. Really.”
Her mother stared at her closely, eyes narrow. Carina put on a blank face and pushed all thoughts of Nick’s naked body from her mind. “What did you eat this morning? You don’t eat breakfast, so don’t lie to me.”
Food. Her mom’s favorite pastime was feeding her, so maybe she hadn’t seen the lust on her face. “I had coffee.”
“Pshaw! Coffee!”
She opened the refrigerator. Carina glanced at Nick, who’d finished with the dishes. He was grinning, trying to suppress a laugh. For the first time, she saw him relaxed. She wasn’t surprised; her mother had that effect on people.
She caught Nick’s eye, wrinkled her nose at him.
“Mama, we have to go. Duty calls.”
“How can you do anything on an empty stomach?”
“I promise, I’ll have a good lunch.”
“No come bien, míja. Solamente trabája, trabája, trabája. ¡Madre de Dios! ¿Como te ayuda?”
“Mama, stop that.” Carina turned to Nick. “She said I never eat.”
“I know.”
“You speak Spanish?”
“Some. Enough to get by.”
Her mother smiled broadly. “I knew I liked Nicholas the moment he walked into my home.”
“Mama, we have work.”
She glared at Carina. “Work, always work. It’s Saturday.” She shook her head. “I raised a house of workaholics. Even Lucy is upstairs doing homework!”
“I don’t believe it,” Carina laughed. “Homework on a Saturday morning?”
“She’s on that computer Papa bought her last year. She never gets off.”
Carina glanced at Nick, his expression turning as serious as hers. She’d never really talked to Lucy about the dangers of being online. Even though Lucy was a smart kid, online predators were viciously smart. Street smart. She needed to talk to Lucy about being safe, but she’d have to do it later.
Her mom smiled widely at Nick. “You’ve been very helpful, Nicholas.” She surveyed the dishwasher, closed it. “My sons tend to be rough with my dishes. You have good hands.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“Rosa.”
“Mama, we really have to go,” Carina said. She glanced at Nick. “Autopsy,” she mouthed.
“I’m ready,” Nick said. “Thank you for a delicious breakfast, Mrs. Kincaid. Unlike some people,” he glanced at Carina with a half-smile, “I appreciate a good morning meal.”
“Kiss-ass,” she said.
“Carina Maria!”
She cringed, gave her mom a hug. “See you later, Mama.”
“Don’t know where you learned that language,” her mother said as they walked out.
In the car, Nick said, “Your mom is a great lady.”
“You are such a kiss-ass, Nick Thomas.”
She thought he’d smile, joke back with her, but instead he grew serious.
“Is something wrong?”
“I like your mom. And your dad. They’re really genuine people.”
If there was one thing that endeared someone to Carina, it was appreciating her parents, quirks and all. Her heart warmed and she pictured Nick in her mom’s kitchen. He fit in well.
She was in serious trouble. “I like them, too,” she said, trying to keep the conversation light. “What about your parents?”
Nick didn’t say anything for several minutes. Carina itched to ask a follow-up question, anything to get the conversation moving. She hated the silence.
Finally, he said, “We had what I thought was a normal family. My dad was in the military, like yours, but not career. He had two years in Vietnam, when Steve was a baby. I was born nine months after his discharge.”
Carina was about to make a joke, but a quick glance at Nick’s face as she turned the corner to the main road told her this wasn’t funny, not to him.
“Dad joined the reserves because he missed the military, was gone one weekend a month minimum, volunteered for everything. I don’t think my parents loved each other, not like yours. But they had, I don’t know, something. It was Steve and me, though, all the time. I followed him around everywhere. I wanted to be more like him, I guess. Confident and outgoing.”
“I like you just fine the way you turned out,” she said.
“I don’t have many complaints. I had a good life for the most part. Normal. But after my father died, my mother didn’t really have the heart to keep going. She died a couple years later.”
I’m sorry seemed so inadequate. “I’m lucky, I know,” Carina said instead. “We had some rough spots over the years-I was an army brat until I was sixteen. We moved all over the country. I hated it. When my dad retired here, it wasn’t soon enough for me. But even with all the moves, the new schools, making new friends, my family was always there.”