“Thanks.” Allie rested her cheek against Bri’s shoulder. “For bringing me home.”

“Maybe you should call Ashley,” Bri suggested tentatively. “Tell her about it.”

Allie shook her head. “No. We’re sort of…cooling things off for awhile.”

“Why?”

“Oh, you know. Things run hot for a while and then…” She shrugged again.

“So you broke up?” Bri tried to remember the last time she had seen Allie with Ashley Walker, the private investigator with whom they had all worked a case earlier in the summer. She realized that it had been a few weeks at least. She’d thought that they were a couple, or at least headed in that direction.

“Ashley said…oh, fuck…” Allie moved one hand from Bri’s, sat up, and grabbed for her beer bottle. She drained it in one long swallow. “Ashley’s decided that she’s too old for me. Do you believe that?”

“So she broke up with you?” Bri’s voice held a note of incredulity. “For something like that? What is she, ten years older or something?”

“About that. So she’s decided that I’m too young to make a commitment and that we should take things slow” She grunted derisively. “In my book, that means screw other people and forget about each other.”

Bri frowned, recalling the attractive redhead who had not seemed like a woman who would be interested in casual encounters, “Did she say that?”

“She didn’t have to. I got the message.”

“Uh, maybe that’s not what she meant. You know, sometimes, women are hard to figure out.”

Allie regarded Bri with a slow smile. “Is that right? I never noticed that you had much trouble.”

Bri blushed. “Half the time I’m not certain what Carre needs. I’m just happy to get it right whenever I do.”

At the mention of Bri’s girlfriend, Allie’s smile wavered. “You’re pretty crazy about her, huh?”

“Yeah. Totally.”

With a seductive purr, Allie leaned close again, one arm sliding around Bri’s waist and her lips close to Bri’s ear. “But you’re not married, right? I mean, she’s going to be gone a long time.”

When the warm breath tickled her ear and a very practiced hand smoothed over her abdomen and came to rest on her fly, Bri felt a familiar spark of arousal. This wasn’t the first time Allie had touched her, and she remembered exactly how good that had felt. The last time they’d been naked in bed together, and she’d almost come while Allie touched her. Gently, Bri covered Allie’s hand as she had done on the bike and moved it up a safe distance. “I’m not into fooling around. But if I was, I’d be begging at your door.”

Allie grew very still, then after a minute, edged away until she could look into Bri’s face. “That was a really nice thing to say. You’re sweet, you know that?”

“Not really. It’s the truth, what I said about you. You’re hot. But I can’t cheat on my girl.”

Curiously, Allie asked, “Even if she never knew?”

“I’d know. I already don’t deserve her.” Bri shrugged and looked away, embarrassed. “But I’m trying.”

“Will you stay here tonight?”

Bri’s head snapped back. “Huh?”

“Not for sex. I just…I’d just like not to be alone.”

“I can’t sleep in bed with you.” Bri wasn’t crazy enough to think that she could sleep next to a gorgeous, hot woman who wanted her and not be tempted.

“You can take the bed, and I could sleep out here on the couch.”

Bri laughed. “The couch will do me fine. But I’m only staying on one condition.”

“What?” Allie asked playfully.

“You’re making the breakfast.”

“Oh, Officer Parker,” Allie cooed, leaning close and kissing Bri’s cheek. “You are so easy.”

Chapter Five

“Uh-oh,” Nelson Parker muttered.

Reese followed her boss’s gaze down the hospital hallway and saw a woman rise from a chair in the seating area outside the intensive care unit and start toward them. Swiftly, Reese took stock. Nearly her height, but not as muscular. Shoulder-length dark hair, looking as if it had been subtly cut to hold its casual style no matter the wind or weather. Light makeup, clear, pale complexion, hazel eyes gleaming even in the dim light. Piercing eyes hard, unreadable eyes. A faint smile that might have been welcome or warning. At just after four in the morning, the woman, dressed casually in tan slacks and a cream-colored short-sleeved blouse, looked remarkably fresh and alert. She also looked, Reese thought, as if she were enjoying herself. Uh-oh is right.

“You must be here about Robert Bridger,” the woman said in a rich, smooth alto, her eyes moving slowly from Nelson to Reese.

“I’m Chief Nelson Parker and this is Sheriff Reese Conlon,” Nelson said. He held out his hand, which the woman took.

“How do you do? I’m Trey Pelosi, the Bridgers’ attorney.” She smiled again, and turned to Reese with an extended hand. “Sheriff.”

“Counselor,” Reese said quietly, “Vacationing in the area?”

“Why, yes,” Trey answered, her eyes sharpening as she gave Reese an appraising glance. “I have a summer home in Truro.”

“Yours must have been the taillights we saw ahead of us all the way up here.”

Trey laughed. “Actually, I’ve been here a few hours.”

His parents must have called you as soon as I finished talking to them, Reese surmised. You probably got here before Robert arrived. Gives a new meaning to the term ambulance chaser

“We called the boy’s doctors on our way up from Provincetown,” Nelson stated. “They informed us that Robert was awake and could answer some questions. Are his parents here?”

“They are. Yes.” She hadn’t moved and her smile hadn’t wavered. She stood comfortably, but quite obviously, in their path. “The doctors were partially correct. Robert is awake, but I’m afraid he won’t be answering any questions.”

“Is there some reason you don’t want him to talk to us, Counselor?” Reese asked in a steady, even tone.

“Are you charging him with a crime, Sheriff?”

“At the moment, we’re simply trying to find out what happened. He’s the only one who can tell us.”

“And at the moment, Robert isn’t up to being questioned,” Trey responded firmly without raising her voice.

“The doctors said” Nelson began.

“I’m sorry that you both came all the way up here in the middle of the night,” Trey interjected, her tone still reasonable. “However, I’m afraid that at the present time I can’t allow Robert to answer any questions. Sometime tomorrow, I expect that his parents will retain permanent counsel. If you give me your contact information, I’ll be certain that you’re notified.”

“You’re not a criminal attorney, then?” Reese asked

Once again, a smile flickered at the corner of Trey’s mouth and was quickly gone. “No, I’m a corporate attorney. Robert’s mother is…an old friend. I was nearby, and they asked me to serve as temporary counsel.”

“Ms. Pelosi,” Reese said sharply, “I have a dead teenager whose name I don’t know. Somewhere, that girl’s parents are wondering where she is. I need to answer their question, and to do that, I need Robert to tell me who she is. That’s all I want right now.”

Nothing showed in Trey’s eyes now as she met Reese’s not sympathy, not irritation, not anger. Her expression remained remote. “I appreciate your situation, Sheriff. I’m certain that Robert’s attorney will do everything possible to assist you at the appropriate time. But for tonight, Robert is unavailable.”

“Thanks,” Nelson said quickly as he caught the rigid set of Reese’s jaw out of the corner of his eye. She’d been up all night, and although she didn’t look it, he knew she was wrapped pretty tight. He felt a little sick himself, and he hadn’t been the one to find a dead girl in the dunes. When Reese had awoken him to advise him of the situation, the first thing he’d flashed on was the night they’d found Bri out there, beaten and nearly dead. The swift surge of nausea still hadn’t left him, and he could only imagine what the frustration and distress was doing to Reese. Ordinarily, his second in command was the picture of equanimity in a stressful situation, but some things just got to you more than others. And being stonewalled at this point in the investigation was tough to swallow. “Here’s my card. Please tell Robert’s family that we’ll be in touch tomorrow and will need to speak to him.”

“Certainly,” Trey said, taking the card and sliding it into her left breast pocket. She nodded before turning away. “Good night, Officers.”

Reese watched her walk away with a combination of admiration and supreme irritation. It was difficult to be angry with someone who was simply doing her job very well, but at the moment, she was furious. Every minute that passed without her having a name for the girl lying under a white sheet in Tory’s clinic awaiting transfer to the morgue in Barnstable for autopsy added to her sense of helplessness and rage. “Son of a bitch.”

Nelson’s eyebrows arched. Reese rarely cursed in his presence or, to his knowledge, much at all. It wasn’t because she was too proper or too uptight; she was simply too controlled. “I’ll bet she’s hell in a courtroom.”

“I suppose I should just be glad that I’ll never find out,” Reese muttered. Turning away, she rubbed a hand over her face wearily. “God damn it.”

As they walked down the hall toward the elevators, Nelson clapped Reese briefly on the shoulder before putting his hands in his pockets. “Look, it makes sense for her to advise the family not to let him talk. Once we get a better handle on what happened out there get some of the lab reports back, check the scene by daylight, get a little leverage on our side we’ll try again. We might have nothing to charge him with, and even if we do, in all likelihood the state boys will take it over anyhow.”

Reese cut him a look of disgust. “I’m not thinking about the charges, I’m thinking about a dead girl with no name.”