Page 70 of Necessary Evil

“He was in New York at the time of the murders?”

“Yes,” she called over the shower spray. “One of the victims said he saw Bobby murder his ex-girlfriend at her house in Palo Alto. It’s a good thing Bobby was with Jenny at the time.”

“Jenny, your paralegal?”

“Yeah—what other Jenny do you know? And then those assholes scared the hell out of Jenny with their aggressive questioning. I put a stop to that shit right away. They were trying to make her nervous and it was working. But what they don’t know is that she’s always nervous when she’s under scrutiny. It doesn’t mean she’s guilty. I almost shoved my shoe up Hernandez’s ass when he started asking her why she bought lingerie. I felt like yelling at him, ‘Why do you think, shit-heel? And totally irrelevant to the two murders.’ Oh, I could scream. I’m so pissed off at the whole situation.”

Evan said something, but she was rinsing the shampoo out of her hair and missed it. “Anyway, it turns out the reason they were doing the full-court press on Jenny and Bobby was that the detective’s eyewitness was found dead yesterday. The eyewitness was a drug addict, a dealer, and wanted on several outstanding warrants. But he was also one of the detective’s informants, so that made him more credible. It also made him dead.”

“Who do you think did it?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care. Not my jurisdiction. I’ve got enough on my plate on this coast. I can’t worry about the West Coast as well. All I know is my brother couldn’t have done it because he was shopping at the mall or getting busy with Jenny in Islip at the time of the murders. But it really torques me that he’s a suspect just because of his past.”

“So he’s never been in trouble since he got out of prison?”

“He’s no angel, but he never had a parole violation.” Lucy combed conditioner through her hair with her fingers. She would have liked to be soaping up Evan’s body right now instead of talking about this, but at least they were doing couple bonding while getting ready in the morning. Or something like that. She’d read an article in a magazine about this. Maybe she’d finally get to have a fulfilling relationship that lasted longer than a month.

“So did you and Sentinel find the biker that was stalking me?” she went on.

“What biker?” he said.

“The one I called you about last night.”

“Oh,” Evan said. “No. By the time we got there, he was gone. I don’t think you have anything to worry about from the Pyros.”

“Why?” She stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. To her chagrin, Evan went into the shower, walking right by her without giving her a kiss.

I guess the honeymoon is over.

“We took care of it.”

“What did you do? No, wait, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.” Toweling off, she wondered if she should know. “You didn’t hurt anyone, did you?”

“No one that mattered.”

She sighed. “Evan, that’s not an answer.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Are you always this much of a pain in the ass in the morning?”

“I usually don’t do mornings. The only reason I’m up at this ungodly hour is I have to take you to work. Don’t forget to wear pants instead of a skirt.”

“Oh yeah.” She sighed. “I’ve got to call your sister and find out when my car will be done.”

Going back to the bedroom, she fumbled around in the closet and found a pair of charcoal trousers. Lucy added a pair of comfortable leather flats and a red silk camisole.

“You look good in red,” Evan said, coming out of the bathroom with just a towel around his waist.

The spider tattoo really marred his gorgeous chest, but she was getting used to it.

“Keep looking at me like that and I’m tossing you back into bed.”

“No you don’t. You gave up perfectly good shower sex to play Twenty Questions.”

“I was trying to be nice so you wouldn’t be late. Next time I’ll take you so hard you’ll show up to court with bed-fuck hair and swollen lips.”

Oh yeah.

“What are you doing for lunch?” she asked, just a trace of breathlessness in her voice as she put on the matching charcoal suit jacket.

“Not today, sweetheart. I’ve got things to do.”

Shaking her head, she went back to the bathroom to fix her hair and put on makeup. “You know, for someone who’s retired, your schedule is busier than mine.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” he sighed.

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