Page 31 of Justice for Francesca

A wolf whistle cut the air. “Give us a kiss, sexy!”

He laughed and turned one hundred eighty degrees. “Hello to you too, Skeletor.” He gave the gray male African parrot a scratch on the top of the head, and the bird proceeded to trill like Tripoli had found a good spot.

“Evans! Quit putting the moves on that bird, and come over here!”

He turned to the sound of the voice calling his name and saw Cruz Livingston and another man at a table in the far corner. With a last wink at Skeletor and a couple of clicks of his mouth to She-Ra, he headed over to the two men.

“Have a seat.” Livingston waved a hand at one of the two empty chairs. “We just ordered.” He gestured to his dining partner. “This is the medical examiner, Dr. Calder Stonewall.”

Tripoli took the proffered seat. “Dining with the enemy, Livingston? Hoping my empty stomach will distract me to give away all my secrets?”

“What secrets? You’ve been incredibly forthcoming,” Livingston answered.

The doctor extended a hand to Tripoli. “Call me Calder. Being so forthcoming, by the way, might make somebody wonder what you’re hiding,” he said with a grin.

Tripoli chose to ignore the jab, good-natured though it may have been. “Where is she, Special Agent Livingston?”

The smirk on Cruz’s face was reminiscent of the Cheshire cat inAlice in Wonderland. “Hello to you too, club owner Evans.” His sarcasm changed, and his smile became sincere. “Please. Call me Cruz. I’m not big on formalities, and it’s such a mouthful. Always feel like my mother’s calling me out by allthree names, except in this version, my mother becomes my boss.”

“Sorry. It’s just…”

“Just yanking your chain, Evans. I get it,” he said with a knowing smile.

The waitress stopped at the table to pour Tripoli a glass of water and take his order.

Once she left the table, Cruz continued, “Frankie got a call from our boss this morning to discuss the Michael Murphy situation, so she had to go into the office.”

“Is that why my bar manager was requested to appear at the offices of the FBI this morning?”

Cruz and Calder traded looks. “I couldn’t say.”

This was going exactly as Tripoli feared it would. It wasn’t good that his bar manager was being questioned as a person of interest for a murder. However, he knew that Michael didn’t murder Jessa any more than he did, so his bigger concern was that a whole day away from him would allow Francesca time to think. Last night, he’d gotten to her, but time away like this would get her in her head, and she’d start pushing away from him again. He’d be back to square one with her. Maybe worse.

Cruz was studying him closely. “Frankie is complicated on a number of levels. She’s a bit of a rule monger?—”

“A bit?” Calder snorted. “She told me this morning I improperly handled the disposal of the trash elementsI createdfrom the crime scene.” He shook his head and blew on his coffee. “It was a freaking seal strip from an evidence bag. Actually made me take it out of the garbage can and put it in a burn bag, or she wouldn’t leave my morgue.”

“Yes, well, be that as it may,” Cruz replied, “she needed to be honest with Special Agent in Charge Ortiz about her connection to Michael so that it didn’t taint the investigation further. Imean, our boss knew, but this most recent murder raises the stakes higher.”

“Did she get removed from the case?” Tripoli asked.

“No, surprisingly.” The agent studied Tripoli closely. “She actually seemed pissed when she didn’t get removed. I found that very interesting.” Cruz took a sip of his coffee, watching him over the cup as he did. “But since she hasn’t seen Michael in over a decade, Ortiz said that as long as she didn’t come into direct contact with him on any portion of the case, she could stay. Anything to do with Michael will be handled by me.”

“Might be difficult to keep them away from one another.”

With a wave of his hand, Cruz negated his concern. “Neither of them has initiated contact with the other in fourteen years. I doubt they’re going to rush to reunite now.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me if she purposely tried to make it look like she was questioning him so that she’d get kicked back home,” Tripoli grumbled.

Cruz smirked. “Chief thought of that. Gave her an actual order to stay away from him. And since weknow what a rule monger she is, she’ll do exactly as she’s told. Frankieneverbreaks the rules.”

Tripoli eyed Cruz warily. The fucker knew. He knew Tripoli was the anonymous source, and he wasn’t saying anything. He wasn’t angry either. If anything, the man seemed amused that she’d actually broken one of her coveted rules.

“I gathered that about her. She told me about her brothers. Not in detail, but enough. She also told me the basics behind her transfer.”

Calder let out a “hmph” noise and rolled his eyes. “Total bullshit. Frankie’s so straight a sniper could use her to sight his target.”

The agent nodded in agreement. “Her family is a good portion of it. It’s hard to let that go. You should meet my girl,Mickie. She should know. Family can be hard to cut yourself from, even when it becomes toxic. As for the transfer? That fucking pisses me off. She was a good cop from what I read in her file. She makes a great agent, but I know making the choice was difficult for her. She shouldn’t have had to make that choice in the first place.” Cruz shifted in his seat. “Still, their loss is our gain. When it came up that the two of you knew each other from a previous investigation, they didn’t hesitate to call her back out on a case so quickly after her last one.”

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