Page 29 of Rookie Days

“Sure, I’m fine.”

“Alright. Just checking.” Janet smiled. “Doctors do that. All joking aside, I really do not want to hurt you.”

Why did it sound like she might be sending her a bit of a deeper message with this?

“It’s okay,” Ellie murmured. “Joking aside, you have really good hands. Silky fingers.”Long, slender, strong.Ellie had noticed that the other day when Janet had not been wearing gloves.

She might have shaken her head at her own self for coming up with this kind of stuff.Silky fingers?Whatever next?But she saw a flash of genuine pleasure in Janet’s eyes, and changed her mind about wanting to take back the compliment.

“Thank you. That’s a nice thing to say to a surgeon.”

“Not that I’d ever want your fingers in my brain, of course.”Aw, shut up!

“I think we both agree on that.” Ellie was relieved as Janet chuckled and did not pursue that line of conversation. Instead,she looked her in the eye and smiled again. Hit her with much worse. “Have dinner with me, Ellie.”

Oh, shit.Startled, Ellie replied without thinking.

“Dinner. Yes. Okay.”

“Yes? You want to?”

Janet appeared just as stunned at this answer as Ellie felt to have delivered it. And so quickly too…

“Well,” She frowned. “Um. I mean…”

“No, don’t change your mind,” Janet said quietly.

She sounded so uncharacteristically uncertain that it made Ellie pause and stare for a moment. She had seen the woman at work before plenty of times. Charming the pants off of women, literally. Janet knew just how to combine a disarming smile with a wicked invitation. She was an expert at the art of seduction, and everything that came after as well, no doubt. Now she was smiling in her usual way… But also gnawing on one side of her bottom lip. Ellie did not have to be a shrewd police interrogator to recognise sure signs of nervousness. Janet looked hopeful too. It was all there for Ellie to see, a bunch of conflicting emotions. And none felt at all contrived or calculated. She did her best not to react, to resist an instinctual impulse to respond just the same way. For heaven’s sake, she knew better! And yet… Despite her own reluctance, joy flooded her system like spring sunshine after a storm.

“I won’t change my mind,” she nodded softly.

“Alright.” Janet beamed. “I’ll call you, okay?”

???

The call to duty came first, just before one a.m. that same night. Ellie was instantly on red alert when her phone went off, and she picked it up before the end of the first ring.

“James.”

“A woman has been found dead outside the Incense Club,” Quinn said by lieu of greeting. “Meet me there.”

Ellie was out of bed and leaping into her jeans before she’d even finished saying that.

“On my way, Lieutenant.”

It took her less than three minutes to brush her teeth, splash cold water on her face, grab her weapon, and race out the door. It would be wrong to assume that the prospect of violent death excited her; but as she drove through deserted streets glistening from recent rain, with only the occasional burst of police radio chatter for company, Ellie was feeling good. Hyper-aware and quietly focused. Back on duty where she belonged and at her most relaxed despite tragic circumstances. Ten minutes later, she reached the scene. The throbbing red and blue lights of police cruisers in front of the club, the sight of officers securing the scene, and curious gawkers huddling in front of the entrance; all of it felt like home. She parked behind one of the cruisers and flashed her badge at the patrolman who greeted her.

“The lieutenant’s at the back,” he indicated.

Ellie slipped under a line of crime scene tape and made her way down the side of the building. She noted a broken street light at the entrance to the alley, something that reminded her of where she’d encountered her own recent trouble, and thought of how it might have looked here without any of the police lights. Dark, was the obvious answer. Very dark. Perhaps invitingly so to a killer on the prowl. She found Quinn squatting next to the body. Her lieutenant was dressed in jeans too, with only a thin L.P.D. windbreaker to protect her from the cutting wind, and a baseball cap over her head.

“Looks like the victim was raped,” were her first words.

There was no need to ask why she said that. The woman’s leather pants had been pulled down to her knees and her pantiestorn off. Vivid scratches and bruises on the inside of her thighs painted a grim story. Her blond hair was cut short and stylish. Her blue eyes and well-defined features would have made her attractive in life. Her eyes were still open now, although glassy and fixed as she stared up toward the sky. The ultimate defiance, Ellie figured, refusing to close your eyes in the face of death. She felt a quick rush of admiration, sadness, and pity for the woman, and was careful to keep it in check and not linger. She needed to stay neutral, to keep her focus, and do all she could to bring her killer to justice.

“She’s got abrasions on her neck,” she noted. “And broken blood vessels in her eyes.”

“Add to this a swollen tongue,” Quinn said.

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