Page 189 of The Texas Sterling Collection
Suddenly, O’Brien sat bolt upright, slamming his coffee mug down onto his desk and slopping its contents. “Feck,” he muttered, searching for something to sop up the spilled coffee.
“Healy, get in here,” he yelled, “and bring paper hand towels!”
“Yes, sir, Chief.” Sergeant Healy rushed into O’Brien’s office, paper towels in hand.
“Clean up this mess, Healy,” O’Brien pointed to the spilled coffee, “and don’t mess up my papers.”
“Yes, sir,” Healy said.
A thin and mousy character, Padraig Healy played Laurel to O’Brien’s Hardy. A mop of curly red hair always looked in need of a brush. He did his desk job well, and O’Brien knew he could count on him.
“A discovery, sir?” Healy carefully mopped up the spill, being sure not to disturb the cluttered desk.
“Feck, yes!” O’Brien responded. “The murder victim’s friend indicated he was a classmate in computer programming at the university. That had to be Dr. MacGowan’s GMIT class. Declan Knowlan is MacGowan’s partner, not only in business, if you understand my meaning. Knowlan has a history of gang involvement. While we have no evidence linking either man to this crime, the connection to the victim is suspicious.”
“You did it again, sir,” Healy said. “Made a connection that everyone else missed.”
“I’m going over to have a bit of a chinwag with MacGowan.” O’Brien stood to grab his overcoat. “He needs to have the fear put in him, and I’m the guy to do it.”
“Very good, sir,” Healy nodded.
* * *
Rod woke, stretched, and gazed at his snoozing husband. It was well after sunrise on Monday, their first full week in Ireland. He rolled over and crawled out of bed, nudging the covers off as he tried not to disturb Wyl.
“Hey, babe…” Wyl’s sleepy voice vibrated the bed.
“I was trying not to wake you, husband.” Rod lay back down and faced Wyl. “You looked so angelic that I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“It would disturb me more to wake to an empty bed,” Wyl said.
Rod hugged Wyl. “Well, I wouldn’t want my husband to be disturbed.”
“Are you saying your husband is usually disturbed?” Wyl chuckled.
“This coming from a man who fled the scene when a Marine buddy questioned his relationship with me.” Rod palmed Wyl’s chest and rocked him back and forth.
“I heard you put him in his place,” Wyl said.
“Not before he helped us put a fresh coat of paint on the garage door.” Rod laughed out loud. “C’mon, let’s grab a shower and have breakfast.”
After a quick kiss, they crawled out of bed and went through their usual shower/shave/groom/dress ritual before hitting the kitchen.
“What do you want for breakfast?” Rod asked.
“What do we have?”
“If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs; if we had eggs,” Rod laughed. “We used most of what we had yesterday, but we have strawberries. I’ll make oatmeal. We’ll add butter, fresh strawberries, and brown sugar. You make toast and coffee. That should get us going for the morning.”
“Sounds good, babe,” Wyl reached for the loaf of bakery bread to slice for the toast.
“We need a grocery run today.” Rod stirred the oatmeal.
“Can we buy bacon? I’m dying for bacon and eggs.”
“The Irish don’t have bacon like we’re used to, babe. The bacon here is more like Canadian bacon.”
“Remind me to tell Felipe to buy a parcel of hogs. I want bacon every meal when we get back.” Wyl sliced the loaf with a bread knife.
