Chapter 1 #2
An hour later, only one more body had arrived at the morgue, and Clark Emery would assist Dr. Kristina Winiecke with it, so Tess went into the locker room to change out of her scrubs and work shoes.
After throwing on her jeans, a short-sleeved knit shirt, and clean, white sneakers, she let down her messy ponytail, brushed her hair, grabbed her purse, then headed toward the rear entrance of the building.
The staff had their own assigned section in the back parking lot, which was also reserved for morgue vehicles and funeral home pickups.
She pushed open the door to the records/reception office, and before she reached the door to the lobby, Patty Flynn, the front desk clerk for the past twenty-two years, flagged her down.
“Tess, you have a phone call.” The older woman raised her eyebrows and fanned her face.
“It’s that hunky Special Agent Malone. What I wouldn’t give for a night with him. ”
Rolling her eyes, Tess stopped beside Patty’s desk. “I assume you have him on hold, and he didn’t hear that.”
“Hey, I might be sixty-two, but I’m not dead yet. That man is fine. And of course I have him on hold. The last thing I need is a sexual harassment charge seven months before I retire.”
An amused smile spread across Tess’s face.
Patty was a hoot, and they would all miss her when she was gone.
Taking the phone handset from the other woman, Tess punched the flashing button to connect the call.
It wasn’t unusual for members of the various local law enforcement agencies to contact her and ask questions about a case if Dr. Hansen wasn’t around.
She knew practically everything he did after an autopsy.
However, that didn’t explain why her heart rate spiked at the mere mention of Agent Brian Malone.
Patty was right—the man was a hunk. But he was also a huge flirt and a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy.
The latter she heard through the local law enforcement gossip mill.
Even if he weren’t a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy, no way would Tess mix business with pleasure.
She also didn’t have time to date, between working, raising her brother, and maintaining their home.
For now, romance was completely out of the question, especially with someone she knew through the ME’s office.
Reminding herself this was a professional call, she said, “Hello, this is Tess. What can I do for you, Agent Malone?”
“Um, yeah, Tess. Hi. I... uh... I hate to call you like this, but I’m afraid I have your brother at the SBI District Office, and I need you to come down here.”
All thoughts of the hunky man on the other end of the phone flew from her mind. “What! Is—is he okay? What did he do? Is he—”
Brian interrupted her panicked line of questioning. “He’s fine, Tess. He hasn’t been charged with anything, so he’ll be released into your custody. I’ll explain what happened when you get here.”
“O-okay. Um, I was actually on my way out the door at work. I can be there in about ten minutes or so.”
“That’s fine. Drive carefully. Andy is okay, so there’s no need to race over here. When you get to the front desk, tell them you’re here to see me, and they’ll send you back.”
Letting out a heavy breath, Tess tried to calm down.
If Brian said Andy was okay, then he was.
The man might be a playboy when it came to dating women, but she knew he was a complete professional while at work.
He sat in on several of her autopsies before, with and without his partner, Rafe Montoya, and she never had a problem with either of them.
Well, except when Brian’s gaze met hers, and her girlie parts took notice of the man’s good looks.
Ugh. She brought her brain out of the gutter. “Okay, I’ll be there in a few.”
She handed the disconnected phone back to Patty, who wore a sympathetic expression. “Is Andy okay?”
“According to Agent Malone, he is. That will probably change when I get my hands on the little twerp.” She paused. “Patty, I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
When tears filled Tess’s eyes, and her lip quivered, the clerk stood and pulled her into a motherly hug.
“You’re a strong woman, Tessa Marie Bingham.
Everyone here knows that. You’re doing the best you can do for that boy—he’s just growing up and testing his boundaries, as they all do.
If I told you stories of what my boys did when they were Andy’s age, you’d understand where I got all these gray hairs from. ”
She let go of Tess and grabbed a box of tissues from the corner of her desk. “Now, dry those eyes, drive carefully, and go flirt with Agent Malone instead of beating the daylights out of your brother. You don’t want any witnesses around when you do that—especially not the cops.”
A barked laugh escaped Tess, and she wiped her tears away with a tissue. “Thank you. What am I going to do without you?”
“Don’t you worry. I’ll still stop in to see everyone now and then, and you can always call me. You’ve become like a daughter to me, Tess—please don’t ever forget that.”
Tess gave the older woman a brief hug. “I won’t. Thank you.”
After saying goodbye, Tess hurried out to the parking lot and hopped into her car.
She spent the entire drive to the local SBI office trying to forget how sexy Brian Malone’s voice had sounded over the phone and convincing herself not to kill her brother when she saw him.
She only succeeded with the latter—one out of two wasn’t bad, right?