Crossing the Line (30 page)

Paul was already in the kitchen. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw her. 

“What?” she asked, thinking maybe she’d forgotten something important.

He shook his head. “You look about sixteen with your hair pulled up like that.”

Megan grinned. “Afraid someone will think you’re robbing the cradle, Detective?”

She was expecting him to come back with some sort of an affirmative, but he didn’t. Instead, Paul backed her up against the wall, and kissed the daylights out of her. 

When he released her, he had a smug look on his face. “There. I’ve been waiting to do that since I woke up this morning.”

Megan was still trying to get her bearings when they climbed into his car. “Our age difference doesn’t bother you anymore?”

She had to ask. In the past, it had bothered him a great deal.

“No.” He shot her a glance as he pulled into the restaurant parking lot. 

Paul turned off the engine, but neither made any move to go inside.

“What changed?” she asked.

She felt something shift in the atmosphere around them.

He reached for her hand and met her gaze. “I realized that you were right. We’re both adults, and as long as it’s what we both want, then the rest shouldn’t matter.”

“Wow.”

Paul cupped the back of her head with his free hand, and brought her mouth to meet his. The kiss was slow, and it reminded her of the night before when he’d all but worshipped her body from head to toe. 

She held tight to him, not wanting to let go. Her thoughts from the night before came back to the forefront, and she wanted so badly to tell him how she felt.

He rested his forehead against hers. “Let’s go eat. Something tells me I’m going to need my energy later.”

Megan laughed and scraped a manicured nail down the back of his neck. “I think you might be psychic.” 

They ended up sitting side by side in a back corner booth. The food was good, but it was made better when Paul started feeding her bites of his Belgian waffle. He always made sure his aim was slightly off so she’d get whipped cream on her face. She couldn’t really complain, since he was right there to lick it off for her. Megan had never imagined Paul with a playful side, but she loved every minute of it.

Nearly two hours later, they were on their way home. She knew he would be leaving for work soon, but the selfish part of her didn’t want him to go. 

“Something wrong?” he asked as he pulled into the driveway.

She shook her head. “Not really. I’m just enjoying our time together so much I don’t want it to end.”

He entwined their hands, and squeezed. “I’ll be gone three . . . four hours at most.”

“I know. Don’t mind me. I’m being silly.”

Paul was quiet for a long moment. “You’re not being silly. It’s different now.”

She knew he was talking about them. “Yeah, it is.”

They sat there holding hands until Paul broke the silence. “I’m not sure how things will be once Chloe comes home. I don’t know how she’ll react. To us being together, I mean.”

“I think she’ll be fine. She was worried about you having a girlfriend, after all.”

“What? When?” Paul demanded.

Megan laughed. “Don’t look so shocked. Chloe picks up on things like how all her friends’ parents are either married or they have girlfriends or boyfriends.”

“She asked you about this?” He sounded as if she’d knocked his legs out from under him.

“She did.”

Paul shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would it have changed anything? She asked me months ago, and I explained it to her the best way I could.”

“I still should have known.” He was upset.

“Paul, you can’t know everything.” He started to interrupt her, but she pushed on, cutting him off. “Are you more upset that I didn’t tell you or that she asked in the first place?”

He opened his mouth and then closed it. “I don’t know.”

Megan leaned her head on his shoulder, and he rested his cheek against her hair. “You don’t have to have all the answers, you know.”

“Then why does it feel like I should?” he asked.

She tilted her head so she could look up into his face. Megan’s eyes drifted to his lips, and she pulled his mouth down to hers. “You don’t have to do it all on your own anymore.”

They kissed until his phone started vibrating. He seemed reluctant to burst the bubble they were floating in. “I should get that.”

“You should,” Megan said, putting some distance between them.

He picked up the phone and answered it. “Daniels.”

After a few seconds, Megan realized it was his partner. 

“I’ll be leaving the house in a few minutes. Yes, I know. Can it, Davis. I’ll see you when I get there.” 

When he hung up the phone, Megan could have sworn he was blushing. “Everything okay?”

He sighed. “Everything’s fine. Janey’s just giving me a hard time because I told her we had a date last night. She’s letting her imagination run wild.”

Megan perked up. “You told her about our date?”

“Yeah. Although now I’m rethinking the wisdom of that decision.”

She ran her fingers along his jaw before letting her hand fall. “Don’t be. She wouldn’t be giving you a hard time if she didn’t care. I’ll let you get to work.”

Paul caught her hand as she was stepping out of the car. He didn’t say anything—just met her gaze and held it for a long moment before letting her go. 

As Paul drove toward the station to meet Janey, he couldn’t get what Megan had said out of his head.
You don’t have to do it all on your own anymore.
He’d been doing it on his own for a long time. But then he realized that ever since Megan entered their lives, that had begun to change. She was so much more than a nanny—she always had been. Even from the beginning.

Her revelation about Chloe asking about him having a girlfriend was eye-opening. It hadn’t crossed his mind that his daughter would worry whether or not he had a woman in his life. What else didn’t he know about?

Janey was waiting outside for him when he pulled into the parking lot. She opened his passenger side door and got in. No words were spoken, but he could tell she was dying to say something. 

“Spit it out already.” 

“I think you’re getting paranoid. I wasn’t going to say anything,” Janey said, acting all innocent.

Paul eyed her skeptically. “Sure you weren’t.”

“I’ll just say this—”

“There it is.”

She stuck her tongue out at him.

He laughed. 

“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted.” Janey tilted her head forward, giving him one of those you-better-listen-if-you-know-what’s-good-for-you stares. “You’d better not let her get away.”

Paul flexed his fingers against the steering wheel. Something had occurred to him that morning as he and Megan were lying in his bed. He was in love. It had hit him out of the blue as he watched the sunlight dance across her face.

Something had prompted him to take her to his bed the night before. He hadn’t understood it then, but when he’d woken up and felt her warm and soft beside him, he’d known. All his crazy arguments were gone. For whatever reason, Megan wanted to be with him, and he wanted that, too. 

“Earth to Paul?”

He blinked and glanced over at his partner. “What?”

She smiled knowingly. “I asked you if Chloe’s having a good time with her grandparents.”

“Oh. Yeah. She’s loving it. Ma’s going to have her hands full, I think. Cindy and George are spoiling her rotten.”

Janey laughed. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. Your mom can always call your brothers if she gets desperate. Chloe’s always been a sucker for her uncles.”

“True,” Paul said as he pulled up in front of Scott Parker’s apartment. They’d debated on whether or not to show up at his place of employment, but decided maybe a one-on-one visit without an audience would be best. 

Paul and Janey exited the vehicle and strolled up the short path to Parker’s apartment. It was in a decent neighborhood—completely average. It was a direct contrast to the flashy persona their suspect presented online. 

Janey knocked and they waited patiently for Parker to answer the door. 

When the door was opened, however, they came face-to-face with a young woman with a baby on her hip. Although it was an unexpected development, he and Janey didn’t react outwardly. 

Paul showed the woman his badge. “Hello, ma’am. Is Scott home?”

The woman adjusted the baby, turned her back on them, and walked into the apartment. She left the door cracked open, and they could hear voices coming from inside. 

Janey glanced in his direction, and he shrugged. Paul had no idea what was going on. After ten years on the force, not much surprised him anymore. That’s also why he made sure not to let down his guard. People did weird things like run, jump out two-story windows . . . you name it, and he’d probably seen it.

Luckily, the only thing they got this time was a groggy-looking man in his mid-twenties who looked as if he’d had one too many the night before. 

“Scott Parker?” Janey asked.

“Yeah. Who wants to know?”

They both flashed their badges this time, and he squinted like he was looking into the sun. “What did I do?”

“May we come inside?”

Parker shifted his gaze to Paul, and backed into the apartment. It appeared neither Parker nor the woman were overly talkative.

When Paul and Janey entered the apartment, the first thing they noticed were the toys scattered around the living room floor. It was obvious from what he could see that the baby lived in the apartment, or had at least been there for an extended period of time. 

Once they were all seated, Janey started in on the questioning. “Mr. Parker, last year you received some tutoring for a math class, is that correct?”

Parker rubbed his eyes and blinked. “Yeah. That’s right.”

“Was your tutor’s name Jessica Chase?” Paul asked.

The young woman hovered in the background, curious, but not participating. Parker didn’t seem bothered by her presence. “Yeah. She helped me get through my class. Why?”

They ignored his question. “And how long did you meet with Ms. Chase?”

Parker appeared to do some calculations in his head before he answered Janey. “About two months.”

“So you stopped meeting with her in . . .”

“August? Yeah. It was August.”

“Do you remember when exactly in August? Janey prompted.

“Hmm. I’m not sure. It was hot. I remember that. She wore this white tank top that showed off her tits.”

“Thank you for that
detailed
description of Ms. Chase, Mr. Parker. Could you tell us where you used to meet Ms. Chase?” Paul was hoping it was somewhere on campus. That would positively put her in the same location as the other victims.

“In the library. I tried to get her to meet somewhere a little more . . . romantic, you know. I mean, the library?” His revulsion was evident. “Hey. Why are you asking all these questions about Jessica?”

Paul and Janey looked at each other, and then Paul shrugged. Letting the cat out of the bag wasn’t likely to hurt anything at this point. “Jessica Chase was murdered.”

That sobered him some. 

“Is there anything else—besides Ms. Chase’s physical appearance—that you can remember about your last few meetings?” Paul asked.

“Oh, there was this dude. Yeah.”

“What
dude
?”

Parker leaned forward in his seat to answer Paul’s question. “Didn’t get his name. He was some book nerd. I think he worked at the library or something.”

“And what was it about this guy that makes you think we should talk to him?”

“Because he was weird. I mean he would hang around all the time. And I think he even asked her out.” Parker’s nose scrunched up in distaste. 

Janey took down a description—or what Parker could remember, at least—of the man in question. They would have to take a trip to the library and see if they could locate him. As it was, they’d gathered as much information as they could from Scott Parker.

Twenty minutes after leaving Parker’s apartment, they arrived back at the station. They both went inside to make a report of their activities. 

It didn’t take long for Paul to finish his paperwork. There wasn’t all that much to report, after all. Parker had been moved way down on their suspect list, and the information they had on this library employee was sketchy at best. 

Paul logged off his computer, and made sure he had both his cell phone and his keys. His mind was already on ways he and Megan could spend their evening.

Janey looked up from the report she was still working on. “Tell Megan I said hi.” 

Paul paused for a second before reaching for his jacket. “I will. See you Monday, Janey.”

“You’re not coming in tomorrow?” she asked. Then she shook her head. “Of course you’re not. Go enjoy your new girlfriend. I’ll be thinking of you while I’m sitting at home all alone eating bonbons.”

He laughed and patted her on the shoulder as he went by. His partner had a very active social life. It was the main reason she always gave him such a hard time about his lack of one. “Enjoy your bonbons.”

By the time Paul made it home, he was almost giddy. It was a strange way to describe a grown man, but that was how he felt. He was in love—something he never thought would happen to him a second time. It scared him to death, but he was through fighting it. He had a second chance at happiness, and he was going to take it.