Seal It With A Kiss (McClellan Trilogy) (15 page)

After some time had passed, Brock asked, “Are you ready to go inside yet?”

“Mmmhmm—you may have to help me though—my legs are like rubber.”

By the time they got into bed, Holly could barely feel her limbs and her eyelids were extremely heavy. “That was definitely a first for me.”

“What was?”

“Sex outdoors, reverse cowgirl, and shower sex.”

“Really? You are kidding me—aren’t you?” He asked.

“Let’s just say that my sex life was pretty vanilla until you. My ex only liked a couple of positions—it was either him on top or me on top.”

“Honey, we are just scratching the surface. I can tell you that sex between you and me will be anything but vanilla.”

“I had already come to that conclusion.”

“You’re a smart woman Holly.” He said spooning her tight to his body.

The next morning Holly woke to Brock entering her from behind as they lay on their sides. He kept a slow and steady rhythm while stimulating her clit until it sent shockwaves throughout her body causing his own orgasm as her muscles squeezed him. “Good morning.” He whispered in her ear.

Holly rolled over until she was facing him, “It is now.” She said as she kissed his chin.

“It’s Sunday—what would you like to do today?”

“I need to get groceries, do laundry, and probably spend some time with Charlie.”

“How about you spend the morning with me and I make you breakfast?”

“I would love that—but then I’ll need to get going.”

Holly arrived home, unloaded her groceries and threw in a load of laundry before grabbing a pad of paper and pen and sitting down to work out a plan to catch the rapist. After spending the better part of the afternoon writing down scenarios for her plan, she finally made her decision as to which one she was going to present to Captain Lewiston.

Holly arrived at work bright and early and knocked on Captain Lewiston’s door. “Come in.”

“Good morning Captain.”

“I take it you haven’t changed your mind on your plan to catch the rapist.” He asked.

“No sir, I haven’t.”

“Then let’s hear it.”

“There are several things that need to happen…‌first, the department will need to set me up in an apartment within a five mile radius of one of the bars. Number two and three need to happen simultaneously—I will need to get into contact with one of the vics roommates and if Officer Harris is willing, she will need to start hanging out with this woman and her friends. She will be my point for this undercover op. It will be up to Officer Harris to lay the groundwork at the bar and drop hints that her roommate, which will be me, would rather stay home and study than go to a bar with them. Officer Harris will also need to move into this apartment with me. The perp has to be following the roommates home at some point to know where to strike. I think Detective Harris would be a perfect point for me as she looks young enough to be in college, and she has the training to know if she is being followed. Once she senses that she has been followed, my guess is that the perp will strike in the next week to ten days. I also think that the perp stakes the place out to some degree—maybe he checks windows and doors, or maybe he even watches them for a while to see what the habits are, as no one has ever been able to catch him in the act.”

“It may take me a day or two to requisition renting this apartment, and another day or two to furnish it.”

“So that means you approve of my plan?”

“So far, it’s the best suggestion we have at this time. I just don’t know how you will keep Detective McClellan from finding out.”

“I have thought about that too. My family isn’t from around here, so I could tell him that there has been an emergency at home and I need some time off. This of course wouldn’t happen until everything was set up on this end and we were ready to implement the plan.”

“You have thought of everything, haven’t you?”

“I just know he would get suspicious if he couldn’t find me at home.”

“I will get the ball rolling with the apartment as soon as you contact one of the vics roommates and Officer Harris and make the necessary introductions and fill them in on your plan.”

“Thank you Captain. I will get on that right now.”

“If anything goes wrong, and I mean anything—I want you to pull the plug on this.”

“Yes sir.”

“Oh, Detective Cavanaugh?”

“Yes, Captain?”

“You have two weeks, that’s it. If we don’t have anything in two weeks, I am pulling the plug.”

Brock arrived as Holly was hanging up with Jen Schaefer who was vic number four’s roommate. She had chosen Jen as she had interviewed her last week and thought that Officer Harris and she would get along really well.

“Cavanaugh—how are things going this morning?”

“Nothing new to report.”

“I missed you last night.”

“It looks like you survived just fine to me!”

“You’re like a drug—I can’t seem to get enough of you.” He said as he slowly walked towards her.

“Sounds like you have an addiction issue Detective McClellan!” Holly said as Officer Harris knocked on the door.

“Excuse me—Detective Cavanaugh, I was told you wanted to see me.”

“Yes, I was wondering what you were doing for lunch today—I though perhaps we could get acquainted.”

Officer Harris got a puzzled look on her face and responded, “Sure, I guess we can do that.”

“Good, meet me downstairs around 12:30. Will that work for you?”

“Yes, I just have to finish a report. I’ll see you then.”

After she had left, Holly turned her back to Brock and stared at the whiteboard hoping that he didn’t think that their conversation was strange. “What was that all about?”

Oh crap, Holly said to herself as she chewed on her bottom lip. “Nothing—I just wanted to get to know another female officer on the force. I was thrown into this case my first day here and it’s always good to get to know the officers that you work with.”

“Mind if I tag along?”

“I think it would be best if I got to know Officer Harris on my own if you don’t mind.”

Brock felt something was strange with the exchange between Officer Harris and Holly, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it, so he pushed it aside in his mind and tried to focus on the case at hand. “I think we need to head to The Doo Dive and see what we can shake loose tonight. We really need to catch a break on this case.”

“Sure, that’s the only bar we haven’t been to yet.”

Holly headed downstairs to meet with Officer Harris and noticed her waiting for her. “Thanks for agreeing to have lunch with me.”

“No problem—where do you want to go?”

“A street vendor is fine with me, let’s walk.”

They headed south out of the station to where the majority of the street vendors set up and stopped at a taco stand. “Officer Harris?”

“You can call me Julie.”

“Great, and you can call me Holly. Julie, I would prefer if the conversation that we are about to have never gets back to Detective McClellan.”

“Oh no, did I mess things up when I stopped by earlier to talk with you.”

“I don’t think so, but please be very careful in the future.”

Holly proceeded to explain her plan in detail and again stressed that under no circumstance was she to tell anyone else, especially Detective McClellan about what they planned to do. “So can I count you in on this?” Holly asked.

“I want that bastard just as much as you do. I was first on the scene with the latest vic, and it broke my heart. I definitely want in.”

“Great, I will introduce you to Jen tomorrow. Captain Lewiston will approve your cover and replace you for the next two weeks. My cover will be that I am returning home to deal with a family emergency.”

Holly headed back to Brock’s office feeling confident now that her plan was in motion. The next few days were going to be a bit tricky around Brock and she really wasn’t looking forward to hiding it from him, but she also knew he wouldn’t approve of her being the bait either.

“I’ll pick you up around seven tonight.” Brock said as they were walking out to their cars.

They arrived at The Doo Dive to find hardly anyone there. “I think this is a bust tonight, how about we have one drink and head back to my place and order a carry out pizza?”

“Sounds like a plan. If things don’t liven up after we have one drink, then we are out of here.”

Holly called in the pizza order while they were driving back to her place and it arrived shortly after they did. When they were through eating, Holly proceeded to put away the leftovers when Brock came up behind her and kissed her on the neck. “You know I could get used to that.” Holly said as she leaned into him.

“I like the way your thinking.”

“Would you mind if I didn’t ask you to spend the night? I’m exhausted and I know I wouldn’t get much sleep if you stayed.”

“I hope that you know me well enough to know, that while I am disappointed I won’t be spending the night in your bed, I certainly won’t be mad at you for it either. As long as we keep communication open between us, I don’t have an issue. I’ll let myself out, lock up and get some sleep—I will see you tomorrow.” He said kissing her on the forehead.

“See you tomorrow.”

The next morning Holly arrived bright and early, and as she was walking past Captain Lewiston’s office, he hollered at her to come in, “Holly, I need to speak with you.”

“Yes Captain, What can I do for you?”

“I have the address of the apartment, things moved quicker than I had anticipated, so you will begin your undercover operation immediately.”

“Immediately? As in right now?”

“Yes, is that a problem Detective?

“No, it’s just—I thought I had more time to…”

“Are you having second thoughts Cavanaugh?”

“No! Will you tell Detective McClellan for me? I think if I had to face him today, he might see right through me.”

“I suppose I can. What would you like me to tell him?”

“Tell him that I had to leave suddenly for a family emergency and I will call him later.”

“You had better get out of here before he arrives. Oh, Detective Cavanaugh?”

“Yes sir.”

“I want you to report in to me daily—here is the address of your apartment for the next two weeks.”

With that, Holly headed out the door and to the address on the paper Captain Lewiston had given her.

Brock arrived in his office to find it empty. Holly always arrived before he did. When an hour passed and she still hadn’t arrived, he began to worry. “Holly—where the hell are you?” He walked out of his office and headed toward Captain Lewiston’s office knocking on the door.

“Come in.”

“Captain, have you seen Cavanaugh today?”

“Yes, she was here.”

“Okay, can you tell me where she is right now?”

“She got a phone call from home—some sort of emergency, so she requested some time off to deal with it.”

“How much time off?” Brock asked.

“Two weeks.”

“What kind of emergency?”

“She didn’t say, only that she needed the time to deal with a family emergency and she would call you later.”

Brock headed back to his office wondering what the family emergency was. Holly didn’t talk about her family at all—he had never pressed the issue, and he was beginning to regret that. “Two weeks? What could possibly require that she be gone for two weeks?” He said aloud.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Holly and Julie got settled into their temporary apartment and were going to be meeting with Jen Schaefer later in the afternoon. “I need to call Detective McClellan—give me ten minutes and then we can head over to Jen’s apartment.” Holly stated.

“No problem, take your time.”

Holly went into the bedroom for privacy before dialing Brock who picked up on the first ring. “Holly, how are you? What happened?”

“I am fine, I got a call that my parents were involved in an automobile accident, so I hopped on the first plane and headed home.”

“Are they okay?”

“They are a bit banged up, but they will be fine. I will be back as soon as I can, I just want to spend some time with them and make sure that everything is fine.”

“I’m sorry Holly, but where exactly is home? I just realized that I don’t know much about your family at all.”

“Tampa, Florida.”

“Are you okay? I can’t imagine getting a phone call about my parents like that.”

“Yeah, I’m okay. Listen, I got to go, I will try to call you tomorrow.”

“All right, take care and hurry back.”

“I will be back as soon as I can.”

Officer O’Brien knocked on Brock’s door, “I have the DNA results from the last vic.”

“Tell me some good news O’Brien, I could really use it.”

“Sorry, we weren’t able to match it to anyone in the system.”

“Why the hell can’t I get a break?”

“The bright side is once we get a suspect, we have DNA to cross reference against.”

“We might as well be looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack because I’m not any closer to catching this guy, and now it’s up to me to do it because Detective Cavanaugh had to leave for a family emergency.”

“When did she leave? I saw her about an hour ago with Officer Harris?”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah, I’m positive.”

“Thanks O’Brien.”

Brock sat down in his chair, puzzled at what O’Brien had said about seeing Holly an hour ago. He had to be mistaken—didn’t he? She just called him from Tampa, Florida and it’s over a two hour flight. Why was she with Officer Harris? “I think I need to check this out.” He said out loud.

Brock pulled up the white page directory for Tampa, Florida on his computer to see how many Cavanaugh’s were listed and found three. He dialed the first one, and when he asked to speak with Holly Cavanaugh, he was told he had a wrong number. It was a re-peat performance for telephone number two. When he called the third number and asked for Holly, he was told that she no longer lived at home that she lived in Houston, TX. “I was under the impression that she was home visiting her parents.” Brock responded.

“I’m her mother—why would you think that?”

“I’m sorry, I must have been mistaken. One more question—were you or your husband in an accident recently?”