Read Online Internal Affair by Samantha Cayto - Free Book Online Page B

description. Sounds like you could have done worse.”
    “I know. I just wanted to do better. If I ever get married, it’s going to be to someone who possesses all of those qualities and more.” She didn’t explain further because it was still the wrong conversation for the time and place.
    Daire didn’t let her get away with it, however. Leaning into the table, he asked, “What more do you want?”
    She almost didn’t answer. The intensity of his gaze left her no choice. “Passion. I know lots of people do just fine without it. My mother would tell me that passion flares out and what matters is a long-term partnership and reliability. I don’t think that’s true. I like the idea of stability, of course. It’s just I believe a married couple should and can love and want each other their entire lives. I don’t think I’m greedy to want that.”
    Daire remained silent for a few seconds. He dropped his gaze and toyed with the food left on his plate. “I agree,” he finally said in a low voice. “My parents still held hands when they walked together even after more than twenty years of marriage. I bet they were holding hands when their killer approached.”
    The pain in his voice hit her low and hard, and it reminded her of why she was there. Pushing aside her mostly empty plate, she placed her netbook on the space she’d cleared. As she waited for it to boot up, she explained what she’d been doing after finding Forrester’s body. “I had an idea about how to approach the investigation now that our possible key witness is dead.”
    That got Daire’s attention. He sat up straighter and pushed his plate to one side, too. “Do we know yet whether it was suicide or murder? Forrester, I mean.”
    “Dr. Barnes is still putting the final touches on her report, but her preliminary finding is that it was murder.”
    Daire’s fist hit the table top. “Damn it. These people are bold.”
    “And good at covering their tracks. Dr. Barnes found small bruising around the hand with the gun that indicates there might have been a struggle. The toxicology report won’t be available for a while, of course. There was a half-drunk bottle of wine by the body, though.”
    Parker pulled up the file she’d painstakingly compiled for hours. “My boss wasn’t happy to hear the coroner’s not shutting this down as a suicide.”
    “Benson’s an ass.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Daire grimaced at her. “Sorry.”
    She couldn’t suppress a smile. “No apology necessary. It’s entirely possible I agree with your assessment. I like Barnes, though. She doesn’t buckle under pressure.”
    “I like her, too. If she says it’s murder, I’d make book on it.”
    “Well, operating under that theory, I decided to go back to the beginning.” This is where it got tricky. Either Daire would agree with her strategy or call her crazy. Plus, her strategy held the very real possibility of marking his father as dirty. “You might want to come over here to see the screen better.”
    She regretted her invitation the moment she made it. Had she totally lost her mind? Asking Daire to get closer was the exact opposite of what she should be trying to do. He seemed to agree with her more rational side because he hesitated before standing up on a soft sigh. When he approached her, he shoved his hands in the front pockets of his pants.
    Don’t look. Don’t look. That didn’t work. It was like telling someone to not think of the word elephant. Her gaze skittered over his fly, and yes, at least one part of him appeared to like the idea of getting closer to her. Thank God, he had more sense than she did, though. He pulled the chair next to hers away from the table so that he wouldn’t be sitting very close. She did her part by angling her netbook in his direction so that he could see the screen better.
    “What am I looking at?”
    “I created a spreadsheet of all of the cops who graduated with your father.” When she looked at