Read Online The Strong Silent Type by Marie Ferrarella - Free Book Online
Authors: Marie Ferrarella
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own up to out loud.
She hooked her arm through her father’s, taking comfort in his strength. Not a day went by when she wasn’t proud to be Andrew Cavanaugh’s daughter.
“So, what does bring you here?” she asked cheerfully. “Catching up on stories with the guys?”
He didn’t like lying, especially to his children, but agreeing to the scenario Teri had just provided him with was a lot easier than going into an explanation of what he was really doing here. He’d come to bring to the crime lab the spoon he’d lifted from the diner. He wanted the head tech to match the fingerprints on it against the prints he knew had to be all over the well-worn, much-read copy of Rose’s favorite book, Gone with the Wind. How many times had he teased her that she cared more for Rhett Butler than she did for him? Her answer had always been the same. That until the day that Rhett did come along, he’d do just fine.
The argument the day she had driven out of his life was that he was afraid that “Rhett” had come—in the guise of his brother Mike. It had been a stupid, stupid argument, and one of the very few times he’d allowed jealousy to get the better of him. And he’d been paying for that stupidity for the past fifteen years of his life.
He knew how his children felt about his ongoing search for their mother. They thought he was knocking his head against a stone wall. He’d noticed the look of pity in their eyes every time they saw him opening up the folders and spreading them out on his desk.
“Give it up, Dad,” even Rayne, his youngest, had begged him. Rayne, who had taken her mother’s disappearance the hardest and who, after all these years, had finally come around and accepted the fact that her mother was gone, the way the rest of them had.
Except that he knew his wife wasn’t gone. He’d seen her, talked to her. And now he needed proof.
“Something like that,” he allowed, making his decision.
Had he said the words to Callie, he knew that she’d be all over him, examining his tone, his inflection, the look on his face as he said what he said. His oldest daughter was part mind reader. But Teri was his fire-cracker. Hardly one thought fully formed in her mind before she was on to another.
He figured he was safe.
Andrew looked at his daughter more closely as they walked slowly to the squad room. She still looked too pale. But she was twenty-seven and he couldn’t very well lock her in her room. “So, how’s your day going?”
“Not too well.” She struggled to bank down her growing frustration. They were close, so close. “We can’t get anything out of the ‘suspects’ we caughtyesterday. They’ve lawyered up. But the M.O. is an exact duplicate of the other four home invasions that’ve gone down in the past month. The burglars got in using a key. The people are all upscale, but other than that, they have nothing in common except that they were targeted by these creeps.”
“Keep at it, Teri. You’ll find the answer. You always do.” Afraid she might redirect the conversation back to him, Andrew drew his arm away from hers and glanced at his watch. “Well, don’t let me keep you from your work. And try to get home at a decent hour tonight.”
It was her turn to wink at him. “That all depends on what you mean by decent.” Moving away, she began to disappear around the corner.
Teri was his night owl, given to partying almost as hard as she was to devoting herself to police work. “Sometime before dawn,” he called after her.
Her voice came floating back. “You got it.”
Shaking his head, Andrew hurried off to the stairwell. It was the safest route right now. He didn’t want to take a chance on running into another one of his children. All five worked here, not to mention his four nephews. Even Janelle, Brian’s girl, was wont to pop up here, working with the detectives in her capacity as assistant district attorney.
And although his late brother, Mike’s daughter
She hooked her arm through her father’s, taking comfort in his strength. Not a day went by when she wasn’t proud to be Andrew Cavanaugh’s daughter.
“So, what does bring you here?” she asked cheerfully. “Catching up on stories with the guys?”
He didn’t like lying, especially to his children, but agreeing to the scenario Teri had just provided him with was a lot easier than going into an explanation of what he was really doing here. He’d come to bring to the crime lab the spoon he’d lifted from the diner. He wanted the head tech to match the fingerprints on it against the prints he knew had to be all over the well-worn, much-read copy of Rose’s favorite book, Gone with the Wind. How many times had he teased her that she cared more for Rhett Butler than she did for him? Her answer had always been the same. That until the day that Rhett did come along, he’d do just fine.
The argument the day she had driven out of his life was that he was afraid that “Rhett” had come—in the guise of his brother Mike. It had been a stupid, stupid argument, and one of the very few times he’d allowed jealousy to get the better of him. And he’d been paying for that stupidity for the past fifteen years of his life.
He knew how his children felt about his ongoing search for their mother. They thought he was knocking his head against a stone wall. He’d noticed the look of pity in their eyes every time they saw him opening up the folders and spreading them out on his desk.
“Give it up, Dad,” even Rayne, his youngest, had begged him. Rayne, who had taken her mother’s disappearance the hardest and who, after all these years, had finally come around and accepted the fact that her mother was gone, the way the rest of them had.
Except that he knew his wife wasn’t gone. He’d seen her, talked to her. And now he needed proof.
“Something like that,” he allowed, making his decision.
Had he said the words to Callie, he knew that she’d be all over him, examining his tone, his inflection, the look on his face as he said what he said. His oldest daughter was part mind reader. But Teri was his fire-cracker. Hardly one thought fully formed in her mind before she was on to another.
He figured he was safe.
Andrew looked at his daughter more closely as they walked slowly to the squad room. She still looked too pale. But she was twenty-seven and he couldn’t very well lock her in her room. “So, how’s your day going?”
“Not too well.” She struggled to bank down her growing frustration. They were close, so close. “We can’t get anything out of the ‘suspects’ we caughtyesterday. They’ve lawyered up. But the M.O. is an exact duplicate of the other four home invasions that’ve gone down in the past month. The burglars got in using a key. The people are all upscale, but other than that, they have nothing in common except that they were targeted by these creeps.”
“Keep at it, Teri. You’ll find the answer. You always do.” Afraid she might redirect the conversation back to him, Andrew drew his arm away from hers and glanced at his watch. “Well, don’t let me keep you from your work. And try to get home at a decent hour tonight.”
It was her turn to wink at him. “That all depends on what you mean by decent.” Moving away, she began to disappear around the corner.
Teri was his night owl, given to partying almost as hard as she was to devoting herself to police work. “Sometime before dawn,” he called after her.
Her voice came floating back. “You got it.”
Shaking his head, Andrew hurried off to the stairwell. It was the safest route right now. He didn’t want to take a chance on running into another one of his children. All five worked here, not to mention his four nephews. Even Janelle, Brian’s girl, was wont to pop up here, working with the detectives in her capacity as assistant district attorney.
And although his late brother, Mike’s daughter
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