Brian asked incredulously. “That man could pop open any lock and disappear faster than anyone I ever knew.”
That would explain the handcuffs, Taylor suddenly thought. And then the initial sentence played itself over in her head.
“The Company?” Taylor echoed, looking from her stepfather to the man at her desk. “Your grandfather was with the—”
“Yes,” Laredo said, cutting her off before she could mention the CIA. “He doesn’t like it getting around these days. Afraid it might scare off more clients than it attracts,” he explained.
Brian looked as if that made perfect sense to him. “Well, tell him I said hello and if he ever feels like catching up, he knows where to find me.”
Okay, this was another new turn, Taylor thought. What did Brian have to do with a member of the CIA? “Catching up?” she asked.
Brian left it deliberately vague. “We collaborated a couple of times back in the day.”
Taylor blew out a breath. She wasn’t going to get any more than that and she knew it. For all his affability, Brian Cavanaugh was extremely closemouthed when he wanted to be.
She moved on. “So you’re vouching for him?” She nodded at Laredo as she asked.
“Absolutely. I’ve known Laredo for as long as I’ve known you,” he told her. “Bounced you both on my knee—just not at the same time,” Brian added with the wink that she knew was her mother’s undoing. Brian shifted his eyes toward Laredo. “If I can help you in any way, just let me know.”
“I’ll do that,” Laredo promised. “But right now, I’ve got no complaints with the way Detective McIntyre is taking care of me.”
Brian smiled, affection brimming in his eyes as he looked at his older stepdaughter.
“Never doubted it for a moment. She’s one of our finest. Good seeing you again, Laredo,” Brian repeated just as his cell phone began to ring. He sighed. “No rest for the weary,” were his parting words as he walked away quickly, taking out his phone. “Cavanaugh here.”
“He’s a great guy,” Laredo said to her. There was genuine admiration in his voice. There, at least, Taylor thought, they were in agreement.
“Yes, I know.” She turned her attention back to the man at her desk. “I guess if he vouches for you, I can trust you.” She couldn’t help the grudging note that came into her voice.
“With your life.” Laredo sounded completely serious as he said it.
But she still couldn’t help wondering if he meant it, or was trying to throw her off. Ordinarily, if Brian vouched for someone, that was enough for her. But something about the way Laredo looked at her had her struggling to keep her guard up.
For the second time, she told herself to wrap it up. She had witnesses she needed to question and an investigation to kick off. Damn, but she missed Aaron. The man wasn’t due back for another six weeks. They stretched out before her like a long, lonely desert.
“All right,” she announced to Laredo, “if you have nothing else to tell me—”
The same sexy, lazy smile traveled along his lips, straight into her nervous system.
“I have lots of things to tell you,” he assured her, his voice deliberately lower than it had been, carrying only the length of her desk. “Preferably over a lobster dinner with soft music in the background and some champagne chilling beside the table.”
Nine times out of ten, that line probably worked, she thought. But not on her. “You’re a player.”
He smiled. If it bothered him to be caught, he didn’t show it. “When the occasion arises. The rest of the time, I’m pragmatic.”
You had to admire a guy who didn’t give up, she thought despite herself. “And plying me with liquor would be which?”
He looked at her for a long moment before saying, “A little bit of both, most likely.”
If she hung around him any longer, she was in danger of getting lost in those blue eyes, Taylor warned herself. “Well, I have a job to do, so if you’ll excuse me.” With that, she rose to her feet.
Laredo did the same. And as she went out of the squad room, he was right there, his steps shadowing hers until they both reached the elevator.
She had no recollection of issuing an invitation, Taylor thought.
Pressing the down button, she turned to face him. “Look, if you think you’re coming with me just because my stepfather bounced you on his knee—”
A touch of surprise entered his eyes. “Brian Cavanaugh’s your stepfather?”
It was something she assumed everyone knew because, in the world she inhabited, for the most part they did. “Yes.”
He nodded, as if approving. “Your mother’s got a good man.”
She was not going to get sidetracked. “Be that as it may, you’re not coming with me.”
“I didn’t think I was.”
She pressed the down button again. “Then why are you following me?”
“I’m not,” he told her innocently.
Where was the damn elevator? There weren’t that many floors. “Right.”
“In case it might have slipped your notice, ‘Detective,’ cars are supposed to be parked outside the building and I haven’t trained mine to come when I call so, consequently, if I want to use it, I have to go to the car.” He gave her an amused look. “Same as you, I suspect.”
She was about to press for the elevator a third time when it arrived. She saw that the car was almost filled to capacity. Ordinarily, she would have waited for the next car, but she wanted to get away from this man as quickly as possible. So she slipped into the car, trying to make the most of the space that was available.
As did he.
Taylor discovered that ignoring a man she found herself pressed up against was next to impossible no matter how hard she tried.
Hours later, out in the field, Taylor could swear she could still feel the blush from that morning creeping up her neck. It lingered, breathing color along her cheeks as they traveled down in the elevator to the first floor.
To his credit, Laredo had made no reference to being packed against her like an amorous sardine, but it was obvious that he was thinking about it. One look at the smile in his eyes told her that.
Damn annoying man, Taylor thought now, not for the first time. If her stepfather and Frank hadn’t indirectly vouched for Laredo by the way they’d both greeted and interacted with the man, J. C. Laredo would have definitely been at the top of her list of suspects to investigate. She wasn’t sure if she would have bought into his story about investigating Eileen’s murder as a favor to his grandfather if it hadn’t been for them.
Even so, she still might look into his background once she finished interviewing the people on the victim’s list of clients. She’d been doing that for a good part of the day, as well as talking to the other tenants in Eileen’s building. So far, she felt as if she was just spinning her wheels. Slowly.
After getting back into her car, Taylor closed the door and then just sat there for a moment, looking over the remaining names on the list of clients. Because they were all celebrities of varying degrees, getting past their bodyguards and arranging for a few minutes of conversation was turning out to be almost a Herculean effort. She wouldn’t mind if she felt that this helped the investigation, but it didn’t.
A