“I come with the case,” she informed him in a no-nonsense voice.
It was obvious by the look on Handel’s face that this was not something he had expected to hear. He wasn’t accustomed to being given conditions. “How’s that, again?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that O’Bannon and his partner had stopped moving and were listening, as well. And they appeared to be amused.
They were probably curious to see if Handel was going to have her for lunch was her guess.
Not likely.
“Major Crimes wants me to follow through on this. I was the first responder on the scene,” she told the scowling lieutenant.
Frankie braced herself for an argument and she was ready to hold her own if it came to that. Instead, Handel waved her on her way.
“Sure, fine. The more the merrier. Knock yourself out,” he told the woman invading his squad room. “Whatever gets this case off my plate.”
Moving again and picking up his pace, Handel hurried across the now-short distance to his office. He quickly closed the door before anyone else had a chance to further annoy him.
“Nicely done,” Luke commented as he walked over to her side. “You do realize that we have to take you with us because you’re the one who knows where the body was found, right?” he asked her, clearly amused.
They were walking now. Frankie hurried to keep up as they entered the hallway. She had gotten so caught up in trying to convince the lieutenant to allow her to take part in the case, she’d forgotten about that small, practical matter.
“I know that,” she lied, her mind working fast. “But I thought Handel would appreciate being asked for permission.”
A glimmer of appreciation entered Luke’s green eyes. “So I take it that you’re not a newbie,” he said with an approving nod.
“No, I’m not.” Frankie answered him in no uncertain terms, insulted by the mere suggestion that she could be seen as a novice.
The elevator arrived and all three of them got in. They had the car to themselves. White Hawk took the opportunity to lean forward and whisper to her, “Don’t mind O’Bannon. He likes getting under people’s skin, but he’s not nearly as bad as he pretends to come off.” Extending his hand to her, he went on to introduce himself. “Rick White Hawk.”
“Nice to meet you, Detective White Hawk.” She shook his hand. “I’m—”
“Frankie DeMarco, yes, I heard,” White Hawk said, smiling at her.
“Okay, now that we’re all acquainted, let’s get back to the business at hand—checking out the crime scene and catching a serial killer—unless anyone has some objections,” Luke prodded just as they reached the ground floor.
“You’re the lead detective,” White Hawk told him agreeably.
Frankie suppressed the sigh that seemed to automatically rise to her lips. For the most part, she worked cases in Major Crimes on her own.
“What he said,” she murmured as agreeably as she could.
When they walked out of the rear of the building and headed for the parking lot, Frankie began to go in a different direction than the other two detectives.
Looking over his shoulder, Luke called to her, “Hey, DeMarco, where are you going?”
She assumed that the answer to that was self-explanatory. “To get my car.”
“Since we’re all going to the same place, why don’t we all go there in one car?” O’Bannon suggested.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that he was speaking to her as if he was addressing a child. Doing her best not to lose her temper, she said, “Okay, we’ll use my car since I’m the one who knows where we’re going.”
Luke gave this temporary addition to his team a tolerant look. “I’m assuming this isn’t some secret location where we’ll have to be blindfolded before we can go there.”
“Of course not.”
“Good,” Luke declared. “Then we’ll go in my car and you can give me directions,” he told her. “You do know how to give directions, right, DeMarco?”
Frankie gave the man a withering look. She might have to mind her Ps and Qs while talking to him, but he had no control over the thoughts going through her head.
“Yes. I’m giving you some right now,” she told O’Bannon.
White Hawk nearly choked, trying not to laugh out loud.
“Good thing I’m not a mind reader,” he responded. Hitting a button that opened all four of the car doors, he said, “Okay, let’s go.”
Frankie got in on the passenger side. “The crime scene investigators have already been there,” she told him.
Luke opened the driver’s side door and got in. “I kind of figured that out when you said that your victim was in autopsy,” he told her. “But I like looking around the crime scene for myself. Humor me,” he added.
“You’re the lead,” she replied tersely, just before giving him the address where her cousin’s body had been found.
Luke heard the less-than-happy note in her voice and assumed it referred to the fact that he had taken over the case.
“Any time you want to jump off the merry-go-round, go right ahead. You’re more than welcome to do so,” he told her. He glanced in his rearview mirror to see if White Hawk had gotten in and buckled up yet.
“Understood,” she told O’Bannon in the same tone of voice.
Having secured his seatbelt, White Hawk took a moment to lean forward in his seat. “Don’t worry. He’ll grow on you,” he promised the sexy detective.
“Maybe that’s why I’m worried,” she responded, then explained, “so does fungus.”
“Luckily, they’ve got medications for that,” O’Bannon told her as he adjusted his side mirrors before putting his key in the ignition.
Shifting ever so slightly in her seat, Frankie looked at the lead detective pointedly and said, “I sincerely hope so.”
White Hawk sighed quietly. It was obvious that he felt called upon to act as a referee in this verbal sparring match. He spoke up, trying to distract the new member of the team by asking her a simple question.
“How did you happen to catch this case? I missed that part.”
Frankie knew the other detective was just asking her that in order to try to keep the peace. But she found him rather easygoing and likeable, so she answered his question.
“I know the woman who was the victim’s roommate, Amanda Culpepper.” She recited the story that she had memorized for O’Bannon’s benefit—and in order
