was the best word Hawk could come up with. Comfortable, maybe. Honest, anyway. She wasn’t the type to adopt a flashy image and pretend she wanted nothing more than a good time, only to start sinking emotional claws into her male companion. Manipulating unsuspecting guys into losing control and then taking over their lives and futures.
‘The position of the switches must be important.’
‘Sorry?’ Hawk was jerked back from the now familiar, but definitely unfair, line of thought. He couldn’t blame Cassie. It had been Cam’s choice and he had jumped more than willingly.
‘For the lights and so forth,’ the fire officer expanded. ‘We should keep that in mind when we’re crawling around inside cars. We probably turn things off by leaning on them without even noticing.’
‘You don’t even have to lean to turn things off, Stick,’ someone quipped. ‘Isn’t that right, Laura?’
Laura laughed but flushed slightly.
‘Stick?’ Hawk raised an eyebrow at the solid figure now handling the row of light bulbs mounted on the narrow wooden board.
‘He got hit with an ugly one,’ his companion explained.
‘Oh.’ Had Laura rejected an advance, maybe? Not that he was remotely interested but at least a relationship between people working from the same base was reasonable. Hell, even living in the same country seemed reasonable now. If Cam had to allow his brains to get addled by a woman to that extent, why did he have to choose one that lived on the other side of the world? And why didn’t she move permanently to New Zealand instead of expecting Cam to follow her home to the States like some lovesick puppy?
Hawk knew why. It was all part of the manipulation that came so naturally to the female of the species. It wasn’t evil. They probably didn’t even know they were doing it half the time, but the effect was the same. It was a take-over bid. The undermining of a man’s independence and self-esteem. They got you right where they wanted you…and then what? ‘Sorry, buddy, but I’ve changed my mind.’ Or, ‘I’ve found someone better than you.’
Cassie had better not treat Cam that badly. Sure, she had looked as besotted as Cam but she’d been married before, and that hadn’t lasted long, had it? Cam had been married before as well. They should both have known better. Still, the fact that Cam was being uprooted to such an extent might even be the saving of his mate. He’d realise what he was giving up, get over the infatuation and come back. The desertion of his career and the principles on relationships they had espoused so enthusiastically in recent years was probably only temporary.
And that gave him the perfect excuse not to allow any fill-in partner to interfere or gain too much of a foothold in his department. She was going to be totally unsuitable and Cam would be welcomed back in a month or two. Hawk just had to grit his teeth and put up with it. He could do that. In fact, now that he was confident it was only temporary, it didn’t seem that bad any more.
Hawk finished his session by fielding questions.
‘How much time do you guys have to spend in court?’
‘Quite a bit,’ Hawk responded. ‘Some cases can drag on if someone’s lost their licence or their livelihood by being blamed for an accident. Or if an insurance company won’t pay up or a family is determined to clear someone’s name.’
‘Who does the detective work?’
‘We can end up doing quite a lot of it,’ Hawk said. ‘We visit the scene and mark evidence and take photographs and measurements. We oversee the vehicle inspection and call in any experts we might need for an opinion on, say, tyres or mechanical faults. And we conduct interviews.’
‘Who with?’
‘The driver or passengers. We might liaise with the hospital initially until we can talk to them. We talk to families and friends, witnesses and often a lot of other people. A GP might be interviewed if the driver had a medical condition. A mechanic could be asked for input if the vehicle had had any recent repairs. We’ll often talk to members of the fire and ambulance services, especially if we’re having any problems reconstructing a scene. That’s where noting things that were moved or damaged during the incident becomes important. As do your unbiased views of what you saw. We respect your roles and value your input.’
Hawk smiled. His mood was lifting steadily now and a glance at his watch told him it was time to head home. A new watch would be clocking in at Inglewood station at 6 p.m. and he could see the first arrivals manoeuvring in the car park outside. A session in the pub with some of these guys could be just what he needed. It didn’t have to be a male-only session either. He didn’t mind at all if Laura came along. She was clearly a popular member of this group. One of the boys, probably, and no threat to anyone, either professionally or personally. Hawk could only hope that his new temporary partner would be from the same career-oriented mould with little interest in accentuating her femininity.
With a bit of luck she might even be built like the back of a brick outhouse and have a slight problem with facial hair. Hawk picked up the board of light bulbs and fitted them inside the box with a sigh. No, that thought was even more unappealing than having to contend with a willowy Barbie clone who couldn’t possibly inspire any professional respect. He just didn’t want to work with a female, dammit!
He didn’t want to work with another guy either. His previous partner had been a guy. Perfectly competent as far as the job went but the lack of anything in common on a personal level had kept them purely colleagues. And even that had fallen apart when he’d discovered what a jerk the guy had been in his private life. Nobody could abuse and abandon a wife and kids in favour of an affair with a bimbo half his age and remain acceptable on any level.
No. He didn’t want a new partner—of either gender. He wanted Cam back. His mate. Someone he could bounce ideas around with and know that the input from both sides carried equal weight in terms of experience and intelligence. Someone who understood the attraction of blondes, both willowy and curvaceous, and would empathise with the kind of hassles that took periodical sorting out when the current choice needed replacing. Someone who could smash a squash ball, fire a gun or down a few pints in front of a rugby game when time out was needed.
Hawk’s response to the thanks from various members of his audience was a trifle perfunctory. The Cam he knew was gone. His mates—possibly even his career—had been dumped in favour of a short, bouncy redhead who never drank beer, hated guns and couldn’t understand the rules of rugby.
‘The talk was great. I learned a lot.’
‘You’re welcome.’ Hawk looked up from shutting down the projector and nodded at Laura. ‘The more we know about how each other works, the more we can help each other.’
‘Maybe you should come out on the road with us sometime, then.’
His glance was more deliberate this time but he relaxed when he decided this wasn’t some kind of a come-on. Laura looked like a nice person but she was definitely not his type. She was several inches too short, way too…solid and her hair was dead mouse. He could work with someone like her, though. She looked intelligent. Or was that just the impression the spectacles bestowed? Hawk was annoyed at himself at even making such a judgement. He had been doing it for days now, with every stranger he met—especially women. What would she be like to work with? What would his new partner be like? It wasn’t that he was nervous about it. It was the sheer inconvenience of having to go through that learning curve. Trying to adapt to someone else’s methods and having the job done far less efficiently because mindsets were too disparate.
