blocked his view of Henley, but he got the distinct impression the mayor wasn’t expecting them both. Hmm. So, the question was, had she been waiting for him to show up and use him as her entrée? Or had she just come out of the building and spied him on his way in? He bet on the latter.
He smiled. She’d probably gotten her battle plan in place with the mayor and thought it was her lucky day when she’d snagged him on his way in. Only he hadn’t succumbed to the sex-charged fog she’d effortlessly swirled around the two of them and answered all her questions without a fight. But she hadn’t pouted and given up, she’d merely switched tactics.
He liked that in an opponent.
The fact that there were still some remnants of that fog swirling around inside him was probably the reason he was being so damn reasonable about the whole thing. Well, that and the fact that pretty much nothing was going to make him change his mind about dealing with her on this investigation. Nothing short of the commissioner himself, ordering him to—
“Detective O’Keefe? Please have a seat. I have a phone conference ready to go with Commissioner Douglas.”
Brady kept his gaze averted from Erin and made certain the litany of curses running through his mind were not reflected in his expression. It wasn’t easy.
He sat in a purposefully relaxed manner. “Good morning, Mayor. Commissioner Douglas.”
“O’Keefe?” The commissioner’s scratchy voice rasped through the speakerphone.
“Yes, sir?”
“I want an update on my desk by noon. It will be couriered to me. In the meantime, I want you to stop giving Ms. Mahoney such a hard time here and work with her. I don’t expect you to compromise the investigation, but we have a press conference this afternoon and we need a concrete plan on how we’re going to handle this with the media. I don’t have to spell out for you the sensitive nature of this matter. Mayor Henley is grieving the loss of one of his dearest friends and—”
And the loss of almost five percent on the overnight polls, Brady added mentally, striving to hold on to his temper.
“The community is shaken up over the whole sordid ordeal. I know how involved this case is, which is why I brought Erin in in the first place. She will free all of us up to do our jobs and from having to deal with the press.”
“With all due respect,” Brady began, still not looking at Erin, “you’ve always allowed me to handle my investigations the way I see fit. And I don’t think allowing a civilian to be privy to the innermost details of a homicide investigation, especially this one, is a positive move.” He held up his hand when Erin tried to interrupt. “Furthermore, I’ve never had a problem handling the press and I don’t expect this case will be any different.”
The mayor cleared his throat. “Detective O’Keefe, no one is challenging the way you handle your investigation, but I think you’ll agree that, in the past, the relationship between you and the media has been somewhat…strained.”
“What he’s trying to say, O’Keefe,” the commissioner broke in, “is that you’re a stubborn pain in the ass and you don’t give a good goddamn what the media thinks of how you run things.”
Erin choked on a chuckle and Brady couldn’t ignore it. So he did the last thing she’d expect, he winked at her. The resulting flash of shock on her face was very satisfying. He turned back to the speakerphone and the mayor, who had missed the little exchange. “Very true, Commissioner,” he said. “So I don’t see why we should change what has always been an effective policy to date. I tell them nothing, they stew and dig harder, I tell them nothing, they fill their columns with wild speculation and false leads, then I solve the crime, it all comes out in the wash and we go on to the next public debacle.”
Erin crossed her legs the other way, costing him a split second in timing, but a crucial one as it gave her the opening she’d been waiting for. “Gentlemen, if I might intrude.” She turned that polished PR smile on him. He hated it, which for some strange reason, made him smile in return. That made her blink, even if only for a second.
Damn, but this was kind of fun. Fun in a very this-can’t-be-good-for-me way.
“Detective O’Keefe,” she said, the smile toned down now. Point for Brady. “I understand how pointless this may seem to you, but even you must admit that in an election year, something like this case can have far reaching consequences. This is no longer simply about solving a murder. It’s about protecting innocent people’s reputations and possibly their livelihoods.” She relaxed and exuded that “everything will be fine if you simply trust me” vibe. “I don’t have to know every gritty detail. I merely need a brief conference with you on how I want to handle this with the press. All I need from you are enough details to support my angle.”
“Your angle?”
Brady looked to the mayor, who had been watching them like someone at a tennis match. Henley seemed more than happy to allow Erin to handle things and didn’t use the moment to jump to Brady’s defense. Coward, Brady thought.
“There is a way to present the situation to the public,” she continued insistently, “even to feed their need for titillation, without compromising the innocent.”
Brady had to hide his smile when her last comment got a visible reaction from the mayor.
“Now, Ms. Mahoney,” he blustered, finally looking a little concerned, “I really don’t think—”
The confident smile returned. “Mayor Henley, we’ve been over this.” She leaned forward, oozing sincerity. “I know exactly what line to walk and how not to cross it.”
And Henley totally bought it. Brady swore under his breath, knowing he’d just lost this hand.
To her credit, she didn’t gloat. She turned to him and flipped open her Palm Pilot. With total businesslike mien, she looked at the small screen. “I can give you thirty minutes right now,” she said. As if he were the one demanding her time. Very clever.
Brady knew when to hold and when to fold. He also knew a new hand got dealt each round. So she’d won this one…it wasn’t as if she’d made a run on the house. Not yet, anyway.
He turned smoothly toward the mayor. “Can we use your conference room?”
The mayor didn’t bother to hide his relief. His mood was now as expansive as his smile. “By all means.” He waved them inside the long room that connected with his office. “I’ll have Teri come in with some coffee.”
“Thank you,” they said in unison.
Brady waited until the mayor’s secretary had come and gone, then took his time pouring his coffee. He even fixed Erin a mug. “Sugar?”
She eyed him warily now. “Black is fine.”
He slid the mug toward her and took a seat catty-corner to her at one end of the immense black table. With a relaxed smile that gave away none of what he was really feeling, he asked, “So, what is your angle?”
She leaned forward and pushed her mug aside. Folding her arms on the table, she looked him right in the eye. “Why don’t you tell me yours first?”
3
