Running with Secrets

Untitled Part 40

"And you're certain?" Steele asked Chaz the next morning in his office. Resting his hands on his desk.

"As certain as we're standing here, boss." Chaz said. "You should have seen the job the coroner did. She was good." 

"They made him look respectable then?"

"Yeah. If they 'Y' cut wasn't there, or the bullet hole in his chest, He would-a looked like he was sleeping."

"I hate to lose him like that, but it's better this way." Steele clasped his fingers together. "I don't think I have it in me to replace him. He was almost as good as you two." He said pointing to the two men in his office. "I can live with the report of the girl's death, but it doesn't mean we can relax operations any. It's not business as usual." Steele sat back in his chair with his feet on his desk. Call the men back in in the morning. "We need to find this...Marcus." He waved a nonchalant hand in the air. "I don't know a Marcus, but this business is wide and vast."

Chaz and Grady nodded in agreement and left Steele's office for the night.

*****

The sound of his own snoring woke him up that morning. Heath took a moment to remember Kristin had fallen asleep on his shoulder last night when he felt her there, then remembered he had a penchant for drooling in his sleep. Thankfully, when he ran his hand along his chin, he didn't feel any sign of drooling, but his other arm was tingling from the weight of Kristin's body resting on him. He knew he wouldn't be able to let her sleep as he tried to wiggle his way out of this, so he rested there, with her lying on top of his arm for many moments.

When Kristin finally showed signs of wakefulness, Heath didn't waste any time getting up. "Where you going so fast?" She asked, not moving and with morning still in her voice.

"Well," he started out. "Since I've been awake for a while, I thought I"d use the facilities, and my arm is asleep. I need some circulation."

Kristin rolled of his side, "sorry," she replied, apologetically. "I must have slept like a rock." She said as he left the room.

"It's okay, really. I'll be fine in a couple of minutes."

Kristin used the couple of minutes to hurry and get dressed. She remembered hearing the news of Matther's death and being spent for the rest of the night. Almost dying by his hand didn't make it any easier to hear, either. She had loved him deeply once, and she wondered how long it would take for the news of his death to not affect her as it did now. She chose the same sundress that she wore a couple of days ago, not caring if it smelled or not. Her hair was short, and she was having haircut remorse because she really wanted to put it in a ponytail at the moment. It was a comforting motion that would have to wait several months.

By the time Heath came out of the bathroom all dressed, she was dressed too, the bed was tidied up, and her bags were packed back up, except for her toiletries. "I'll only be a minute." She said, walking around him with her toiletries bag to the bathroom.

"Kristin." He said, grabbing her arm, effectively stopping her.

She looked at his hand on her forearm, then into his eyes with fear, or extreme fatigue. "Not now." Was all she said as he let her arm go and she disappeared into the bathroom. "I'll only be a minute. Or two." She shut the door behind her, only to leave Heath in the lurch.

As a detective, he knew it was a hard thing for someone to grasp a loved one had died. He'd seen it many times in his line of work, but he had been growing feelings for this woman since shortly after he'd met her. She was smart and beautiful and granted she'd been through a lot in the last month, but something about her was extraordinary. Remarkable, even. He didn't know when it had happened, but somewhere on the road, he'd begun to think of her as more than an assignment. Captain Vanderson would have his head on a pike if anything happened to her on his watch.