Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [12]
A woman was sitting on the edge of my desk, examining the family photo of me, Sunny, and our grandmother I kept there. I froze a few feet away and cleared my throat loudly. “What the Hex do you think you’re doing?”
She turned to face me and a perky smile blossomed. “Detective Wilder?”
Somehow I knew I’d regret this later, but I said, “That’s me.”
She slinked up from her perch and extended a hand wearing expensive lotion and perfect French tips. “Shelby O’Halloran. I just transferred in, from Vice at the Nineteenth.”
“Okay…” I said, doing what every cop does when they meet someone new—composing a mental arrest sheet. “Mind telling me why your butt is on my desk, Shelby?” Five-six or-seven, hundred and fifteen pounds, blond hair, ice-blue eyes. No marks or scars. Tattoos—that would have to be left to speculation, although her low-cut white knit top didn’t show me any—
“I’ve been assigned as your new partner.”
Wait, what?
“You’re my what?” I repeated out loud, blinking stupidly. She smiled, wide glossy lips stretching over a row of little white Chiclets that some dentist must be having wet dreams about right this second.
“Your partner. I understand you’ve been without one ever since you were promoted to detective.”
“Yeah, and I like it that way,” I growled. Shelby picked up a black tote and slung it over her shoulder. “Lieutenant McAllister said they’ll have a desk for me by tomorrow, but for tonight would it be okay if I stored my things here? You don’t have anything in your bottom drawer.”
Heat leaped in my chest, and my jaw ground in what laymen refer to as homicidal rage. “You looked through my drawers?”
“You were late,” said Shelby with a shrug. “I was bored.”
I pointed my own raggedy-nailed finger at her cute button face. “Don’t move.” Spinning on my heel, I banged into Mac’s office.
“Don’t even start with me, Wilder.” He held up a hand at the sight of me. “Wasn’t my idea. Morgan requested her transfer before you came back on duty.”
“And no one told me?” I sputtered. “Mac, I cannot be partnered with the living, breathing incarnation of Barbie. All she needs is a pink convertible and a giant hairbrush!”
He reached into his right-hand drawer and pulled out a crumpled pack of Camels. “I haven’t had one of these since you went on leave, but suddenly I have a feeling this night can only degenerate.”
“Mac, you can’t…” I started.
“Wilder, it is out of my hands!” he snapped. “Now if you want to screech at somebody, go find Morgan. Otherwise, take your new partner and go do your job.”
Hah, right. I slammed his door behind me hard enough to shake glass and barreled down the hall to Morgan’s office, where I rapped and didn’t wait for her clipped “Enter” before barging in.
“What the Hex are you doing assigning me some Vice bimbo?” Very subtle, Wilder. Way to get her on your side.
Morgan removed her glasses and bored into me with a glare that would have reduced a lesser woman to a puddle. Good thing Morgan only came close to being the scariest thing I’d encountered in my life. “Detective Wilder, if I wished for the officers under my command to question my judgment I would put a suggestion box outside my office.”
“But I’ve never had a partner!” I said desperately. “I’ve been solo ever since I came to Homicide!”
“Detective.” Morgan rapped her knuckles on her desk to punctuate the word. “I don’t know what kind of house Wil Roenberg was running, but the fact that he allowed someone at your level of instability to careen around the city without backup is sufficient comment. Every detective in every precinct I am assigned to will have a partner. Including you.”
Since I was on a roll with the bad impulses for the evening, I opened my mouth to object again.
“You are not a special case because you are were, Ms. Wilder!” Morgan hissed, standing. She only came to my shoulder, but she was wide-bodied and had an expression on her face that Ghengis Khan might have envied. “I will not tiptoe around your condition! Follow orders or get out—those are your choices. Which do you choose?”
My palms tingled