He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Baubles and Beads can take a vacation for a day or two. I don’t want you down near that wharf alone. Promise you’ll stick to Chase like Velcro.”
Heat suffused her face, and she knew she was turning red as a beet from his unintentional insinuation. “Dad!”
He chuckled, but remained serious. “You know what I mean. I don’t like it that you were the last one to talk to some random dead tourist.”
Her eyes darted to Chase, who gave the slightest shake of his head. Apparently he didn’t tell her father the whole story, or the truth about the extent of her involvement. “Okay, Dad. I promise.”
He nodded. “Good. Now, give me a hug and I’ll get going.”
When Scott Maguire pulled his truck out of the driveway, Emma turned to Chase, hands on hips. “What exactly did you tell my father?”
“I told him what happened last night. Just not all the details.”
“Obviously you left out any connection to my friend Tony and his New York gangsters.”
“Emma, your brother’s been in critical condition all week. Scott has enough on his plate without worrying about mob hit men coming for his baby girl.”
She snorted. “I highly doubt there are hit men gunning for me.”
“Think of your mother, then. She certainly doesn’t need that additional stress right now. Besides.” He stood up and gathered her into his arms. His voice lowered to a husky whisper. “I’m looking forward to spending the day together.”
That fierce look returned to his eyes, and she started to think maybe the concern was really for her and not his job at all. A host of butterflies swirled in her stomach. He felt strong, solid, and dependable. She felt safer in his embrace than she had in years, probably since she left home for the big city.
Even though she knew she could take perfectly good care of herself, it was nice to know someone had her back. Her gaze lowered to his mouth. Especially someone who kissed like a god. She licked her lips. “So what do we do now?”
One eyebrow quirked upward. “I have plenty of ideas…” His kiss was soft and tender, full of promises of things to come. And over far too quickly. He released her from his embrace and took her hand instead. “But I think your father had a good suggestion. The lab at CCS makes a good spot to wait for the police to call us down to the station. I’ll bet that high school friend of yours will even send a squad car to get us if you ask nicely.”
She nodded. “I get it. You’re on a deadline and can’t afford wasted days. Let me grab a book to read.” She started for the kitchen door, but he pulled her back.
“This has nothing to do with my work, and everything to do with keeping you out of harm’s way. If your friend Tony is somehow involved in this, your parents’ home isn’t the safest place to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, for one, he knows the address. He was here with you last Sunday, right? And second, there’s no way to lock the front door.”
Emma widened her eyes. “How did you know about the broken lock?”
“You told me last night on the walk home. Don’t you remember? You left your purse on that police officer’s desk, but said it didn’t matter because your parents don’t believe in locking doors.” He tugged her closer for a quick kiss. “We can stop by the police station on our way to the lab, if you need anything from it.”
She thought of her phone tucked into the purse’s side pocket, but dismissed it. “If we go in there now, we’ll be stuck at the station all day. Jim has your number to call. No harm in waiting until they want us.”
He nodded, nuzzling the side of her neck. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“Anyway, it’ll be fun to see you in your element, working to save the planet and all.”
A wry smile curled his lips. “Fun? Cataloging the dire consequences resulting from climate change isn’t exactly what I’d call fun. Although, having you by my side will make it a helluva lot more interesting.”
She plucked at the sleeve of his dress shirt. “Why don’t we borrow one of Sean’s T-shirts for you to wear? I don’t think his pants will fit you, but maybe his shorts will. At least you won’t look like you’re doing the walk of shame in last night’s clothes.”
“Fine. But I’ll keep my long pants if we’re going to CCS. Safer to have my legs fully covered in a lab environment. You might want to change, too. That swirling skirt is distracting.”
“I don’t find it distracting at all.” Emma looked down and shifted the skirt from side to side so that the bright colors and tiny mirrors sparkled in the sunlight. “Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be doing lab work. I barely passed chemistry in high school.”
Chase snagged her by the waist, resting his head on top of her hair. “Well, I’m very distracted by it.” He dipped her to one side and nibbled her earlobe.
“Oh.” Intense longing filled her body at his touch, the stubble on his cheek searing a path in its wake. He trailed kisses from her ear down to her shoulder, stopping at the strap of her tank top. He pulled back to read her shirt. “Is this the place we had ice cream yesterday?”
Wrapped in the moment, his question caught her off guard. “Oh, um, yes, I worked there one summer. I’d come home every day covered in ice cream, dripping to my elbows with sprinkles stuck in the darndest places.”
His eyes darkened a full shade to a swirling charcoal. “We should go back there tonight,” Chase finally said, his voice rough. He kissed her neck one last time before releasing her, putting her at arm’s length. “I’ve been thinking about vanilla ice cream with sprinkles ever since we visited the other day.”
She scrunched her eyebrows together. “You didn’t have vanilla ice cream, or sprinkles. Why would you—Oh!” She blinked hard, suddenly remembering her own cone dripping sprinkles all down her leg, with Hershey all too eager to lick up the mess and Chase’s eyes nearly bugging out of his head. Her face heated, blushing furiously at the image of Chase’s tongue lapping sprinkles from her body. A wave of desire swept through her but she maintained her composure. Just barely. “Sounds like a great idea.”
If they could wait that long.
Chapter Eighteen
Chase couldn’t believe how fast the morning flew. He usually craved solitude when working in a laboratory setting, barking at assistants for asking questions, thinking of any excuse to send them away. But not today. If anything, he found it oddly invigorating to have Emma so interested in every step of the process.
The head of the Center for Coastal Studies gave him the thumbs-up and use of one of the empty labs for the day, apologizing for any deficiencies in available equipment. “We’ve been a small regional center for so long,” he explained. “The government funding is only beginning to trickle in.” He smiled. “I’m so glad we’re finally receiving the recognition we deserve. I was beginning to think I’d be retired before my dreams were fully realized.”
“Congrats on the national recognition, and your facility is quite suitable for my purposes,” Chase assured the older man.
“And let me tell you it’s quite an honor to meet you, Dr. Anderson. I’ve read all your papers and reports. Brilliant! The work you’ve done on climate change research is so important.”
Chase shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to brush off the praise. “I appreciate the kind words, Doctor. I’m lucky enough to love what I do.”
“If you need an assistant for today…”
He dismissed the offer with a wave of his hand. “I have an intern out collecting additional samples. But I actually prefer to work alone.”
The older man frowned. “Science should always be collaborative. Like life. We do our best work and have our brightest moments when we have people by our side.”
“So I’m learning.”
Despite the old man’s speech about collaboration, Chase wouldn’t let Emma into the actual lab, especially wearing that sparkling, swirling, oh-so-distracting skirt. The samples he and Todd collected contained microorganisms posing potential health hazards of unknown origins and potency. Besides, he couldn’t imagine getting anything accomplished if she stood within kissing distance.
Instead, she observed through the plate glass window overlooking the room, asking myriad questions via the lab’s intercom system, and chatting with the other scientists and assistants buzzing in and out of adjacent rooms. “I had no idea what you meant when you said you collected samples.” She watched him swab a bright bit of broken plastic, her voice sounding slightly tinny over the speaker.
“They aren’t always Technicolor,” he said, flashing a grin in her direction.
Emma laughed. “So I’ve got a joke for you. What did the fisherman do when the fish broke his line?’
“I don’t know. What?”
“He got reel-y mad. Get it? R-e-e-l, like for fishing?” She chuckled at her own bad joke. Chase rolled his eyes and took the next sample out of the cooler.
“Okay, okay, tough crowd.” She tapped her finger to her chin for a few minutes, thinking. “I’ve got another one. What’s the difference between a dirty bus station and a lobster with a boob job?”
Chase paused in the middle of what he was doing, and gave her an incredulous look. “What kind of lobster gets a boob job? Lobsters don’t even have breasts.”
It was Emma’s turn to roll her eyes. “Humor me. It’s a joke.”
He sighed. “Okay, I give up. What’s the difference?”
She giggled and clapped a hand over her mouth. Clearing her throat, she gave him a serious look. “One’s a crusty bus station, and the other is a busty crustacean. My eighth grade biology teacher told us that one.”
Chase couldn’t help but smile. “You know these are bad jokes, right? I mean, really bad.”
“Yeah, but aren’t they fun?”
Amazingly, neither her questions nor her awful jokes slowed his progress. Meticulous and efficient, he finished the work he came to do, even without the full university laboratory at his disposal.
After extracting potential bacteria and other microorganisms from the recovered debris, Chase made several slides and checked for signs of avian virus under an electron microscope. Much of the waste seemed medical in origin, which he’d noted while still out on the water and reported via text to his contact at the CDC. He’d leave it to someone else to find the source of the illegal dumping. Enforcement wasn’t his problem. His current focus was routing out unknown pathogens.
Using the microscope, he found evidence of various bacterial growth and a few known virus strains, consistent with his medical waste hypothesis, but nothing like the new flu they’d discovered amidst the plastisphere samples. A few of the slides were inconclusive. He stained several petri dishes, hoping to grow more definitive cultures overnight, before putting the original samples back into cold storage. He cleared the counters and removed his protective coat, gloves, and mask before exiting the room. “There’s more I might do if I was back in my own lab, but at least this gives me a head start. I wish I could compare these directly with the slides we made earlier in the month.”
Emma cocked her head. “Tell me again what this has to do with stopping climate change?”
His laugh sounded a little bitter, even to his own ears. “Climate change can’t be turned on or off like a light switch. It’s a fact of life on our planet today. We need to find strategies to slow the progression, but we also need ways to deal with the consequences of our past behaviors.”
“How does your garbage gyre fit into the picture?”
Chase stood at the sink, scrubbing his hands and forearms with disinfectant. “Scientists have known about the gyre since the 1970s. It’s only the more recent warming of the oceans that make the growth of these viruses possible. The rise of a few degrees in water temperature can be the difference between disgusting but harmless trash and a flotilla of deadly pathogens.” His cell phone rang, interrupting before Emma could ask questions, the word “deadly” hanging in the air like a warning sign. He checked the screen. “It’s the police station. Must be show and tell time with the medical report.”
Emma made a face. “It’s really not something to joke about.”
He laughed as he clicked the answer button. “Says the woman who’s talking about giving boob jobs to lobsters.” He directed his attention to the caller on the other end of the line. “Hi, Detective Wilton. What’s the news?”
The officer first asked after Emma, sounding a little too interested for Chase’s comfort. His eyes darted to hers, which stared back blankly, waiting for answers. The laugh lines and dimples around her mouth had smoothed, drooping with worry. “She’s been better.”
She’ll be better once this murder investigation goes away
.
Jim told him the medical examiner completed his report, with surprising results that couldn’t be discussed over the phone. Chase looked at his watch, shocked to see it was noon. “We’ll be there as soon as we grab something for lunch.”
Emma watched him return the cell phone to his pocket. “What did the report say?”
“Your buddy wouldn’t tell me. We need to go visit.”
“You realize that Jim is my brother’s friend, actually, not mine.”
“Are you sure? He seemed awfully protective of you.”
Emma waved her hand, dismissing his concern. “Because I’m Sean’s little sister. I don’t think you appreciate what a small town this really is. People look out for one another. It’s not like living in a big city.”
“Do you miss it?” She stayed quiet for so long Chase repeated the question. He pulled her up from her chair, slipping his arms around her waist.
“Sometimes.” She shrugged. “I needed to get away from home to gain perspective, but yeah, it’s a pretty great town. I was lucky to grow up here.”
Chase nodded, thinking again of how different his own childhood had been. He was almost certain he didn’t know a single neighbor in his parents’ Manhattan skyscraper or their Southampton neighborhood. “Come on, let’s get something to eat and then find out what the M. E. uncovered.”
Heading out the back door of the Center, he took Emma’s hand and squeezed. “I hope you weren’t too bored in the lab this morning.”
“Are you kidding? It was like watching my own personal Discovery Channel,” she said, and laughed out loud. “Except without the blood and gore that accompanies a lot of those shows. Hey, do we have time to swing by the house and let Hershey out to run around? We can pick up sandwiches and eat them on the patio before we see Jim.”