“Oh, she won’t. I’ll see to it.”
“We’ll be there at eight o’clock sharp.”
Julia hung up the phone and smiled at Will. “Okay, Brannock, we can talk to her tomorrow morning. Hope eight’s not too early to drag yourself out of bed.” She started to make a crack about his redheaded “friend” but decided against it. He wasn’t in such a jovial mood anymore. But neither was she.
“Good, that’ll give us time to go over the videos for the last two weeks. I’ll take half and you can take half. Do you have the equipment to play these kinds of DVDs?”
“I have a laptop.” Julia grimaced as he handed her a handful of DVDs. “Great, I do love the movies.”
Will smiled. “Then you’re in luck. Have fun tonight.”
“Same to you, Special Agent.”
J.D. Cass didn’t make it home to his rental house on Signal Mountain until almost six o’clock. If Julia was already there, he hoped he wasn’t in the doghouse with her for not picking her up himself. God knows, he’d made her wait often enough when she was a young kid and he was responsible for her upbringing. He regretted that sometimes, now that he was older and had a teenage daughter to raise. Zoe was a handful, a lot more headstrong than Julia had ever been. But now, now that he had Audrey Sherrod in his life, everything was better than he ever could have dreamed. Even his daughter was behaving herself, following Audrey’s very ladylike example.
Smiling, he realized that he was ultra-eager to see Julia. Until he’d met up with her when she was in town to interview for the CPD detective position, he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his sister. In the last couple of years, they’d had just a time or two together. It had been way too long. They called on birthdays and holidays, of course, but no long talks, no quality time together. He’d been shocked when Julia told him of her decision to relocate to Chattanooga, but he couldn’t have been more pleased. He wanted her around. He wanted her to be part of his new life. Now that he’d met Audrey, he hungered for a close-knit family, for a normal life for him and Zoe and Julia. He entered the kitchen from the garage and dropped his keys on the counter.
“Well, it’s about time you got here, J.D.,” complained Zoe, from where she was sprawled out with her iPod on the living room couch. “Where’s Aunt Julia? I thought she’d be here by now. I made a Roman-style pizza with all fresh ingredients. It’s Audrey’s recipe, so it ought to be really, really awesome!”
“Good idea. And I don’t know where she is.”
“You said you were going to pick her up. What, did you stand her up? Like you used to do me?”
Zoe had not yet forgotten that J.D. often put his work before her. He was a cop; it was going to happen from time to time. But now, Audrey was usually there to fill in for him, which had ended a lot of the animosity between him and Zoe. She loved being with Audrey, anyway. But not as much as he enjoyed it. He looked forward to getting her back in bed as soon as he had the opportunity.
“Will picked her up for me. I couldn’t leave the criminal court. Judge’s orders.”
“You should’ve called Audrey and me. We could’ve gone out to get her.”
“You were at school. And Audrey’s got a successful grief-counseling practice. She can’t just drop everything the minute I call. She had a full day of appointments.”
“Why isn’t she coming tonight?” Zoe complained. “I haven’t seen her in two whole days.”
“She’s having dinner with her father. Just the two of them.”
“Really? Why? I thought they didn’t get along.” Zoe rushed on without waiting for his answer. “Is Aunt Julia pissed off that you didn’t come pick her up? It really sucks that you sent a complete stranger out to get her on her first day in town.” She suddenly smiled. “Even if he’s more smokin’ hot than about any guy I know. My girlfriends think he looks a little like Edward. Dreamy.” Zoe clasped her hands together and seemed to go into some kind of rapture.
“And Edward is?”
“Dad, don’t you know anything?” Zoe shook her head, shocked and disbelieving and displaying it with the drama that only a fifteen-year-old girl could sustain. “
Twilight
? Bella? True love?”
“Oh yeah, that’s the vampire thing you’re always watching on video? What is it? Some kind of werewolves or bears in the woods, right?”
“Dad, Dad, you’re so old sometimes.
Twilight
is absolutely sublime.”
J.D. decided to ignore the
old
part. At least she was paying attention in English class. He’d never heard her use the word
sublime
in a sentence before. But he’d watch that movie, if he could stomach it, just to gain her approval. Maybe Audrey would watch it with him. She liked romantic stuff.
On the other hand, he didn’t like Zoe noticing older men or calling them hot, or even knowing they were hot. He hesitated, then decided to let that pass, too. He didn’t want Julia to walk into a big dad-daughter tiff. “I got hold of Julia about an hour ago. And she’s not mad at all. She’s already been assigned a case. She said she’ll probably be out here around six thirty or seven.”
Frowning, Zoe went back to her iPod and called up whatever pop band she was listening to at the moment. Used to be some idiotic group called Black Eyed Peas, of all things. Now it was probably that boy with the weird hairdo that she liked—the Biebs, or whatever his name was. He made Zoe and her friends swoon, according to Zoe. But Zoe was not sneaking out with boys, or sassing him much—yet another thing he could thank Audrey for. Speaking of Audrey, he hoped it went well tonight at her dinner. She and her dad had had a rocky relationship for many years, which had caused her so much anguish, but this private dinner was a step in the right direction. How anybody could push away a woman as sweet as Audrey, J.D. couldn’t imagine.
Tired from sitting around for hours waiting to be called to the stand, he jerked off his tie and unhooked his hip holster. Hell, it was worse twiddling his thumbs all day than working on a case. He placed his weapon in the gun safe in his bedroom closet, and then relaxed in his worn leather recliner in front of the television set. About an hour later, a knock at the door pulled Zoe up from her loud-music morass. She ran to the door with J.D. right behind her.
“Aunt Julia! It’s so cool you’re staying with us! I made pizza! All by myself!”
His sister embraced her niece and smiled at J.D. over Zoe’s shoulder. Jasper was jumping around barking, and Zoe dropped down on her knees and gave the dog a big hug. His tail was beating the floor like crazy. Next thing J.D. knew, Zoe was going to want a bloodhound, too.
“I’m glad to finally be here,” Julia was saying to Zoe. “Wow, you look awesome in that outfit.”
J.D. examined his daughter’s outfit, not really having noticed what she had on. Purple capris and a loose pink top that had some red sequins and stuff all over it. He guessed it was all right—at least she didn’t wear those too-short tops and shorter-than-short denim skirts anymore. Fact is, now that she was dressing a little more conservatively, he thought Zoe always looked pretty. Even first thing out of bed in the morning when she was so grouchy. She was a gorgeous girl. Same went for Julia. In fact, they looked a lot alike. His daughter seemed to take more after Julia than she did her father. He watched Julia hold his daughter back by the shoulders and admire the lopsided red, sequined heart on the front of her shirt. “I love your top, Zoe. Where’d you get it?”
“There’s this little store in the mall that has the most awesome stuff like this. Me and my friends love to hang out there. It’s the coolest place in town.”
Zoe was smiling, very happy; all three of them were. Zoe and Julia had hit it off big-time since Julia had visited them a couple of times for her interview process at Chattanooga PD. “I can’t believe you’re really going to live here in town, Aunt Julia. That’s so cool. We can do things together all the time. Go to the mall, walk Jasper, go to Audrey’s gym and work out. You and Audrey and me.”
“Thanks a lot,” J.D. said.
“You’re not a girl, J.D. And you know you’re pretty much a stick-in-the-mud.”
Zoe laughed at Julia’s remark. J.D. walked over and gave Julia a big hug. “So I’m a stick-in-the-mud—that’s what you think?”
“ ’Fraid so, but a lovable stick-in-the-mud.”
They all laughed. J.D. sat down. “Well, welcome to Chattanooga. Sorry again about not picking you up. That blasted trial is driving me up a wall. I’m next up, then no, never mind, we’ve got to put so-and-so on first. It’s crazy over there. Lots of recesses and bench conferences. Tam and I have been sitting around all day with little to show for it, except for heartburn.”
He listened to the two girls talk for a minute or two, and then he had to ask. “So, Jules, how’d you like Will?”
“He’s okay, I guess. Pretty funny guy, made me laugh, at least until we got to the crime scene. Then he turned into Mr. Solemn.”
J.D. said, “That sounds like you.”
Zoe seemed to quiver all over. “OMG, Will’s such a hottie. Presley and all the girls think he’s McDreamy. Everybody thinks so, even Audrey.”
J.D. frowned. “Audrey thinks that?”
Julia and Zoe laughed at him. Zoe said, “Yeah, J.D., but then she said nobody’s as handsome as you.”
“Ooooh,” Julia teased him. “You’ve got her crazy about you already. What do all your other girlfriends say?”
“He doesn’t have any other girls, Aunt Julia. Can you believe that? Even that awful Holly that he used to hook up with all the time. Audrey’s got him hook, line, and sinker. Even he admits it.”
J.D. felt sheepish, verging on silly, but everything Zoe said was true. Audrey was not like any other woman he’d ever met. Still, he didn’t like these fifteen-year-olds talking that way about older men. “Where have your friends even seen Will Brannock, Zoe?”
“Oh, here and there, when you bring him around with you. Like you did on your last case.” She grinned mischievously. “Actually, they all think you’re hot, too.”
“Well, then that’s okay.”
Zoe and Julia laughed together again. He loved to hear them laugh. He loved to see them together. Happy as a lark, Zoe raced off to the kitchen. “I’m gonna put in the pizza. It’s got everything on it that I could think of. Hope you like it, Julia!”
“Oh, I will. I like everything. Ask your dad.”
After Zoe was gone and happily clanking around in the kitchen, Julia and J.D. shared a smile. “She’s just a great kid, J.D. I still can’t believe you have a teenage daughter. Man, what a surprise that was.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” He’d had a casual affair with Zoe’s mother but hadn’t known she had had his baby until she was dying of cancer years later and called him about his paternity. After she died, Zoe came to live with him. It was rocky as hell at first, but things were good now. “She’s really special, Julia.” It had taken awhile to admit that, but now—now he didn’t know how he got along without her, teenage angst, the Biebs, and all.
“So the trial’s going badly?” Julia asked, unhooking her hip holster and placing it on the coffee table. She sank down on the couch and waited for his answer.
“Not so much that. It’s pretty much open-and-shut. Just long and drawn out.”
“Did Will tell you anything about the new case we got today?”
“No.” J.D. paused. “Wait. What do you mean,
we
?”
He sat down on the couch beside her, and Julia kicked off her shoes and leaned back against the cushions. She sighed. She looked a little tired, but as pretty as ever. Again he marveled at the resemblance between Julia and Zoe. Now he could see it more than ever. All that long, straight black hair. Julia was taller, around five seven, but Zoe would probably be that tall or taller once she reached adulthood. Julia’s eyes were large and golden brown and intelligent, but at the moment, they looked worried.
“Chief Mullins assigned me as Will Brannock’s liaison. Tam will come aboard as soon as she’s free. It’s a bad one, J.D. A federal judge was murdered, right in his own house.”
“I knew a murder case came up today, but Phil Hayes didn’t have time to fill me in on the details. What judge are you talking about?”
“Lucien Lockhart. You know him, right? I remember your mentioning him.”
J.D.’s frown darkened. “Can’t say I’m surprised somebody finally got him. He’s about as corrupt as they come.”
“He’s known for corruption?”
“He’s known for worse than that. There are rumors of collusion, inside jury tampering, all kinds of illegal things.”
“Well, that’s interesting. You’re not the first one to mention that.”
“Hey, in there,” called Zoe’s excited voice. “Do you like black olives, Julia? Say yes!”
“Black and green both,” Julia called out, winking at J.D. “Love ’em!”
“You got it! I do, too!”
Julia glanced around the living room. “So where’s Audrey tonight? Working late?”
“She had a family obligation. She said to tell you she was sorry she couldn’t be here to welcome you to town.”
“So I take it you’re still all gaga over her?”
“That makes me sound ridiculous.”