Obsession (Southern Comfort) (9 page)

He was oblivious to the fact that he was being
shadowed by her car.  The wind tore at his dark hair, his broad shoulders hunched against the bite of it as it shrieked banshee-like down the alley.  He wasn’t wearing a coat.

Kathleen shook her head, wondering what he was thinking.  With Justin, it was sometimes difficult to tell.  He was probably too lost in
thought to realize that it was cold. Perhaps contemplating the latest advances in robotic surgery techniques, or the implications of quantum superposition in macroscopic objects.  Equally likely, he was debating what sort of tile would be both the most durable and aesthetically pleasing for a backsplash.  He was the oddest mix of common sense, hands-on practicality and the cluelessness that was often typical of frighteningly intelligent individuals that she had ever encountered in a human being. 

The absent-minded professor crossed with Bob Villa.

Part of his appeal, she admitted with an inward sigh.  Especially for someone like her, with her fascination for puzzles.  The more complex, the better.  And Justin was nothing if not complex.

She could simply
drive past, pretend she hadn’t seen him.  And let this ridiculous crack which had arisen in their friendship widen into a chasm.  But she wasn’t the type to just let something she valued be irreparably damaged from lack of care.  And besides, she wasn’t an emotional coward.

Much.

She slowed the car further and rolled down the passenger window.  “Need a ride, little boy?  I have candy.”

His shoulders went back as his head whipped around.  Was that…
anger she saw on his face?  Whatever it was, it was gone as quickly as it had appeared.  He looked at her through the open window, hesitated, and then finally clasped the handle on the door.

“Thanks.”  He slid into the passenger seat.
  “It’s not really that cold, but the wind coming off the bay is downright nasty.” He rubbed his hands together to warm them.

“Especially when one isn’t wearing a coat,” she pointed out the obvious.

“Right.”  He looked grim.

Kathleen
eased away from the curb before glancing at him again.  He was still in scrubs, she realized, which hadn’t registered before because she was so used to seeing him that way.  Almost like a uniform.  But he very rarely wore them outside the hospital.  If she had to guess, it was because he was uncomfortable with the attention they drew from a certain segment of the female population.  Not that he wasn’t gorgeous enough to draw women like flies, anyway. But some women saw the MD as more important than the actual man.

“You lost?”

“What? Oh.  No.” He shook his head when he realized she was indicating his clothes. He shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I’m on my way to Murphy’s, actually, if you wouldn’t mind dropping me off.  I’m meeting my brother for dinner.”

“One of your bro
thers is in town?” Kathleen asked with interest.  She’d met his three older brothers at her cousin Tate’s wedding a couple years ago.  Tate’s husband, Clay, was a close family friend of the Wellington’s.  The older brothers all had families, so she knew they sometimes visited in the summer to bring their kids to the beach, but this was the off season.  Way off, she mused, as the wind rattled the windows of her car. 

“I hope everything is okay.”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” he said. “Well, mostly fine.  James dropped out of law school.  And it appears he’s moved in.”

“What?”  Kathleen
had to laugh.  She’d never met the youngest Wellington, but she knew after nearly three years of friendship with Justin that he liked his personal space. Having also grown up in a large, boisterous family, it was a sentiment with which she could sympathize. “So you have a housemate?”

“Temporarily.”  Justin
shifted his gaze her way.  “It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I was afraid it would feel like babysitting. Of course, it’s only been a few days, and James is on his best behavior.  But he’s matured.  It’s making it easier to remember that he’s not a little kid anymore.”

“I know what you mean,” she said as she cut down the back street
which essentially dead-ended at Murphy’s. “Declan is only two years younger than me, but up until recently, it felt like ten.  But now my annoying kid brother is a married man and an expectant father.  It boggles the mind.  So where’s your truck?”

“What?”

“Your truck,” Kathleen repeated as she turned onto the cobblestones of Murphy’s lot. “I know you’re a health nut and all, but you don’t usually walk here from the hospital.”

Justin
avoided her gaze.  “It’s in the shop.”

Spotting a compact parking space toward the back – Murphy’s was almost always crowded – Kathleen whipped her car in.

She shifted into park, but left the engine running.  Then laying her arm across the steering wheel, turned to look at Justin.

“Why?”  Justin usually did all the work on his truck himself. 
He’d rebuilt the thing from a veritable shell back in his college days, the manual labor being cathartic with the side benefit of helping him focus better, or so he’d explained.  It was the same reason he did most of the work on his house himself now.  If the truck was in the shop, that meant something major must have happened.

“Because I don’t have time right now to… fix… what needed to be fixed.”

Which was an evasion if she’d ever heard one.  That he felt the need for evasion piqued her interest.

“What needs to be fixed?” she persisted.

He thought about not answering.  This was one time that his mental roadmap was not only apparent, but lit with neon signs.  His jaw was set as he stared out the windshield.

“The lock.  I’m having it rekeyed.”

Kathleen studied his profile.  He was often serious, but rarely bad-tempered.  Now he looked irritable, to say the least.  “Which indicates that you’ve suffered a break-in and the lock was damaged.
Or
that you have reason to believe that someone whom you don’t wish to have access to your vehicle is in possession of your keys.”

“It’s pretty damn annoying to have you play detective with me.”

“Just like it was pretty damn annoying to have you play doctor with me.”

His gaze met hers with an almost audible click, and heat shot instantaneously into her cheeks. 
Kathleen froze with mortification.  She hardly ever got embarrassed, especially about something as minor as an unintentional innuendo. Her annoyance escalated as the heat spread downward, making her nipples peak and finally pooling between her thighs.  Thank God at least one of them was wearing a jacket.

“You know what I mean,” she muttered.

The edges of his lips quivered, easing his frown.  “Are you
blushing?”

“Stop trying to change the subject. 
You want to tell me what’s going on?”

His frown came back, and he glared through the windshield.  Whatever it was, he didn’t want to discuss it. 
She should probably give him his space.  There was already enough tension between them – hell, it hung like an invisible curtain in the car – but if something was troubling him, she wanted to know it.

And besides, she’d never held back with him before.  She wasn’t going to start now just because he’d kissed her.

“You know I’ll find out eventually,” she told him.  “You might as well save us both the irritation and tell me now.”

He gritted his teeth
, obviously recognizing the truth of what she said.  They had too many mutual friends, which made it difficult to keep secrets.  Not to mention – as he already had – that she
was
a detective.

“Last week – the night I saw you outside the theater, actually – someone
… got into my truck.  It was locked when I left it, and it was locked when I returned, but it was clear that someone had been in it. And before you ask, there was no sign of tampering.  No visible sign, anyway. So I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have it rekeyed.”

Well this was interesting.  “How did you know? That someone had be
en in it, I mean. Was it vandalized?”

He shook his head.  “Nothing like that.  They left something. It wasn’t a big deal, really
.”

Uh-huh.
“What did they leave?”

“A book.”

Odd.  “I didn’t realize the Gideon’s had expanded their efforts beyond hotel rooms.”

He smile
d, but his amusement faded quickly.  “It was a Koontz novel”

“Your favorite.”

He nodded.

“One ‘someone’ borrowed from you
and decided to return in the most intrusive possible fashion or…”

Justin shot her a look that said
she was playing detective again. “It was meant to be a gift, judging by the fancy bag. But like I said, it wasn’t that big a deal. And I’ve taken steps to see that it won’t happen again.”

“By having your truck rekeyed.”

“Yes.”

A
t the tone of his voice, a puzzle piece clicked into place.  “And by telling Mindy to piss off.”

He snorted and shook his head, but he didn’t bother to correct her
about his ex-girlfriend’s name. “I’m pretty sure ‘Mindy’ won’t be making any further advances in my direction.” Justin hesitated, then glanced at his watch. “I better get going.  I was supposed to meet James ten minutes ago.”  When he looked up, his gaze locked with hers. 

The heat came back, a slow, creeping warmth that reminded Kathleen there were things they hadn’t discussed.
  The curtain of tension rippled.

“Thanks for the ride.”

“You bet.” Kathleen swallowed past the unexpected lump in her throat as he climbed out of the car.  “Justin?” 

“Yeah?” He leaned down, one hand resting on
top of the open door. She looked at those long, elegant surgeon’s fingers curled around the frame.  For some reason, she flashed back to the autopsy she’d witnessed last month, the striated nails of the man who’d been poisoned by his wife.

“Just be careful, will you?  Women are nuts.”

The corner of his mouth lifted in the ghost of a smile.  “Don’t I know it.”

He shut the door, and Kathleen watched him walk away.

JUSTIN’S
smile faded as the cold air stung his cheeks. He could have stopped into one of the men’s apparel stores near the hospital, he guessed, before he’d dropped his truck off, and bought himself a new coat.  But his irritation burned so hot that the frigid wind was more balm than bite.

He hadn’t told Kathleen everything.  There was no need to get her riled when he couldn’t be sure
where to place the blame.  He was riled enough for both of them.

B
esides, it was a little embarrassing.  And God knew he’d embarrassed himself enough lately where she was concerned.

He’d been in a rush this morning.  There’d been an accident – there was always an accident – on a construction site. 
A man had been crushed beneath a steel beam. In his haste to get to the OR, Justin had left his gym bag with its change of clothes, along with his coat and his extra pair of sneakers in the truck. 

He couldn’t remember if he’d locked it.
  He thought that he had – it was an automatic activity, like turning off the coffee pot.  But like any automatic activity, there were times that you simply couldn’t recall having engaged in it.

And when he’d come back to the truck this e
vening, his clothes were gone, the truck unlocked.

The security guard hadn’t seen anything
out of the ordinary.  So Justin wasn’t sure if he’d simply been a victim of his own carelessness – there were plenty of opportunistic homeless people who wouldn’t hesitate to avail themselves of a nice coat and a relatively new pair of shoes – or if it meant that Mandy had decided to engage in a little childish retaliation.

Justin
paused as he laid his hand on the Celtic knot handle of Murphy’s front door.  When had he gotten so ridiculous? 

Of course he’d been robbed.  Hell, there were signs all over the hospital warning people not to leave valuables in their cars.  It was a known hot spot for break-ins, security guards and cameras be damned.  And if Mandy wanted to get back at him, surely she’d be able to find a better way than taking a few articles of his clothing.

Shaking his head at his own idiocy, Justin pulled open the door, the familiar smells of beer, corned beef and seafood greeting him like an old friend.  He resisted the urge to turn, watch Kathleen pull out of the parking lot. 

All things considered, he’d
been a big enough schmuck for one day.

CHAPTER EIGHT

SHELLEY
Kinson pushed up the sleeves of her long-sleeved T-shirt as she headed toward the patrons who’d just been seated.  She wasn’t used to wearing full-coverage clothing to work. Not that she was complaining about that state of affairs, mind you, but given the size of the crowds this place drew, the fact was it got a little warm when you were being run off your feet.  Strangely enough though, her tips had been better since she’d been at Murphy’s, despite the fact that her boobs weren’t hanging out.  She guessed that said something for the clientele.