Free Limbo by Amy Andrews Page A

had. And now they’ve made their arrest.’
    ‘He didn’t do it.’
    ‘Oh? Did Hailey slip you some more clues today?’
    ‘Hailey was buried yesterday so I really don’t think we’re going to be able to count on her input anymore.’
    ‘Do they stop…appearing when they’re buried?’ he asked, looking up from the paper.
    She shot him an exasperated look. ‘I don’t know. This hasn’t happened to me before. I don’t know the rules .’ She glared at him some more and he waited patiently for her next salvo. The v was still there so he figured she had more to say.
    ‘Did you ring Baz yesterday?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘And?’
    He shrugged again returning his attention to the paper. ‘They were looking into it.’
    ‘And then they arrested Martin.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘So…they’re not going to look into anything else now, are they? Not with someone on the hook.’
    He looked up at her. ‘You watch too many TV cop shows.’
    ‘Am I wrong?’
    Dash grimaced. ‘Probably not.’ He shifted his legs off the desk and stood. He needed coffee. So would she. Not for warmth. It wasn’t cold outside at the moment — a Brisbane winter was a glorious thing — with the mercury hovering at a very pleasant twenty-four. Hence, he supposed, her t-shirt and discarded jumper.
    But he didn’t think he had the answers she was looking for. Coffee made bad news easier to swallow. As far as he was concerned, coffee made everything easier.
    He poured two cups and passed her one. He resumed his seat. ‘You know…’ He shoved his hand into his hair. ‘Unless there’s evidence to the contrary, it is usually the partner in these situations.’
    ‘There is evidence to the contrary.’
    ‘I mean real evidence. Tangible evidence. Not anything woo-woo.’
    ‘God.’ She shook her head at him. ‘You’re such a cop.’
    Dash blinked. She said it with such venom he was left in no doubt she’d had some experience with the boys in blue. And it hadn’t been good.
    ‘I’m sorry…I know how they think. And besides, I worked homicide for years and it was absolutely my experience that nine times out of ten the partner is the perpetrator.’
    ‘It’s not him. And they still have Isabella and I can’t sit around and do nothing. If you’re not going to help a dead woman and her missing but still very much alive little girl, something you of all people should be able to relate to and a man who is up on charges for a crime he didn’t commit, then I guess I’ll just have to investigate myself.’
    Dash snorted. ‘And how are you going to go about that?’
    ‘I’ll go to the library and get a book,’ she snapped, two spots of colour riding high in her cheeks, her eyes flashing.
    The exact way she’d looked three years ago when they’d gone for it against the wall right behind her head. Dash kept his gaze firmly trained on her.
    Do not look at the wall, man!
    ‘P.I. for Dummies?’ he asked, quashing the persistent image as he tried hard to derail a libido that seemed to have a one-track mind whenever Joy was around.
    ‘If it helps.’
    She was breathing hard now and that really wasn’t good for his peace of mind.
    ‘Okay, okay, don’t get your panties in a wad,’ he grouched, annoyed at himself as he remembered those breathy little pants of hers as she’d come hard and fast. They echoed loudly through his head now — very unhelpfully — as if it had just happened.
    She shook her head. ‘I don’t believe you just said that. That’s disgusting.’
    ‘The panties, the wad or the pure and utter flippant sexism of the statement?’ Dash pretty much figured he’d transgressed on several fronts.
    ‘The panties.’
    ‘You don’t like the term?’
    ‘Sure…if you’re a paedophile.’
    ‘That’s a paedophile thing?’
    Joy rolled her eyes. ‘Ahh yeah…show us your panties little girl and I’ll give you a lolly.’
    Dash swallowed at the sickening scenario. He’d avoided those taskforces during his years on the job