Free Cavanaugh Cold Case by Marie Ferrarella Page B

off before he went on needlessly. “I know.”
    Her response stunned him, and he looked at her with renewed respect. “You’re familiar with Star Trek ?” Before she could answer him, Malloy laughed, obviously tickled by this newest piece of information he’d learned about her. “First, jigsaw puzzles, now, Star Trek . It’s like we were separated at birth.”
    Photographing another segment of the body she was beginning to reconstruct, she shook her head, doing her best to maintain an emotional distance between them—which was becoming harder to do.
    â€œA lot of people like jigsaw puzzles and are familiar with Star Trek , Detective,” she replied. “Don’t get carried away.”
    Despite her best efforts to block it, there was something boyishly appealing about the expression on his face as he told her, “I’ve brought you food after hours. Call me Malloy. And, trust me,” he added with a wink, “you’ll know when I get carried away.”
    That grin of his was going to be her downfall if she wasn’t careful, Kristin silently warned herself. She forced herself to talk facts, keeping a tight rein on her thoughts.
    â€œThose numbers are all cataloged in a database, along with the physician’s name and the patient’s name,” she told him crisply.
    She wanted to get him moving and on his way out of the morgue. The space in the area was definitely growing smaller somehow.
    â€œYou may just have found our first genuine break in this case, Doc,” Malloy declared with enthusiasm.
    â€œYou’re welcome,” Kristin murmured as she lowered her eyes back to the partially reconstructed skeleton on the table before her.
    Which was why she failed to be prepared for what came next. By the time she realized what was happening, it was too late.
    Caught up in the moment, Malloy bracketed her shoulders between his hands and delivered a very enthusiastic and yet innocent kiss to her cheek.
    The next second, he had released her and quickly crossed the floor, getting halfway to the door.
    â€œI’ll get back to you,” he promised half a second before he was gone.
    Kristin stared at the open door, stunned. Half of her was hoping that he would live up to his promise—and half of her really hoped that he wouldn’t.
    And both sides were for her best interests.
    * * *
    â€œI’m not any good at this,” Malloy confessed in what came across as his attempt at refreshing honesty.
    He was standing in the computer lab, pleading his case in person to his youngest sister. Detective Valri Cavanaugh split her time between the division where she usually worked and crime scene investigations’ computer lab.
    Usually she filled in if they were shorthanded. But along with this access she’d gained to the police department’s intranet, she’d also acquired miscellaneous requests from her siblings whenever they needed to avail themselves to her expertise and her considerable computer wizardry.
    â€œI’m fine with the everyday, routine stuff and plodding through things that I can find in the department’s regular database,” Malloy went on to tell her, laying out his case, “but this special stuff, hell, I don’t even know where to begin. Help me out here, Val,” he asked, putting on his most contrite face. “I just can’t work magic with computers.”
    The inference was that she could. But Valri saw through her brother’s flowing rhetoric and his golden tongue.
    â€œNo, that’s a talent you work with women. I’m not one of those women,” she pointed out. “I’m your sister, which makes me immune to all the golden words that come out of your mouth.”
    â€œVal, I have no idea how you come up with these fanciful thoughts,” he said, pretending to be grievously hurt. “I just need my little sister’s help.”
    Valri laughed, turning away from the