Derrick eyed her and gave a little shake of his head, but she ignored him. She was going to focus on Zac. Zac Flynn. Their new coworker and her high school crush.
Dreams really did come true.
* * *
"Thank you, Detective Flynn. You can take a seat. Unfortunately, we're getting you started on the Scaglietti case even sooner than we'd anticipated. Last night, we apprehended a suspect whom we believe to be connected to Scagliet
ti. He was discovered not long after a robbery in a nearby restaurant. Flynn, while you're debriefing yourself on the case, I'll need Detective..." The old man scanned the table, pausing briefly on Derrick and Jade before moving along and saying, "Fitzsimmons to interview the perp. Archer, Lockhart—you two can interview the witnesses."
Derrick gritted his teeth. It was obvious by the other man's tone that this was bound to be some kind of punishment. Odds were that the witnesses were Looney Tunes themselves or otherwise impossible to work with. Whatever the case, he could be sure that his work would be cut out for him.
He grabbed his pen, about to write as much to Jade, when the new guy cleared his throat and started to speak.
"Excuse me, sir, but if we have this person apprehended, I should be able to review the file in time for an interview this afternoon. We don't need to bother Detective Fitzsimmons—"
Fitzsimmons, a balding red headed man, shot Flynn a nasty look that everyone at the table was apparently deciding to ignore, including the supervisor. The old man shook his head and said, "No, no. We've been working this case for months. We need you to study up, not rush it. With any luck, you'll have plenty more chances." He let out a rusty laugh and everyone offered their fakest half smiles in return.
Not Derrick, though. He was focused on Flynn. There was something about the guy that he couldn't place. Or maybe it was just that he'd never learned to trust a man who intentionally used hair gel. Before Jade came in, the supervisor had been praising all Flynn's military training and awards. Apparently he'd been a Navy man.
It figured, too. A guy like that would be in the Navy instead of the Army.
Oh well, just so long as he didn't intend on swapping war stories, Derrick could manage.
He flicked another sidelong glance at Jade. She was staring at Flynn, her blue eyes glazed over with something that looked dopey and strange on her square, serious face.
You know this guy or something?
He scrawled the message while the supervisor moved on to overviewing what each detective would be working on that day.
Him?
That was it? All she had to write?
No, the other new guy
She rolled her eyes.
We went to high school together.
High school. He always forgot Jade was from Hawaii. He always assumed that everyone around was an implant like him, using their military experience to get a leg up in their detective training. But no, she'd gone and done things the old fashioned way.
So this guy was from Hawaii, too?
Interesting.
She didn't bother to respond, and for the rest of the meeting he watched as her expression dipped in and out of dreaminess while she stared at Flynn. Or, more accurately, poorly concealed her efforts not to stare at Flynn. She was unusually, quiet, too. She didn't even mouth off when Fitzsimmons made a crack about female detectives.
He wanted to reach over and shake her, ask what was wrong with her. He'd never seen her this way before, and in the year they'd worked together that was really saying something.
When the meeting was over, the other detectives slowly filtered out of the room with the supervisor leading the charge, but Derrick hung back and grabbed a donut from the box on the counter, then poured himself a cup of coffee and stirred.
Eventually, there was nobody in the room but Flynn and Jade, the later of whom was scrawling absentmindedly on a notepad and trying her best to look important. She was failing.
Staying in the corner, he took a bite of his donut and pretended not to pay attention.
"Long time no see," Flynn said to her and she let out a little gasping sound.
"Oh my gosh, yeah, sorry, I was just—"