“No, Marita, I did not ask for her as a partner.”
“Then how did she get to be your new partner? She’s not homicide; she’s an undercover vice cop. So how did she get promoted to Major Case and being your partner on a serial murder case?”
“We’ve been over this before. It came straight from the commissioner’s office.”
“I think you did.”
“Did what?”
“Ask for her as a partner.”
Kirk rolled over on his back. “And when did I do that?”
“When did you do what?”
“When did I ask for Dawkins as a partner? You think I did, I wanna know when I did it?” Kirk asked, and Bautista said nothing. “Good answer,” Kirk said after a while when she remained silent.
“Did you at least fight for me?”
“What?”
“You said that the order came from the commissioner’s office and I’m asking if you fought for me to be your partner?”
“No, I didn’t call the commissioner and say, hey Pete, I know you wanted Dawkins on the case for whatever reason, but I think Detective Bautista would be a better fit,” Kirk said and laughed. “It ain’t much, but I plan to retire with a pension.”
“I’m serious,” Bautista said, but that was when his alarm went off.
“Look, I gotta go meet Dawkins. I’ll call you later.”
“When?” Bautista asked, but Kirk was already gone.
At six fifty-one, Kirk arrived at the location where the first body was found to meet Detective Dawkins. The body was dropped behind a dumpster at a construction site and was discovered the following morning by the project manager. Kirk was surprised to see that Dawkins was already there and she was taking pictures.
“Good morning, detective,” Dawkins said when she saw Kirk coming toward her. He was six feet tall, with a cinder block chest and salt and pepper close-cropped hair that made him both distinctive and distinguished. But there was a way about him.
Maybe it’s his bordering on bad boy walk that makes him seem a little rugged, and very sexy.
She wanted him.
“Morning.” He was impressed for two reasons. First, because she had beaten him there and he was trying to get there before her. And she was taking pictures with a real camera.
There was another reason Kirk was impressed, but it had nothing to do with police work. Detective Rachael Dawkins could dress her ass off. But there was a good reason for that; Jada still let her use all of her clothing accounts.
“How are you this morning?” Dawkins asked.
“I’m good,” Kirk said and took a step closer to her. “What about you?”
“I’m tired and I need coffee.” She pointed at his cup. “And I notice that you didn’t bring me one.”
“I didn’t know you wanted one, but next time, I will be sure to bring you a cup.” Kirk looked around the site. “So, any conclusions so far?”
“Not yet, I basically just got here.” She held up her camera. “I wanted to get some shots of the scene and compare them to the images we have. See if anything jumps out at me.”
“Good idea,” Kirk said, and the two detectives looked over the scene for a while before they were satisfied and were ready to move on to the next drop site.
“Before we go, detective,” Kirk said and leaned against a nearby truck. “I think we need to talk about the big elephant in the room.”
“What’s that?”