A Fine Specimen Read Free Page B

titmouse do?
    Distract the cobra.
    “Do you know, Lieutenant,
I did some research on the history of the police force in Baylorville. This is
a far cry from the very first police station,” she said, looking around his
neat, austere office. His office was utterly different from the cheerful
clutter she’d observed on the other officers’ desks. There was nothing in Lieutenant
Cruz’s office which even remotely hinted at anything personal. Besides his
neat, uncluttered desk and the chair he was sitting on, the room had a computer
workstation next to his desk and bookshelves filled with law textbooks and
California police yearbooks, arranged in chronological order. No photographs,
no bulletin board with notices tacked up, no wanted posters, nothing.
    “The first station was
built in 1858 where Willard’s Department Store is now, at the Horace Street entrance. They called it the lockup. There
were three police officers, only they were called constables then. Part of
their duties was to ensure that every woman who attended a public dance was
wearing a corset. It was written in the contract.”
    He blinked. “Oh yeah?”
    She had distracted the lieutenant,
she could see that. Maybe even thrown him off his stride. His annoyed look
faded.
    “Well, that’s very int—”
He caught himself and scowled again. “Look, Miss…ah, Ms. Summers. To come back
to the matter at hand, I don’t know what Ray told you, but we do not run
training courses for students at this station.”
    Well, what a stupid
notion.
    “No, of course not,” she
said earnestly. “I certainly don’t expect a full-blown course . That
would be ridiculous and probably illegal. Good heavens, you have enough to do
and I wouldn’t think of taking staff away from their duties. And anyway, I
don’t need a course because I’m something of an expert on law enforcement
myself.”
    He looked absolutely
blank for a moment, his jaw hanging open slightly, before closing his mouth
with a snap. His eyes narrowed until only the pupils showed, gleaming blackly
under the harsh overhead neon like a sword in moonlight. “You’re an expert on what ?”
    “Law enforcement.”
Caitlin watched, fascinated, as the muscles in his jaw worked and the cords in
his neck stood out even more. It looked as if each muscle in his body—and he
had a lot of them—tensed. She was so vividly aware of him that she hardly had a
sense of herself. This was ridiculous. She had to get herself under control and
stop allowing him to distract her so. She needed him to take her seriously, but
he wouldn’t if she simply sat there like a ninny, fascinated by his muscles.
    Caitlin bent down to
rummage in her book bag for the copy of
her paper in The Law Enforcement Review . She was proud of that paper. It
was a great paper. It held some original and truly groundbreaking research and
had taken her two and a half years to write. Once the lieutenant read it, he
would see that she knew what she was talking about. “Here,” she said eagerly,
thrusting the copy across his desk.
    The lieutenant reached
out with a frown. “What’s this?”
    His hand closed over
hers, hard, warm, so incredibly, powerfully male. Caitlin jumped as if an
electric prod had touched her. She jerked her hand away and knocked over his
coffee cup—dumping the steaming contents straight into his lap.
    There was a tense silence,
broken only by the steady drip of coffee from the lieutenant’s trousers onto
her paper, which had fluttered to the floor in the terrible slow motion of
disasters.
    “ Oh . My . God !”
Caitlin breathed. There was a fierce internal battle inside her, as an intense
desire to flee combated an equally intense desire to laugh. She clapped her
hand over her mouth and stared at him, horrified.
    He stood up, holding his
sodden trousers away from his skin. Caitlin realized that the boiling coffee
must have burnt him.
    “Oh!” She completely
forgot her intimidation as she rushed to his side, kneeling, pulling