“It was her birthday yesterday, Dakota. And your victim is a young woman who would have been about Kara’s age now.”
“Shit, Tessa. It’s been twelve years.” He said it as if the passing years had dulled his sense of failure.
She arched a brow. “Don’t give me that bullshit,” she said, lowering her voice. “For you, no time at all has passed.”
A sigh shuddered through him as he opened the car door. “I’m assuming you’re doing the autopsy.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m assisting Dr. Kincaid.”
“Call me when you have this victim on the table. I want to be there.”
Tessa arrived back at the medical examiner’s office with Dr. Kincaid and the body just after ten that night. She checked the victim in as Dr. Kincaid scheduled the autopsy for the morning. After the body had been stripped and placed in cold storage, the women opted to call it a night.
It was close to midnight when she made the drive through Richmond and over the Mayo Bridge into the Manchester section of the city. The drive took less than ten minutes. As she pushed through the front door of her cousin’s converted warehouse apartment, relief shuddered through her. She had six hours’ break before returning to the office for the autopsy.
For a moment she stood, staring out the large windows overlooking the James River and the city. As she had done since she began her rotations on the hospital floor in medical school, she stripped off her work clothes and turned on a hot shower. When the steam rose, she stepped into the spray and allowed the heat to wash over her skin and rinse away her day.
As the water pulsed over her face, her thoughts turned back to the kiss she’d given Sharp yesterday. Loving him would never, ever be easy. And still, touching him had felt right. “God, Dakota, let me help us figure this out.”
When she’d dried and changed into sweats and a T-shirt, she went into the living room. The furniture in the apartment was eclectic, minimalist, and highlighted her cousin Rebecca’s travels. The rugs were from Morocco, a vase filled with fresh tulips was from Paris, and the collection of black-and-white photos featured many of the places she and her late husband had visited.
When Tessa and Sharp had been together, she’d made an effort to create a nice home. But when she’d left him, she left all they’d acquired behind. Soon, she’d have to find her own place and start collecting secondhand and discount furniture. For most of the last year, she’d all but lived out of a tent, so in her mind, any furniture was a step up. The only piece she was determined to invest in was a quality mattress and bedding. No more sleeping on hard, lumpy surfaces.
One of the keepsakes she’d held on to after her departure was a collection of pictures framed in white distressed wood. She’d kept her wedding picture, though it was in storage. What was displayed on her dresser was a picture of Tessa, her mother, and her aunt at Inner Harbor in Baltimore sixteen years ago, right before her mother died. As she stared at her mother’s pallid, sunken features, it was obvious she was gravely ill. But at the time as an idealistic fourteen-year-old, she’d remained hopeful her mother would beat the illness. Another picture showcased four young girls fresh to college. Kara, Diane, Elena, and Tessa. The image was taken at the fall festival several days before that last Halloween party. They stood at the apple-bobbing tent. They were all smiling, but she was the only one with wet hair. The only one who’d dared ruin her makeup to catch a bobbing piece of fruit in her teeth.
She lifted the image and studied their faces. Twelve years was an eternity. Kara, as always, stared boldly at the camera, her hands crossed in a playful way, a breeze catching her dark hair and gently blowing it from her face. Sadness tightened Tessa’s throat. “Happy belated birthday, Kara.”
The front door opened, and she turned to see Rebecca dressed in her scrubs and holding a pizza. Rebecca was a nurse practitioner at the hospital. “So you survived your first day on the new job?”
“Barely.”
“When did you get in?”
“About twenty minutes ago.”
“Long day.”
Rebecca dropped her purse on the couch and slipped off her shoes. “I thought you were expecting regular hours.”
“For the most part, I am.”
Rebecca handed the pizza to Tessa. “Let me shower and change, and then we can visit before I drink my wine and crash into bed.”
“Sounds great.”
Minutes later Rebecca joined Tessa in the kitchen dressed in a very oversize T-shirt, with her damp hair draping her shoulders. She dug one wineglass from the cabinet and a half-full bottle of white chilling in the refrigerator. Rebecca pulled the wine cork and filled her glass while Tessa grabbed a soda can and popped the top.
Rebecca raised her glass and toasted. “To my day off tomorrow. Your new job. And to a jungle-free, civilized life.”
Tessa clinked. “Thanks.”
“How did it go today?”
“We responded to a very grisly crime scene. I saw Dakota there.”
Rebecca stilled the glass inches from her lips. “And?”
Tessa knew him well enough to know that under the still waters circled anger as alive and all-consuming as a shark in the ocean. In the coming days, eating would happen on the fly and speaking would whittle to the basics until his case was solved. “Not bad.”
Rebecca raised a brow. “It’s me you’re talking to. How was he?”
Tessa flipped open the pizza box and took a slice. “The same.”
“So what’s the deal with you and Sharp? Married or divorced?”
“Married, technically.”
Rebecca’s eyes narrowed. “What else aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing really.”
“So it is strictly business?”
Tessa pulled a piece of cheese from the top and coiled it around her finger. “Basically.”
“Have you forgotten what it was like when you were married to him? I respect the hell out of the guy as a cop, but you weren’t happy with him.”
“You make him sound like a monster. He isn’t.”
“I didn’t say that. But he got so wrapped up in his work that he wouldn’t come home for days, and when he did, he would hardly speak.”
“There’s no way you can see what he sees on a day-to-day basis and not be affected.”
“I know Dakota is doing good work, but he’s not an easy man. God knows, I saw what his sister’s death did to the family. We were both at the funeral.”
Silent, Tessa swirled her soda. “I miss him.”
“Then sleep with him and get it out of your system. He’s not the kind of guy you want to spend your life with. Time is only going to make him worse.”
“Why do you say that?”
“As the years pass, he’ll see more death, and Kara’s murder will only continue to fester.”
“You don’t know that.” She rose to Dakota’s defense even though she doubted her own words.
“Look, Tessa, I’m not a fan of fixer-upper projects. I can say that because I’m a work in progress myself. Any man foolish enough to get close to me is asking for trouble.”