Perilously Fun Fiction: A Bundle Pauline Jones (the red fox clan txt) 📖

“That’s cold.” Delaney paused in the act of lifting his cup to his mouth. “Did Caroline get hold of you?”

“Yeah. She heard about the shooting. Was worried. Wondered if she could help. Why do women do that?” He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease the tension already knotting there.

“What? Want to help?”

“Yeah. What, does she think I can’t figure out how to get myself to and from work without a car?”

“So, how did you get to work?”

“Caroline picked me up.”

Delaney hid his grin behind his coffee cup. “That’s very independent of you.”

“Ha, ha. I should’ve known this would happen when I broke my own rule: never, ever get involved with someone you work with. Especially a woman.”

“Well, the only other choice is the men, Ross. Though if you’re thinking of a change in lifestyle, maybe you can still find that perp we caught last week. Course, you’ll have to wait until after you testify against him before you ask him out.” Delaney gave Mickey a shit-eating grin.

“I don’t think his boyfriend would like it.” Mickey refused to rise to that bait again. Delaney’d been trotting it out all week. It was getting old. “Do I want to know if you heard anything new on the shooting last night?”

Delaney shifted gears. “Not much. You know they found the car—” He stopped, then continued when Mickey nodded. “But don’t think I told you it’s knee deep in shell casings which forensics is painstakingly dusting for prints. They might be done by the turn of the century. But they might not. At least two murders last night. You weren’t the only one getting shot at last night.”

“Great. Been a bad year for the NOPD.”

“No kidding. Did I mention the memo?” Delaney looked at his cup instead of Mickey.

“What memo?”

“The one about improving our crime stats so the news hounds will quit kicking our butts in print.”

“Damn. They might try cutting us some slack.” Mickey knew it would never happen. It wasn’t “in” to cut cops slack.

“Ah, well.” Delaney sighed before adding, “It does make us look bad when our fellow officers keep getting arrested. ‘Course, if the three officers on the scene last night had got off even one shot—”

“Her dress was wrapped around my piece.”

“Way I heard it, you were too busy copping a feel to pull your piece. And that lipstick all over your shirt—” Delaney shook his head in mock sorrow.

“Very funny. All you comedians seem to forget...” Mickey’s voice trailed off as a pair of real lookers swayed past, their hips eye-grabbing in indecently short skirts. Not bad, he decided, thought the legs weren’t as good as—he snapped that thought off before he could complete it. He didn’t want to think about Luci. It wasn’t a fruitful line of thought. He turned back to find Delaney looking at him with amused resignation.

“Don’t you ever get tired, Ross?”

“Of looking? Never. It’s the talking and the touching that’s getting real hazardous to my bachelor status.”

There was a short companionable silence, then Delaney asked, “You never said what happened when you finally got the girl deposited with her family. Were they getting worried?”

“Worried? The Seymours? They don’t know how to worry.” Mickey tipped back in his chair until he was balancing on the back legs and clasped his hands behind his head.

Delaney grinned. “So what did they do?”

“Do? Nothing. If she had been a kid, her parents would’ve been crazy to send her to them. Seems they forgot she was even coming.”

“Forgot?”

“Yeah, maybe the party they were at distracted them. Was at the frat house across the street. Loudest damn party I’ve seen since college.”

“Uh huh.” Delaney fingered his chin. “Didn’t you say these were older ladies?”

“Two-feet-in-the-grave old.”

Delaney shrugged. “I guess it’s true what they say about only being as old as you feel.”

“Yeah, well, these birds feel pretty damn young, then. Were having a great time teaching the boys the bunny hop.”

Delaney choked, then stretched his legs under the table next to them. “You think anyone past sixty’s over the hill, Ross.”

“You are over the hill, Delaney. Should’ve been put out to pasture years ago.”

Delaney wadded up a napkin and threw it at him. “So, were they upset about the shooting?”

“I told you, they don’t get upset. They wanted to know what it was like to get shot at.”

Delaney gave a silent whistle. “I’ll have to admit they sound a few bricks short.” He had to pull his legs in when a server almost tripped over them.

“More than a few, Delaney. Took me a devil of a time to convince them I’d brought them dear little Luci.”

“How could they—?”

“Apparently they don’t have a real good grasp of time passing. When I left they were trying to decide if they could alter her flower girl dress to fit or if they should make a new one.”

Delaney grinned. “I’d like to meet them.”

“You would. You can get along with anyone.”

“Yes, well, isn’t it lucky I’m so well equipped to be your partner?”

Mickey had to laugh. “All right, all right. It’s just that people can be so—so—”

“Human?”

Mickey laughed again. “Yeah. Damn human.”

“I heard she had great legs. Worth dying for.”

“The legs were good,” Mickey admitted. “If they could just be detached from the mouth.”

“Too bad I’m married to my job, I’d look her up. Sarge is always telling me I’m late for my mid-life crisis. Just can’t seem to get up the steam for it.” There was a short silence as he munched contentedly on his doughnut. Then he brushed the powdered sugar off his belly and leaned forward, his gaze serious. “Any chance that shooting was meant for you?”

“Why would it be meant for me?”

“Well, we are on Dante’s ass and he’s known for not liking that. You find out something you haven’t gotten round to sharing with me?”

“Only if it’s something I don’t know I know. He’s been running book for longer than I’ve been a cop, Delaney. Being a known associate