Page 25 of Possessed

Lauren didn’t move out of his arms, but he could feel the tension in her body—her very naked body—because it was pressed against his very naked body.

“So,” she said, “how do we make this not awkward?”

“I have no idea,” he said honestly.

At that moment his cell phone, which was still in the front pocket of his discarded jeans, had the good sense to start vibrating.

CHAPTER TEN

“Might be the office,” he said, carefully pulling away from her, grabbing his jeans and the phone in one quick motion. The number was from After Moonrise, and, grateful for the reprieve, he punched the accept-call button. “Yeah, Preston, what do you have for me?” Raef spoke into the phone, keeping his back to Lauren while he pulled on his jeans.

“Got the results of the accidental-death search,”Preston said.

“Hang on, I’m gonna put you on Speaker.” Raef turned around to find Lauren in the process of pulling on his USAF sweatshirt.

“Let me get some paper first,” she said when her head popped into view. She hurried back to his office and he numbly muttered something to Preston about waiting a second.

Actually, he didn’t remember much of what he’d said to Preston. Raef was too busy staring at Lauren going and coming. His sweatshirt was huge on her, coming almost to mid shapely thigh, but somehow it was even sexier than the damn pink lace.

She sat on the couch, crossed her legs demurely, brushed back her hair and held the pencil expectantly. “Okay, I’m ready,” she said.

He pressed the speaker button, thinking that he’d never look at that old sweatshirt the same way ever again.

“Let’s hear it, Preston.”

“So, I think there are two cases over the past twelve months that you’ll be interested in.” Preston’s voice was as businesslike and efficient as he was. “One happened last January. Remember that bad snowstorm just before the long weekend?”

“Yeah, I do,” Raef said. Lauren nodded agreement.

“On January 20, some local teenager, Charlie Padgett, took his daddy’s Camaro for a joyride to Mohawk Park, along with a case of beer. The storm dumped six inches of snow in an hour. Police report said the kid got drunk and then stuck in the snow. He tried to walk out of the park and fell down and froze to death instead. It was ruled an accident.”

“I’m hoping the tree connection is more than just the fact that Mohawk Park has trees,” Raef said.

“Definitely. The kid’s body was discovered by a tree-trimming team,” Preston said.

“Is there anything in the report besides the tree trimmers being there for regular maintenance?” Lauren asked. “Were they there for a more specific reason?”

Into Preston’s stunned silence Raef explained, “That’s Lauren Wilcox. She’s working her sister’s case with me.”

Preston cleared his throat. “Oh, well, okay. Yes, Miss Wilcox, the police report was thorough. TPD questioned the trimmers extensively. Apparently they were under the direction of a consulting arborist who was overseeing the cleanup after the storm.”

“Did they list the tree doc’s name?” Raef asked.

“Let me check.” Preston paused while Raef heard the tapping sounds of a keyboard. “No, the report just says that they were under the direction of a city-hired arborist.”

“What about the other death?” Raef asked while Lauren took notes.

“The other was in April. Caused by a frat-boy binge, complete with the kid choking on his own vomit, even though he was described by all of his friends as a nondrinking nerd. There’s no direct arborist connection listed, just a coincidental tree connection. The body was found by the campus landscapers behind a very expensive pallet of saplings the university had spent lots of alumni money on to replace the trees that didn’t make it through the last ice storm in February. I figured no one would spend so much money on a bunch of trees without consulting an arborist, so I thought you might be interested.”

“Please tell me the university you’re talking about is TU and not OSU-Tulsa or TCC,” Raef said.

“As a matter of fact, it is,” he said.

“Preston, you might have just served our killer to me on a silver platter. Take the rest of the day off.”

“You know it’s already an hour past quitting time, don’t you?” Preston said.

Lauren hid her giggle with a cough.