Cavanaugh Standoff. Marie Ferrarella

to his older brother. He took one last look over his shoulder at the disappearing woman. “Is she telling you she loves you?”

      Ronan’s mouth dropped opened. “What the hell are you talking about?”

      Chris jerked a thumb in the direction of the departing detective. “She just crossed her heart. I thought she was miming ‘I love you.’”

      Ronan scowled at him. “Did you come here to make an already bad day worse?”

      Chris’s face seemed to almost light up. “No, actually I came to ask you to be best man.”

      “I already am the best man. I always have been,” Ronan answered wryly.

      “At my wedding, you idiot,” Chris said, giving Ronan a friendly shove. “Suzie Q and I are getting married.”

      That caught Ronan’s attention. “For real?”

      If possible, the grin on Chris’ face widened. “As real as it can get. Priest, flowers, everything.”

      Ronan shook his head. “Damn, I thought she had more sense than that.”

      “Show a little respect or you’ll be demoted,” Chris warned. “The position of flower girl hasn’t been filled yet.”

      “I have a lot of respect for Suzie,” Ronan said honestly, referring to the absent detective. “It’s you I don’t have all that much respect for,” he added drolly. “Never have.”

      “Then that’s a yes?” Chris asked, a touch of anxiousness surfacing in his voice. “I know you don’t care for all that attention.”

      Ronan shrugged. “Nobody’s going to be looking at me, they’ll be looking at Suzie—and the lucky stiff who’s marrying her.”

      Chris wanted to nail things down and he needed a direct answer. “Again, is that a yes?”

      Ronan grinned, genuinely happy for his younger brother. “Try and keep me away. Just tell me where and when.”

      Relieved, Chris answered, “I’ll tell you a lot more than that, but this’ll do for now.”

      Ronan shook his head and smiled as he watched his younger brother leave. He envied Christian, he really did. He could remember being that happy. Once.

       Chapter Four

      “You should do that more often,” Sierra said.

      Ronan turned, surprised to see her standing near him. He thought she was still in the break room and hadn’t even heard her come up.

      “Do what?” he demanded.

      “Smile.” Even as she said it, his expression went back to its normal impassive look. Still, determined to make him come around, she pushed on. “You don’t look quite as scary when you smile.”

      He caught himself almost smiling again and wondered what it was about this woman that had him responding in ways he hadn’t for a long time. “You’re missing the point,” he told her gruffly. “Why wouldn’t I want to look scary?”

      “Well, you got me there,” she answered, tongue in cheek. “If you don’t know, I can’t explain it to you.”

      “Good.” Ronan turned back to look at the photographs she’d put on the bulletin board, waiting for something to nudge his brain. But nothing came. He glanced at Sierra. The latter had gone back to the desk that had been assigned to her for the duration of this case. “Anything occur to you?” he asked.

      “Not yet,” she admitted honestly. “But it’s still early.”

      “Yeah,” he said with a sigh, turning back to the bulletin board. He frowned a little as he told her, “You know, this isn’t a half-bad idea, using the bulletin board.”

      She made no effort to hide her stunned expression. “Wow, two half compliments in one day. Aren’t you afraid that I’ll get a big head?”

      “Bigger than it already is?” he asked.

      She took no offense. She had a hunch he felt he had to say something like that to counter the left-handed compliment he’d just tendered.

      “I don’t have a big head,” she told him. “I just know my capabilities.”

      Ronan began to say something about the extent of her “so-called” capabilities when he saw her suddenly sit up and look alert. For just a second, the expression in her eyes captivated him. She looked almost ethereal. Definitely beautiful. And that was when he realized that when she held her head a certain way, she reminded him of Wendy.

      Startled, he quickly got hold of himself. This wasn’t the time to think about Wendy. He wasn’t ready to go there now. Maybe he never would be.

      The next second he turned to see Martinez and Choi walking back into the squad room. He crossed to them. “Anything?” he asked.

      Martinez refrained from letting his disappointment show. “If anyone recognizes her—” Martinez nodded at the sketch put together from the bartender’s recollection “—they’re not talking. But in their defense, that is a pretty generic-looking sketch. Pretty girl, wavy hair, nothing really outstanding.”

      “What about the surveillance camera?” she asked.

      “The one in the back alley’s inoperable,” Ronan informed her dismissively. It was the first thing that had been checked by his uncle and the team Sean had taken with him.

      “Okay,” she allowed, “how about the one inside the tavern?”

      “There isn’t one. The owner’s got one up strictly for show,” Ronan told her. “But it doesn’t record.”

      “And the one outside, by the entrance?” she pressed, recalling seeing it as they’d passed the front door to get to the alley.

      Ronan didn’t answer her. Instead he headed out of the squad room.

      Sierra was on her feet immediately, hurrying after him. Moving fast, she managed to catch up to him by the elevator. “You’re going down to the CSI lab to take a look at that surveillance video, aren’t you?” she asked.

      “Don’t you have files to go through?” he asked Sierra crisply.

      “You know I do, you gave them to me. But they can wait until later,” she answered. “I want to see if we can isolate the footage and find our mystery woman. Maybe she can help us solve this thing.”

      He doubted it. Things didn’t just resolve themselves this way. “You realize she could just be someone playing up to anyone who’ll buy her a drink,” Ronan said just as the elevator arrived.

      Sierra got in the second the elevator doors opened, not taking a chance he would leave her behind. “I know. But she could still be a witness.”

      “She could still be a witness,” he admitted grudgingly, echoing what she’d said. And then his frown deepened. “Don’t grin so hard, Carlyle. Your face’ll crack.”

      “There’s a few years left on my warranty, so I’m safe for now,” she said cheerfully.

      “Right,” he murmured to himself. Just what he needed on his team—to be saddled with a crazy woman. A crazy woman who reminded him of his own loss. “C’mon, then,” he ordered as the doors opened in the basement.

      Sierra didn’t have to be asked twice.

      * * *

      “THERE, THAT’S GOT to be her!” Sierra cried excitedly, pointing to the image on the monitor in the viewing bay. “Rewind it!”

      They had been watching the surveillance video from the Shamrock Inn for the last half hour. The footage wasn’t exceptionally clear because the camera was at least ten years