Destroying Angel, page 18
JULIA
On Friday night, Julia was still floating on the knowledge that her stalker ex was behind bars and no threat to anyone. Her first case for Fox County was closed, and she’d just been assigned a new one that looked like gang violence, but with enough strange details that she was going to have to challenge herself to put the pieces together. And she was walking into the Taphouse on the arm of the hottest lab geek in the world.
In short, life was beautiful and she was ready to celebrate that fact.
“What are you drinking tonight, babe?” Emery asked as they neared the bar.
“I don’t think it’s too early for a shandy, do you?” Julia asked.
It wasn’t quite summer yet, but the trees had their leaves again and the air was turning warm outside. It meant Emery would soon have lots of time for her research while the students were on summer break, and it also meant Julia had been enjoying Emery in short-sleeve shirts, her long, lean muscles on display.
“Be right back,” she said, and Julia watched her weave her way to the bar.
She was standing there with what was probably a pretty slack-jawed look on her face, admiring her own woman, when Renee and Tate bumped up against her.
“Scoop your jaw off the floor, we get it – your girlfriend is hot,” Renee said.
Julia laughed, making a show of closing her mouth with her hand. “We’ve had an eventful week and I guess I was just appreciating how lucky I got with that one. She took me to meet her best friend already.”
“That’s sweet,” Tate said.
“Is it the same rules as for parents, if they don’t hate you just a little, it’s a bad sign?” Renee asked.
“Nah, I think the three of us are going to get along just fine.”
Emery joined them with the promised summer shandy, and they all found a table where they could wait for the others to join them.
“You two get any interesting cases this week?” Julia asked.
“Nothing too big, investigating a dealer cutting his junk with fentanyl and not telling anybody,” Tate said with her jaw tight. “Creep.”
“I just finished my part in the skeleton-in-the-tree case,” Renee said, and everyone perked up.
“Oh yeah, what’s the verdict?” Julia asked. There was still a very slight twinge of jealousy whenever that case came up – especially because Renee got it – but if she’d worked that case, she might never have grown close to Emery. And she wouldn’t trade her new girlfriend for all the fascinating cases in the world.
“Forensic anthropologist finished examining the bones just the other day,” Renee said. “There were no marks on the skeleton to indicate cause or manner of death.”
“Damn,” Tate said. “So it’s open?”
“Yeah, and I’ve exhausted every missing persons resource available,” Renee said. “He’s John Doe unless something changes.”
The rest of the group trickled in slowly over the next hour, until there were so many of them they had to pull three tables together. There were women from all areas of the police department, plus a good showing from the medical examiner’s office, and a few partners like Emery who didn’t share the work connection. There were Tom and Christopher, the only two male members of the group. And Julia counted herself damn lucky to be assimilated so readily into it.
She’d only been in Fox County for six weeks now, but already she’d found the love of her life here, proved herself as a detective, and made a brand-new set of friends.
Plus, Sam was looking at up to six months in jail for her little appearance at the diner, and maybe – just maybe – that’d be enough to teach her the lesson she so desperately needed to learn. Even if Julia had to deal with her again in the future, Sam had done her a favor by driving her out of Michigan. She’d started Julia on the path that led her to this moment.
Julia grabbed Emery’s hand, kissing her knuckles.
“What was that for?”
“Just because.”
Everybody was keeping their eyes on the bar’s entrance, waiting for Arlen and Maya to arrive. Nobody knew what Arlen had in mind – would the proposal happen right at the beginning of the night? Would she wait until it was time to go home? Did she have something special cooked up?
Would she chicken out yet again?
When they finally did come through the doors, everyone immediately turned their attention back to the table, conspicuously avoiding Arlen and Maya’s gaze like they hadn’t been waiting with bated breath for close to an hour.
“How about those Phillies?” Tate said. “I hear they’re supposed to have a good team this year.”
Emery laughed. “I’m so far from being a sportsball person that I couldn’t even tell you what sport we’re talking about.”
Tate raised an eyebrow. “Haven’t you lived in PA a while?”
“My whole life,” Emery answered proudly.
Arlen approached the table while Maya headed to the bar to get their first round of drinks. She slid onto the barstool next to Julia and said, “Way to act natural, all of you. I could see you staring at us from across the room.”
“We told Julia a couple weeks ago when she wanted to bring Emery to the bar for the first time, and we’ll tell you now,” Renee said. “Subtlety is not our strong suit, so you better act fast.”
“Do not rush this woman,” one of the investigators from the ME’s office said. “We’ll be waiting another six months for the proposal.”
“Hush!” Arlen hissed as Maya weaved her way closer through the crowd. “Not a word, any of you.”
“We’re just giving you a hard time,” Tom said. “You’ll go at your own pace, we know that. And you can trust us.”
“Sure, I can.” Arlen rolled her eyes. “Hey, babe.”
Maya sat down next to Arlen, setting two snifters on the table. One was filled to the brim with a reddish-pink mixed drink and topped with a sprig of mint. The other had about half an inch of caramel-brown liquor in it.
“What’s this, are they out of beer?”
Maya laughed. “I asked the bartender to whip us up something special for a change. Barrel-aged nine-year-old bourbon, neat. Try it.”
“Can I have the other one instead? Looks more my speed,” Arlen said, reaching for the more frilly of the two.
Maya slapped her hand away playfully. “Expand your palate. I picked that out for you, it was expensive.”
“Well, I hate to disappoint you when I choke on it,” Arlen said, but she picked up the snifter in front of her. Everyone at the table was watching and she made a show of taking a sip. Her face reddened and it was clear she was losing a battle with high-test alcohol. She swallowed, then stuck her tongue out, her voice hoarse. “Okay, babe, I love you but that tastes like rubbing alcohol to me. Sorry.”
“Okay,” Maya said with a sigh. “I was just trying to get you out of your comfort zone. Try this one instead – it’s called a Cupid’s Kiss. Blood orange liqueur, Sprite, muddled berries, all the sweet stuff you like.”
“Mmm, that sounds more like it,” Arlen said, but as soon as her hand closed around the small stem of the glass, she froze.
Maya was grinning from ear to ear. “Something wrong, sweetie?”
“What’s this?” Arlen asked. There was a slim white ribbon looped around the stem, and tied to it was a ring.
The entire table was dead-silent. The bar around them all was bustling with activity, but amongst their little group, no one even breathed. Emery slid off her stool and stepped behind Julia, encircling her in her arms.
“What’s it look like?” Maya asked.
Arlen put her head in her hands. “Babe, are you proposing to me?”
“Well, I didn’t think you’d react like that!” Maya had her arms around Arlen’s shoulders, nuzzling against her cheek as she spoke. “What’s wrong? The drink thing was a ruse, I knew you’d want the Cupid’s Kiss–”
“I was going to propose to you!” Arlen groaned. “Tonight!”
“Seriously?” Maya asked.
“Seriously!” pretty much everyone around the table agreed in unison.
Arlen took a ring box out of the crossbody bag she had slung over her shoulder. “There’s a band coming in about an hour, they’re gonna have live music here tonight. I begged them to play ‘Make You Feel My Love’ – remember that song came on in the car the first time we DDed together and I played chauffeur for everybody?”
“I remember,” Maya said, tears in her eyes.
“I fucked it up,” Arlen said. “I was going to propose to you months ago and I just kept chickening out, and now you beat me to it. I am so sorry, babe.”
Maya caught Arlen’s face in her hands, kissing her and looking her in the eyes. “You didn’t fuck anything up. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Arlen said, sounding hopeless. “Do you want the ring?”
Maya put her hand over the box before Arlen could open it. “Yes, but not yet. I want to finish my proposal, and later tonight when they play that Bob Dylan song, I want you to do your proposal. Who says we can’t have two?”
Arlen’s expression softened and she tucked the ring box safely back into her bag.
“So, Arlen Rose, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” Maya asked, untying her ring from the stem of the glass and presenting it.
“I would love nothing more,” Arlen answered, and the table erupted into cheers. When strangers around the bar caught wind of what was happening, they started applauding Maya and Arlen too, and Julia felt Emery’s arms tighten around her.
“That was so sweet,” she said into Julia’s ear. “Is it too soon to say I can’t wait til it’s our turn?”
“Maybe a little, but I feel the same,” Julia answered, turning to pull Emery into a kiss. “Everyone who just got done clapping will be so confused when the same two women get engaged an hour from now,” she laughed when the kiss finally ended. She looked over to see Maya and Arlen still going at it.
Then she felt a buzz against her hip and jumped.
“That’s me,” Emery apologized, taking out her phone. “Monica…” She answered it, and Julia watched her face go from concentrating to hear over the bar noise to panicked. When she hung up, she said, “Monica’s having her baby! I promised I’d be at the hospital with her in case her husband drove her insane or passed out or something. I’m going to have to miss proposal number two, I’m so sorry.”
“We’ll ask someone to video it,” Julia said, sliding off her barstool.
“You’re coming with me?”
Julia grinned. “I’d go anywhere with you. Just lead the way.”
The End
ALSO BY CARA MALONE
Read the five-book first season of Fox County Forensics, starting with Mind Games, featuring a rookie forensic investigator, a seasoned patrol officer, and a crime scene that might just be the death of them both.
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ANGEL OF MERCY
FOX COUNTY BOOK 7
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Cara Malone, Destroying Angel
