Washington State, specifically the Puget Sound, is where I call home. I’m a transplant from central state New York, by way of Oklahoma and California.
Rivers don’t let rocks hold them back.
River Nightingale has decided to blow past the rocky men in her life. She’s played by the rules for too long—especially when it came to her career as a cop. She was the top closer of cases for years, but promotions in her small town cop shop went to her less productive male counterparts. River decides it’s time to change careers. She leaves her small town to purchase a Seattle private detective agency and become her own boss.
Homicide Detective Gage Hamlin takes pride in his job; he closes cases and fosters justice. All that changed the day River Nightingale sauntered into his office. River has him questioning his pride, his cases, and his aversion to private detectives, especially beautiful private detectives.
River’s client thinks Gage got it wrong, and River is forced to prove Gage missed a murder. Will River and Gage find a way to play nice, or will River be forced to leave Gage behind?
Excerpt~
River walked into the precinct on Fourth Street. The building buzzed with activity. She wondered why people weren’t falling all over one another, given how fast they moved. Yes, she knew cop shops—she’d spent her last ten years living in one—but the little cop shop in Bear Creek, Montana was only slightly larger than this lunch room she peeked into as she passed by. When she asked for directions to the detectives’ bullpen, the sergeant at the front desk looked her up and down, rolled his eyes, then pointed behind him and went back to a pile of paperwork.
She walked slowly by each door, reading the nameplates as she passed, until she came to the door of Homicide Detective Gage Hamlin. The office walls were glass giving her a clear view of the man studying his computer. His disheveled coffee-colored hair brushed the collar of his button-down royal blue shirt. He looked over the top of his computer screen, his sapphire-colored eyes locking on hers. River smiled and gave a cursory knock on the half-opened door.
“Detective Hamlin?” River asked.
“Yeah, last time I checked. Do we have an appointment?” Detective Hamlin asked as he grabbed his phone, and scrolled through, looking for an answer.
“No—no appointment. However, if you’re not too busy, I wonder if we could chat for a few minutes?”
Detective Hamlin smiled, rose to his feet, walked around his desk, and pulled the door open wider. He gestured for her to enter.
“Sure, I have a few minutes. How can I help you, Miss—?” He grabbed the pile of files and loose papers out of the closest chair and dumped them into the next one over.
“My name is River Nightingale. I’m a private detective, and I’ve been hired by the Baxter family to investigate their parents’ death.”
River watched as his sparkling eyes and dazzling smile faded from his chiseled features. This reaction would take her a while to get used to.
“I see,” Detective Hamlin said, tight-lipped. “I’ve no idea why they would hire you. I worked the case and closed it.”
“That’s the point, Detective Hamlin. The Baxters don’t agree with your conclusion and asked me to review your findings.”
“Wait one damn minute. Despite how many open cases are assigned to me, I’m a professional. My work is careful and thorough. On what grounds do they find my work inadequate? And you—you don’t even know what kind of hoops I have to jump through. You’re just another ambulance chaser, a clueless private dick.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I do know what kind of hoops you jump through. I recently left my position as an officer.”
“What? Couldn’t handle the hard work?” He scoffed.
“I thrive on hard work. I worked hard for ten years and closed more cases than all my colleagues combined. What I do have a problem with is being passed over for promotions while some yahoo, with half the closed cases and experience, gets the job. And why? Merely because he has a dick and I don’t.”
He made a grunting sound, leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. River stared at him, daring him to make his next nasty comment.
Until next month…
Joanne
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