Hard Days Night (The Firsts Book 8) (2 page)

The soft voice interrupted her quiet moment.

Mal raised her head and looked up into the face of the one other woman on the force that she was close with.

Beverly was silhouetted against the morning sunlight.

“Seriously,” she continued.  “You need to get out of here for a while and think about your future.”

“Bev, I’m fine.  All I really need is two days.  Two days in bed.  Think I’m going to do that right after I get Jinx.  For good this time.  Then, I’ll be good to go for another three years.”

“How long has it been since you took a really nice relaxing vacation?”

“I don’t know…”

“I do. Six years. You take a day here, a day there, occasionally, but it’s been six years since you took a week or more.  Mal, I’m going to force you to
, if you don’t.”

She could do it.  Beverly was the precinct’s consultant, the psychologist on staff.  She was a cop with a degree in psychology, which made Mal laugh every time she thought about how nuts
that
was.

“Bev, no.
  I’ve got this.”

“You’ve got nothing.  You don’t date, you don’t go anywhere,
do anything, other than work.  You have no hobbies.  I can’t even talk you into dinner lately.”

Mal dropped her head back again, and searched the sky for answers.  Bev was right.  She knew her life was narrow and
lately, yeah, it felt kind of empty.

A longer sigh escaped now.  “I don’t know what I want, Bev. I don’t know what will make me happy.  Pop never was.  I’m not sure I ever will be, either.”

“Bullshit.  You’re trapped, that’s all.  So are half a billion other people on this rock.  You just need to try to find where you need to be.”

“This is all I know, all I’ve ever known.”

“You used to date.  I remember two guys once, you used to like going out.  Remember sex?”

Mal snorted.  “You mean that you can get without a battery-operated device?”

“Yeah.  You know, where there’s more than one person involved.”

A slight smiled curved
Mal’s lips.  “I do.  I remember.”

“Good. 
Because you are on vacation starting next week.”

“Bev, no.
  Listen, I promise, right after I get Jinx back in custody, I’ll take the time.  You’re right, I could use it.  Maybe go back home.  I haven’t been back since I came to the mainland.”

Bev just stared at her friend for a moment.  She wondered if going home to
Hawaii would fix anything for Mal.  She didn’t think so, but at least it would get her off the clock.  Nodding, she agreed.  “Okay.  Then you’re gone.  You become a civilian, okay?”

“I look forward to it.  I’m tired of always being on.  It sounds good
, the idea of dropping and vegging for a week.”

“It does.  It is
,” Bev agreed.

Another voice broke into their conversation.

“God, you guys look so serious?  Who died?”

Luka dropped onto the bench beside Mal abruptly
as he arrived. 

“What are you two ladies jawing on about?”

“Nothing.  Let’s hit it.  Bev, I’ll catch up with you,” Mal said, rising, her keys already in her hand, jingling.

Luka looked at Bev. “What’d I say?”

“Just get that perp.  You
both
are taking time off when you do.”

“That’
d be sweet.  I haven’t been able to work on that bike I bought last summer hardly at all.”

Luka hurried after Mal, who was already in the car
, the engine started.  He barely got the door closed as it rolled out of the parking space.

“So, what do you know that I don’t know?” he asked
.  Suddenly he rolled down the window, gagging dramatically. “What the hell is that?”

“What?”  Mal asked, making a tough turn on a city street faster than she should have.  “Oh.  I think something I had for dinner last week is still in here.  Or maybe it’s
finally dead, I don’t know.  Anyway, we are going to
Lady
Glorious Spa
.”

“What?”

“Yeah, for some yoga. I got you some yoga pants, in the backseat.”

“What the fuck?  You think I can get these quads in yoga pants?  And I can’t emphasize this enough,
why
?”

“Because we’re going to meet my new C.I. there, and we need to, and I can’t emphasize this enough,
blend in
.”

“You’re serious?”

“
So
serious.”

“Fuck.”

Twenty minutes later, Luka walked out of a gas station restroom in bright blue tights, a pale blue muscle shirt, and a look that could kill.  Mal spent the next three laughing so hard, she was afraid the crème-filled donut would make a reappearance. 

“What I won’t do for this job,” Luka said as he threw his wadded up jeans and tee shirt in
to the trunk.

“Hey, you’re complaining, but I’m in pink! 
I might as well be wearing a tutu.  What’s a girl to do?”

Luka looked over his partner, who rarely wore anything other than jeans and a loose fitting dark shirt,
her long light brown hair just yanked back.  Now, in hot pink tights and a body-hugging t-strap workout shirt that didn’t cover her abs, she looked spectacular.   Since the spandex outlined her full breasts and a sleekly toned body top to bottom, he had trouble looking away. No one ever got to see how sexy she was.

Mal tugged at the too-short top.
“This young woman works for Berenstein and this is the only place she felt comfortable meeting where he might not find out.”

“Yeah, so, let’s just get in there.  We’re not
gonna have to do any of the, uh, yoga stuff, are we?”

Mal reached into the car, threw a long roll of something at him and walked away.

Luka rolled his eyes as he tucked a yoga mat under his arm. He got his answer.

Mal’s
C.I. was a tiny woman with short hair cut in an old-fashioned page-boy bob.  She was cute and perky and made Luka wonder how someone could actually
ever
be that perky. She giggled. 
A lot
.

But when they finished the embarrassing yoga session that made Luka pray Mal had kept her cell phone in her pocket, no blackmail photos, and they went into the snack area of the spa, the girl’s smile faded and she became deadly serious.

“They’d kill me if they knew I was talking to you, you know that?” She said, her brown eyes moving quickly between Mal and Luka’s eyes.

“Yeah, Cynthia, I know.  They won’t find out.”  Mal was extremely careful with her informants.

“Okay. I hate this, but I couldn’t let them keep doing it.  Here.”  Cynthia pushed a folder towards Mal. “This will give you all you need to keep that asshole in order.  Maybe prosecute him.  At least it will make him back off.  He’s evil.”

“We appreciate you helping us
.  We’re very careful with civilians,” Luka assured her.

Cynthia
studied Mal and Luka’s faces wordlessly.  Then she nodded and stood up.

“I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.  You guys be careful.  He’s got friends.”

“We know.  Cynthia, you need anything, you have any problems, you call me right away, okay?  Day or night,” Mal told her with emphasis.

“No offense, but
I kind of hope I never have to see either of you again.  Enjoyed the workout,” Cynthia said as she walked away, quickly, her perky manner returned as she smiled and waved to the instructor who had just entered the snack room.

Luka looked at Mal, who had
opened the folder already, and was looking carefully through several pages.

She looked up at him. 
“Luka.  Shit.  We got him.  This stuff is gold.”

“Seriously?”

“Fucking A.

Mal grinned. “Now, all I
gotta do is make this work.”  She held up her cell phone.  “And post these pics on Facebook.”

Luka glanced at the photo she
displayed of him in the hideous yoga pants, doing God-knew-what kind of pose.  He winced.  “Aw, Mal, you beyatch.  Don’t do it, I’ll never live it down.”

“Sorry, lady, but this one is gold, too.”

“Fuck!”

“Let’s get all this gold back to the station.  Ah, you know I’m kidding.  I’m just yanking your chain because it’s dangling.”

She glanced at his package, which was very well displayed in the tight latex.

“Literally.
  I promise, though, I won’t post it. But I’m not deleting it.”

Luka threw his bag into the back of
Mal’s car. “Fuck.  I know what that means. Christmas party.”

“Buddy, you don’t trust me?”

“I trust you with my life.  But not with my dignity.”

Nodding, Mal started the car.  “Yeah, you’re probably right.  That gives you a few months to get something on me, so our blackmail photos will cancel each other out.  Think of it as a challenge.”

“Challenge?  Give me three days.”

“Ha. I’m the original Annie. 
Sweet, innocent, don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“My ass you are.  We’ll see. So, we
gonna visit Berenstein?”

“Not yet. I want to make sure Cynthia isn’t implicated, and right now, she’
s probably nervous.  A few days, she’ll calm down, and we hit him.  But tonight, I’m going to get that eight plus hours of shut-eye, hell or high-water, you get me?”

“You need the beauty sleep.”

Mal threw a candy bar at his head, the only thing she could find that she could hurl without hurting him or her car
too
much.

“Bastard.
I look okay. But a good eight wouldn’t hurt.”

Later,
the day finished, arriving back in her apartment, Mal smiled ear-to-ear as she put the contents of a canvas bag away.  Chocolate chocolate-chip ice cream now waited for her in her freezer, along with her favorite frozen pizza.

“
It’s Mal time,” she whispered, as she disappeared into the bathroom, took a quick shower, tied her hair up into a messy bun, and slipped into an old pair of boxer shorts and a long white tee shirt some guy had left behind last year.  It was soft and comfy with a weird graphic of some local band, and had become her favorite shirt.  She couldn’t remember the guy, but that wasn’t unusual.  The shirt had much longer staying power, as far as she was concerned. 

She only dated every once in a blue moon, and wh
ile she liked the guys okay, she wasn’t a commitment sort of gal.  They were nice, she had a good time, but that was all.  The hardest part, every time, was getting the men to understand that. 
They were just so clingy! 
That’s why, lately, she hadn’t been interested in hooking up or even going out for a drink with anyone. 
Too much trouble
.

But tonight
was going to be a good night, because there was nothing she’d rather do than this.  Pizza, the best ice cream on the planet, and her favorite movie. 

After slipping oversized socks on
to her feet, she prepared the pizza and flipped on her big HD flat screen television she rarely watched. Keying into her cable choices, she pulled up a movie, and sat down as it began to play.

The smell of melting cheese struck her as
the song
Moon River
played during the opening of a movie she’d loved since she was a little girl.
This
was her perfect night.  Audrey Hepburn, elegantly dressed, strolling down the sidewalk in front of Tiffany’s in New York City.

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Mal said out loud as the title scrolled across the screen.  She began to hum
Moon River
as she hurried into the kitchen to pull the pizza out of the oven, glancing up sharply as her phone buzzed.

“What now?” she groaned
, as she slipped the pizza onto a tray on top of her stove, paused the movie, and grabbed the phone.

“Yeah?”

“Hey, girlfriend.  Want to join me for some cocktails?  I’m heading to the
Tall Giraffe
for drinks with some of the girls from Legal.”

Bev. That woman loved to party.

“Not tonight, Bev.  I’ve got hot plans.”

“Yeah?
  Spill.”

“Not now.  You have a good time,
gotta go. My date’s waiting.”

“Seriously, who is it?  You cannot leave me hanging, especially since you haven’t dated anyone in nearly a year.”

“You’re so nosy.  All right, if you must know, it’s Audrey Hepburn, and she’s impatient, so you have a good time. See ya.”