Thank you all again for the lovely reviews! I've spent the week feeling really inspired ... or maybe I'm trying to avoid thinking about other, less pleasant things going on in my life just right now. Either way, you get a new chapter, not even a week after the last! There are just a few more chapters to go - I will finish this sucker!
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Sharon Raydor took a deep breath before walking into the restaurant at the Four Seasons. She was nervous, though interestingly, her nervousness did not stem from having dinner with a person that she was pretty sure had raped and murdered three women. As the hours had worn on throughout the day, she had become more and more nervous about the possibility that he wasn't the man who had raped and murdered three women. And if that was the case, another woman was out there being raped and murdered at this very moment. She mentally shook herself. There was no point in musing over hypotheticals at this stage of the game – they had conducted their investigation, which had led to this operation, which had netted them a seriously suspicious person of interest. All she could do was see it through and hope that it led to his arrest tonight.
As she approached the hostess podium, the young woman behind it looked up and gave her a perfunctory smile. "How may I help you?"
"I'm meeting someone, I'm not sure if he is here yet," Sharon told her. "Reservation for Madsen?"
"Ah yes," the hostess responded with a warm smile, tapping on the screen hidden behind the podium. "Mr. Madsen has already been seated. May I take your coat? I'll be happy to show you to your table."
"Yes, that would be lovely," Sharon told her, untying the knot at her waist. She quickly shrugged out of her coat and delivered it into the young woman's waiting arms. She waited as the hostess hung her coat in a nearby wardrobe and then tucked the plastic chip with the hanger's number on it into her purse.
"This way, please," she told Sharon as she walked into the restaurant, glancing over her shoulder to ensure that she was being followed.
As they approached the table, Lyle Madsen rose from his chair. Sharon's breath hitched as she watched him look her over, blatantly appreciating what he saw. She was no stranger to having men look at her, but it was usually just a quick glance or in cases of a longer appraisal, it was usually tempered with embarrassment at being caught. It had been quite some time since anyone had casually appreciated her looks in this way, with no qualms about letting her know exactly what he was thinking. She found herself in the confused state of being both flattered and disgusted all at the same time.
"Laura, you are absolutely stunning," he told her. "I'm now the envy of every other man in this room."
Sharon settled for giving him a small smile, and then turned to where the hostess was holding her chair out. The look on the young woman's face told Sharon that 'Laura' might well be the envy of most of the women in the room. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. If only this young woman knew who she was idolizing …
She looked up as the chair was pushed in behind her and the hostess laid the linen napkin across her lap. Lyle waited until she was settled before reseating himself, then proceeded to prop his elbows on the table, steepling his fingers and resting his chin lightly on the tips of his forefingers. The only way she could think to describe his expression was that he was making goo goo eyes at her. A bubble of nervous laughter erupted from her throat.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she blurted.
"Because you're the most beautiful thing in this room," he told her matter-of-factly, placing his hands in his lap and sitting back in his chair.
She barked a short, disbelieving laugh at the line he had just delivered.
"You know, Lyle, I'm already here. You can stop with the cheesy pick-up lines. Please stop with the cheesy pick-up lines."
Lyle regarded her thoughtfully for a moment before responding.
"You don't get a lot of compliments, do you, Laura?"
She opened her mouth to retort but he raised a hand to forestall her response.
"Nevermind. I'll stop because I can see it makes you uncomfortable. But it makes me sad – you should have someone that tells you how gorgeous you are every day, and clearly your ex was not fulfilling his duty to do so." He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender as she again opened her mouth to interrupt. "I'm stopping. Have some champagne, Laura. I ordered us the very best."
Sharon looked to the open bottle and already filled glasses sitting on the table. Right, she thought. There is nothing at all suspicious about offering alcohol from an already open bottle on the first real date. She looked back up at him and smiled.
"I appreciate the gesture, but I'm on call tonight. I really can't be drinking, just in case I'm called in."
"Oh, come on," he retorted. "What are the odds that you would actually be called in tonight? And even if you were, what is one glass of champagne? Surely you can bend the rules this once, have a little fun?"
He picked up the glass on her side of the table and held it out to her. She looked at the glass in his hand but pointedly did not make any move to take it from him.
"I take my oath as a surgeon very seriously, Lyle. Operating while under the influence is not only a blatant violation of that oath, but also the law. It would also potentially do harm to be unable to operate due to intoxication when I am needed, so no, I'm not going to 'bend the rules.' If you want to drink, please go ahead. I won't be joining you."
"I'm sorry," he said quickly, putting the glass back down on the table and raising his hands slightly in supplication. "That didn't come out right. Let's start over."
He looked down for a moment and then looked back up with wide and sincere smile on his face.
"Laura, you look lovely tonight. I am so glad that you could make it. How has your weekend been thus far?"
Sharon gave him a bemused look, but played along, entering into light small talk and banter with more ease than she felt. The team had decided not to pull her out with a planned call from the hospital to give as much time as possible for Lyle to make his intentions clear. She hoped that he would do so quickly. She watched as the waiter took away the champagne, completely untouched, and caught Andy moving to intercept him out of the corner of her eye. If there were any sort of drug in the champagne, it would be enough for an arrest, so she found herself in the odd situation of sincerely hoping that her 'date' had been trying to drug her.
The dinner progressed far too slowly for Sharon's taste – the hour it took to get to dessert had seemed like an eternity. Lyle had ordered oysters for them to share as an appetizer, and she couldn't help but suspect that the fact that many believed them to be an aphrodisiac had factored into his thought-process. Sharon actually adored oysters, so she let him order away, figuring that she would enjoy them on his dime while her team looked for a way to arrest him. She followed that train of thought by ordering the most expensive thing on the menu for her entrée, purely out of spite. She didn't particularly enjoy steak, but she ordered the Wagyu beef and lobster tail Surf 'n' Turf anyways, eating only a small portion of her plate. He had not batted an eye at her choice, nor had he given the plate a second glance when it was taken away, with most of the food still on it. His conversation had been mostly light, asking her questions about herself, her job, and her family, occasionally throwing out subtly suggestive comments and compliments. When the waiter placed a chocolate mousse in front of her, adorned with gorgeously plump, red strawberries, Sharon Raydor had no doubts as to where Lyle intended for this dinner to end. She was being seduced, but the question was how long she had to play along before Lyle would reveal his true self.
Sharon placed her napkin on top of her empty plate and excused herself for a visit to the ladies room. On her way to the back of the restaurant, she gave Amy Sykes a meaningful look as she passed by the table she was sharing with Lt. Cooper. Once in the restroom, she took off her glasses and placed them into her purse, bracing herself against the counter and bending slightly at the waist to let out an uneasy breath. She breathed deeply and willed her wildly beating heart to slow down. After a few moments, the door opened again and Amy Sykes appeared at her side.
Amy looked like she was about to speak but then paused in annoyance and looked off into space while she listened to something in her ear.
"Of course she took them off, Lieutenant, she's in the ladies room."
Sharon straightened and started to smile as she listened to her detective carry on an irritated one-sided conversation with her second in command.
"Well, I'm here now."
Amy listened again and then rolled her eyes.
"Yes, I will make sure that she puts them back on before she leaves."
Another pause, then an indignant look.
"What tone?"
Amy shook her head and ended the conversation.
"Whatever you say, Lieutenant." Amy turned her attention to Sharon. "How are you doing, Captain?"
It came as more of a statement than a question, and Sharon's momentary humor dissipated. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall.
"Amy, I'm not sure if I can do this."
Amy nodded, even though the Captain's eyes were still closed. She had been listening to the conversation that had evolved over dinner, and she had little doubt that Lyle's next move would be to get a room.
"Lieutenant Tao tested the champagne – it came back negative for drugs. He took a cab, so we don't have any plates to run. He didn't make a room reservation in advance, so we don't have a credit card to run down. If he pays for dinner with a credit card, we might at least be able to find something on him, but right now we have nothing."
"I know," Sharon sighed, opening her eyes. There was a lull as the two women regarded one another. Amy was the one to break it.
"Here is the way I see it, Captain. He is going to do one of three things when you go back out there. If he's feeling very confident, he'll be paying for dinner and making a room reservation right now while you're in here, and he'll ask you to join him. If he is feeling less confident, he may not have paid yet, but will suggest getting a room to order to gauge your mood and interest. Or, he may thank you for a wonderful evening and ask if he can see you again, though I find that unlikely. If he makes a room reservation, he will have to put down a credit card, and that will at least give us a real name to work from."
Sharon nodded, having already come to that conclusion herself. The problem was what to do once he made the reservation – if there was nothing on his record, they would still be stuck with no grounds for an arrest. Amy continued after a moment.
"However it happens, find a way to delay your arrival at the room to give us time to set up. We're already in communication with the hotel, so we'll be able to find out which room he'll be in and get a spare key almost immediately, as well as a room on the same floor either next door or nearby. Once you get to the room, you'll need to … uh … lead him on for a bit, but before it gets too far, pretend to change your mind and leave. I'm betting that he will show his true colors at that point, and we'll have cause to arrest him, if not before. We'll be right there if anything starts to get out of hand."
Sharon had closed her eyes again and was hugging herself tightly.
"I've never done anything remotely like this before," she confessed quietly. "I think that until this point, I hadn't really considered how far I might need to go. And now that I'm here, I'm not sure if I can do what needs to be done."
"I know we talked about undercover work earlier this week, Captain," Amy told her in a firm voice. "But I want to reiterate that the first rule of undercover work is that your safety is paramount. No one wants you to do anything that you're not comfortable with. You don't have to go to his room and no one will think less of you if you don't."
Sharon opened her eyes and fixed her detective with a pensive look.
"You've done a lot of undercover work, Amy," she stated. Sykes nodded her head in affirmation. "Have you had to deal with a situation like this before?"
Amy Sykes sighed and nodded her head again.
"Once. It was early in my career in SIS. I wasn't sure I could bring myself to do it either. I'll tell you what another, more experienced female officer told me at the time. She told me that using my sexuality as a tool to achieve the goals of the operation might seem degrading, but that it wasn't. She told me to remember that the promise of sex gave me all the power, as I could give or withhold it as I saw fit. And if anyone tried to take that power away from me, I had an entire team of trained officers at my back to prevent them from succeeding."
Sharon nodded in agreement, having made the same realization about the power of her own sexuality many years ago, though she still remained somewhat uncomfortable when trying to wield it. She closed her eyes again and dove into the crux of what was really bothering her.
"And that team of trained officers … they still … respected you … after the operation was complete?"
"They did. In fact, I think many of them respected me more because I had placed so much trust in them to keep me safe in that type of situation. We have your back, Captain. And there is nothing you can do that will change the respect that we have for you. Okay?"
Sharon let out the breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding.
"Okay."
She pushed away from the wall and turned to mirror to check her hair and make-up. She pulled a tube of lipstick out of her purse and quickly reapplied it, then grabbed her glasses and perched them back on her face. She gave Amy a quick smile.
"You've got this," Amy told her firmly. Sharon nodded once and then made her way back to the table where Lyle was waiting. As she approached the table, she saw him peel off several crisp one-hundred dollar bills from his money clip, placing them inside the black check holder. She gave him her most sultry smile as she reseated herself across from him.
"Everything okay?" he asked.
"Of course," she said warmly. "I just needed to freshen up."
"I have to tell you, Laura," he said, almost shyly. "I don't want this night to end."
Sharon looked down at her hands, bit her lip and peeked up at him from beneath her lashes. Now that she had committed to the act, she found it surprisingly easy to play the part. Rather than over-analyzing why that might be, she pushed ahead.
"Me neither."
He looked a bit smug at her response, and reached his hand across the table. She hesitated a moment, then reached out to place her hand in his. He began rubbing his thumb lazily across her knuckles.
"I was thinking about getting a room for the night," he said casually. "And I'm hoping that you'll join me."
"Oh!" Sharon exhaled, feigning surprise. She tried to take her hand back, but he held on. "I don't know, Lyle. I wasn't thinking quite like that –"
"Before you dismiss it," Lyle interrupted her, still gripping her hand. "Just take a minute. You said that you went to that speed dating event on Monday because you were looking to move on from your asshole of an ex. He clearly didn't appreciate you, and I'm guessing that that extended to the bedroom as well. I want to worship you, Laura. I want to make you writhe in ecstasy."
Sharon felt the blush creep into her cheeks, and gave an extra yank to get her hand back.
"I barely know you, Lyle. I've never done anything like this before, and I'm not sure I'm ready to move quite this fast."
Lyle nodded sagely.
"I don't want to push you into anything you're not comfortable with, Laura," he told her. She mentally rolled her eyes at that one. "But maybe now is exactly the time to do something that you've never done before. You might find it liberating."
Sharon closed her eyes and pretended to consider his words. After a few moments of fake consideration, she sighed deeply and opened her eyes, allowing her lips to curve into a seductive smile.
"I can't believe I am saying this," she told him, "but maybe it is time to do something completely new, something so very unlike me." She let out a giggle of laughter.
Lyle grabbed her hand again and kissed it.
"I'm going to make this a night for you to remember," he promised, getting to his feet and coming around to pull her chair out. As she stood, he reached down and tipped her chin up, regarding her features for a moment before leaning down to brush his lips softly against hers. It was short and sweet, and when he pulled back, she smiled at him softly. He returned the smile and offered her his arm, which she took. He led her out to the lobby of the hotel.
"I'm going to go take care of the room," he told her as they neared a small seating area. "Why don't you wait here?"
She nodded and settled herself into one of the chairs, crossing her legs. She watched as Lyle made his way purposely toward the check-in counter. Almost immediately her phone started ringing. She fished it out of her bag to find that it was Andy Flynn. She sighed answered it quietly.
"Are you sure you're okay with this, Sharon?" he asked immediately.
"I don't have much of a choice, Andy," she informed him, a little tartly. "We don't have anything on him."
"We can find another way," Andy told her, a note of desperation tinging his tone.
"No," she said firmly, steeling her nerves. "This is our best chance to catch him. He'll make his move and we'll catch him in the act. No deals this time."
Andy sighed.
"I don't like this, Sharon," he told her quietly.
"I don't like it either," she replied, allowing some tenderness back into her tone. "But, it needs to be done. I know you will be right there if things start to get out of hand. I will be fine."
"Just don't feel like you need to go any further than you're comfortable going," he said quickly. "Get out of there as soon as you start feeling threatened."
"I will," she said, smiling at his obvious concern. "I've got to go, he's coming back."
"Okay. Be careful, Sharon."
"I will," she repeated, then ended the call.
"Please tell me that wasn't the hospital," Lyle said as he approached.
"No, no," Sharon said quickly, "Just a friend calling to say hi. I'll call him back tomorrow."
"In that case …" he trailed off, extending a hand to help her up from the chair. She allowed him to pull her to her feet and they made their way to the elevator bank. After a few moments of waiting, an elevator arrived and they stepped on board. Lyle punched the button for the tenth floor, but before the doors could fully close, a hand shot between them, causing them slowly reopen.
Sanchez backed into the elevator pulling a luggage cart with him. Sharon moved closer to Lyle to give him room, which was apparently all the invitation Lyle needed to wrap an arm around her waist, bringing her closer to his side. Sanchez nodded to them, murmuring an acknowledging 'ma'am' in her direction.
"Floor?" Lyle asked.
"Ten," Sanchez told him as the doors began to close again.
The trio rode in silence. Lyle began to trace circles along her hip, and Sharon suppressed the urge to shudder. When they arrived on the tenth floor, Lyle motioned for Sanchez to exit the elevator first, which he did, turning to the right without a backward glance. Lyle removed his hand and offered her his arm again, which she took and allowed him to lead her down the hallway in the opposite direction that Julio had gone.
All too soon, Sharon found herself watching as Lyle slid the keycard into the lock of room 1023. He pushed the door open and motioned for her to precede him into the room. She strode inside, finding the lights already on. She deposited her purse on the counter beside the TV and took a moment to appreciate the room. It was nicely decorated in subtle neutrals and modern lines, practically radiating vibes of high-priced extravagance. The door shut with a soft click and she turned around to find Lyle standing just inside her personal space. He had already shed his jacket and was loosening his tie, giving her a look so full of lust that it took her breath away. As he continued to work on his tie, she took the opportunity to remove her glasses, sitting them on the counter near her purse and carefully angling them so that the camera pointed toward the bed. When she looked back up, he had removed his tie completely and undone the first few buttons of his dress shirt. He reached out to cup the sides of her face, his mouth descending on hers with none of the earlier softness he had exhibited.
Sharon fisted her hands in his shirt as he kissed her. His hands drifted from her face to her waist, drawing her toward him. Her body was now flush with his except for her chest, which was separated by her arms trapped between them, and she could feel the evidence of his arousal pressing against her abdomen. His hands began to roam slowly over the planes of her body as he became more aggressive in his exploration of her mouth. Sharon kissed him back, but kept her mouth closed, instinct telling her that he wanted to be the aggressor in this encounter. His hands had made their way back up to her head and were now tangling in her hair. He drew her lower lip into his mouth, his tongue venturing out to request entrance. She continued to deny him further access to her mouth, until he suddenly bit her lip, causing her to gasp in surprise. His tongue invaded her mouth and he began moving forward, forcing her to step back. His hands began to explore again as he kept up the assault on her mouth, and he continued to force her backwards until she collided with the edge of the bed. She lost her balance, breaking the kiss and falling backwards onto the bed. She ended in a less than dignified position, catching herself on her elbows before she ended up completely horizontal.
Lyle grinned down at her. Rather than joining her on the bed as she had expected, he quickly knelt in front of her. The potential implications of that position had her scrambling up into a seated position as quickly as she could manage. However, instead of trying to pry her knees apart, he was gently caressing her right calf.
"You have the most amazing legs, Laura," he told her, almost reverently. His touch had moved to her ankle, where he was working on the strap of her shoe. When he had freed her foot, he gently picked it up and began massaging the sole. Sharon moaned in response to his ministrations, not having to fake the vocalization. It felt amazing, which was causing her no small amount of consternation – she was torn between enjoying the caress and hating herself for deriving any sort of pleasure from the situation. He continued for a few more moments before moving his touch to her left leg and repeating the performance. As he massaged her left foot, she found herself moaning again and wishing that he would hurry up and do something objectionable so that she could make her excuse to leave.
As if reading her mind, he grabbed her behind the knees and pulled her forward so that she was teetering on the edge of the bed. Her hands flew forward, landing on his shoulders to brace herself against the sudden instability of the position. He walked forward on his knees, pushing her skirt up her thighs and causing her legs to move apart in order to accommodate him. He stopped when he connected with the bed, not moving his hands from where they rested on the outside of her thighs, and looked up at her, waiting.
Sharon stared at him dumbly for a moment until she realized that he was waiting for her to make the next move. She moved her hands to cup his face in the same way he had done earlier and slowly leaned down, capturing his lips with hers. He allowed her to lead the kiss for a few moments then moved his hands from her legs to cover the hands that cupped his face. Suddenly he grabbed her wrists and surged forward, breaking the kiss and toppling her back onto the bed where he towered over her, pressing her wrists into the mattress on either side of her head. She gasped in surprise at the suddenness of the move. He was studying her again, in the unsettling way he had of doing so. He kept her wrists restrained, but shifted forward so that he was fully on the bed with her, settling between her legs, and began kissing her neck.
Sharon's heart was beating wildly in her chest as he explored her neck and décolletage with his mouth. She desperately wanted to push him off of her, but so far, he hadn't done anything that rated beyond PG-13. He moved back to her mouth and released her wrists so that he could rub his hands up and down her sides, skimming the sides of her breasts as he did so. When his right hand began palming her left breast, Sharon decided that it was enough. She broke off the kiss and pushed against his chest.
"I can't do this," she said breathlessly, not having to fake the slight catch in her voice. She sat up and he rolled to the side so that she could drop her legs back off the side of the bed and pull her skirt down.
"Laura," he began.
"I'm sorry," she cut him off, as she bent over to retrieve her shoes and began putting them on. "I'm not ready for this. I thought I was, but I'm not."
He didn't say anything for a moment, and as she finished with her shoes, she began to wonder if maybe she had misjudged him. He had been aggressive, but not rough, and when she had pushed, he had stopped. He wasn't acting like a rapist. She stood and picked up her glasses, putting them back on her face. She hoped that Lieutenant Tao had gotten something useful from the credit card he had to have used for the room.
"Do you know how much I had to pay for this room?"
Sharon jumped at the nearness of his voice. How did he get off the bed so quietly? She turned to face him.
"And dinner, before that? You ordered the goddamn Surf 'n' Turf."
His voice had become cold, and Sharon took back her previously charitable thoughts toward him.
"Are you implying that I owe you something?" she asked, frostily.
"I'm saying," he said slowly. "That it is a little late to back out now."
He grabbed her wrist and pressed her hand against his erection.
"Let go of me, Lyle," she told him firmly. He stared at her for a few moments before letting go of her hand. Before she could do more than retract her limb, he grabbed her by the upper arms and physically heaved her back onto the bed. She landed on her side and bounced onto her back, her head colliding with the wooden headboard. Before she could fully recover, he was on top of her, using his greater mass to pin her to the mattress and wrestling her flailing limbs into submission.
"Don't fight it, Laura," he told her, breathing heavily. Her glasses had flown off of her face when he had first thrown her onto the bed and she found herself functionally immobilized. She considered her options and decided to submit temporarily so that she could save her strength for the moment when he let his guard down. She nodded mutely and let her body go slack. He remained in the same position for a few moments, then leaned down to capture her mouth with his in a bruising kiss. She waited, and when he started to loosen his grip on her, she bucked her hips to throw him off balance, and then kneed him in the groin. His pained grunt told her that she had struck her target, and she wasted no time in rolling off the bed. As her foot connected with the floor, she heard a crunch and her heel turned, causing her to come crashing down to the floor on top of her now-ruined glasses. Just as she had gotten to her hands and knees, the door of the room flew open.
"LAPD! Keep your hands where we can see them!"
"Captain, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Sharon said, quick to reassure them. "He's on the bed."
The team moved into the room, weapons drawn, Julio Sanchez in the lead. He peeled off to cover Lyle Madsen while Amy came to kneel beside Sharon.
"We have her," Andy Flynn spoke into his mic, letting the rest of the team know that the situation was secure. He stood there, seemingly rooted to the spot, his eyes boring into hers. She held his gaze for a moment, then mouthed "I'm fine" by way of reassurance. He nodded once and then moved to help Sanchez.
"Lyle Thomas, you are under arrest for assaulting an officer of the LAPD," Julio informed the man still curled into a fetal position on the bed. He and Flynn pulled Lyle to his feet and slammed him into the wall with a bit more force than was truly necessary. Flynn cuffed him while Sanchez Mirandized him.
"What?" Lyle questioned in a dazed voice as Flynn and Sanchez marched him out of the room.
"Are you sure you're okay, Captain?" Amy Sykes asked her again, helping Sharon to her feet.
"I'm fine," she repeated, her hands moving to her hair in attempt to tame the wildness that she was sure now reigned. Her fingers brushed the spot that had collided with the headboard and she winced. She could already feel the beginnings of a goose egg forming. "Just a little bump on the head – nothing a little time won't cure. I think I broke my glasses, though."
Amy bent to retrieve the damaged frames. The lenses were still intact, but the temple on the right side now hung at an odd angle, the hinge clearly broken. She silently offered them to her Captain.
Sharon shook her head, gesturing for Amy to keep them.
"I have an extra pair at home. Give those to Lieutenant Tao – maybe he can salvage the camera."
Amy nodded and put the glasses in her pocket. There was a moment of silence.
"I need to take your statement, Captain," she said, somewhat uncomfortably. "Or it could wait until we get to the station."
Sharon sighed. It had been a long day, and she really wished that this could be the end of it.
"Actually, that would be appreciated," she said wearily. "I'd really like to go home and change – why don't I meet you there in about an hour?"
Amy nodded briskly.
"Of course, Captain."
Sharon grabbed her purse from the counter and made her way out of the room, leaving Amy to finish documenting the scene. As she approached the elevator bank, it opened and Andy Flynn stepped out. He looked startled to find her there, but quickly recovered. He stepped back and prevented the doors from closing, leaving his arm out until she had gotten onto the elevator.
"Thank you, Andy," she told him, leaning against the back wall of the elevator and closing her eyes. He looked at her for moment before speaking.
"How are you doing, Sharon?"
"Ok," she told him, eyes still closed. "Tired. Glad it's mostly over." She opened her eyes. "I'm going to run home and change then meet you all back at the station."
"Sanchez and Provenza are already driving back with the asshole," he told her. "They'll get a confession out of him – there is no need for you to come back in. Why don't you just stay home for the night? You've had a really stressful day – we can take it from here."
Sharon smiled at him ruefully, as his suggestion was exactly what she wanted to do.
"I still have to give my statement, Andy. Besides which, I suspect that I might be of some benefit during the interview, should he clam up on Julio and Lieutenant Provenza. Who better than me to get a rise out of him?"
The elevator deposited them back in the lobby of the hotel and Sharon began walking toward the valet, fishing the claim ticket out of her purse. Andy kept pace beside her.
"Would you like me to give you a ride? I can wait while you change and bring you to the station afterwards – one less thing for you to worry about."
They had arrived at the valet and she handed the ticket over.
"Don't be silly, I'm fine. You should get back to the station and help so that we can wrap this up, tonight if possible."
Andy put his hands in his pockets and looked somewhat mulish. A wind whipped through the entryway and Sharon shivered. She began fishing in her purse again.
"Tell you what," she said, pulling out the chip from the coat check. "I forgot to get my coat from the restaurant. Would you mind getting that for me while I wait for the car?"
She held the chip out to him, and after a moment, he grudgingly took it. With visible effort, he reformed his features into a look of graciousness, and gave her a nod and a small smile. He turned and went back into the hotel.
She sighed and pulled out her phone, sending a quick text to Rusty that she was headed home and that the op was over. After receiving his response, she tucked her phone back into her purse and pulled out a few dollars as a tip to the valet. Andy returned with her coat, and held it out in the same fashion as he done earlier in the evening, helping her into it. She gathered the coat around herself and turned to give him a grateful smile just as her car pulled up to the curb.
"I'll see you back at the station," she told him and walked around to the driver's side door, which was now being held open for her. Andy gave her a jaunty wave and watched as she got in and closed the door. Once she drove off, he turned away to help the remaining team to finish up on scene.
