Dream Man by Linda Howard

her from the very beginning, and he still had no idea what he was supposed to do about her. Officer Ewan had cleared her of being at the scene of Nadine Vinick’s murder, but she obviously knew something about it, and had come to the police with it. So what was she, a suspect or a witness? Logic said the former, some uneasy instinct said the latter, and his dick frankly didn’t give a damn.
    “You’re in a piss-poor mood,” Trammell commented lazily, all tipped back in his chair and watching Dane’s expression.
    He grunted. There was no denying it.
    “Talked to Marlie lately?”
    Annoyed, Dane shot him a glance. “This morning,” he said briefly.
    “And?”
    “And nothing.”
    “Nothing? Then why did you call her?”
    “I didn’t.” Restlessly Dane twirled a pencil. “I went over there.”
    “Oh, ho. Keeping secrets from your partner, huh?”
    “No secrets to keep.”
    “So why did you go over there?”
    Damn, all this interrogation was making him feel twitchy. Dane had a brief moment of sympathy for the suspects he and Trammell had questioned for hours. A very brief moment. “No reason,” he replied, blatantly stonewalling and not giving a damn if Trammell knew it.
    “No reason, huh?” Trammell was having fun. His dark eyes were gleeful. He had never thought he’d see the day when his good buddy Dane would be so antsy over a woman, and he intended to enjoy every minute of it. Dane never had woman trouble; they had always cared about him far more than he cared for them, which gave him a tremen-dous advantage in his relationships. He’d never mistreated a woman, but at the same time their influence on him had been very slight. If they didn’t like his irregular hours, tough. If he had to miss a date, so what? He’d never given anything of himself beyond the physical to a woman, because the job had always come first. Dane was a damn good cop, one of the best. But he’d pretty much sailed unscathed through the rough seas of romance, unlike the rest of them who wrestled with the conflicts between job and relationships, so it was nice to see him squirming now. Trammell prodded the beast again. “What did she say?”
    Dane scowled, and darted another irritated look at his partner. “Why are you so curious?”
    Trammell spread his hands, feigning innocence. “I thought we were working on this case together.”
    “It didn’t have anything to do with the case.”
    “Then why were you over there?”
    “Just checking on her.”
    Trammell couldn’t hold back a chuckle, and the telephone rang while he was still laughing. Dane picked up the receiver. “Detective Hollister,” he barked.
    “Finally turned up some stuff on the Keen woman you asked about,” a laconic voice said in Dane’s ear.
    “Interest-ing. Damn interesting.”
    Dane had stiffened at the first mention of Marlie’s name, his entire body alert. “Yeah? Like what?”
    “I’ll let you read it for yourself, pal. I’m faxing it to you. Didn’t know you went in for that kind of shit. Nice-looking woman, though.”
    “Yeah,” he said automatically. “Thanks, Baden. I owe you one.”
    “I’m marking that down in my little book,” Baden said cheerfully. “See ya.”
    Dane hung up the phone to find Trammell watching him with sharp interest, all amusement gone. “What’s up?”
    “Baden’s faxing me some information on Marlie Keen.”
    “No kidding.” Trammell’s eyebrows lifted. “I didn’t think anything would turn up on her.”
    “Well, it has.” The fax machine in the corner began to hum and spit out paper. Dane got up and went over to it, his face grim. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see this. Two days ago he would have loved to get his hands on some informa-tion about Marlie, but not now. Ever since she had called him the night before, he had stopped even trying to deny the effect she had on him. He wanted her, damn it. And he wanted her to be innocent. He wanted there to be some explanation of the things she had