A Memory Away by Taylor Lewis Page A

She stared with disgusted anger at Megan. “Jonah’s out with Gerritsen and there’s a little something I need to get cleared up.”
Annoyance flashed in Megan’s dark eyes. “Business hours are nine till six. You want to get another statement come back then. I’m busy.” She grunted in annoyance when Lopez’s hand slapped against the door as she started to slam it closed. “What the hell is your problem?”
“This.” Lopez reached into the folder she carried and pulled out a Xeroxed copy of Shea’s birth certificate. “This would be my problem.”
Megan glanced at the paper and then blanched, eyes flashing back to Lopez with something akin to panic.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much the look I was expecting.” Lopez put the paper back into the folder and fixed Megan with a hard stare. “Now you either you let me the fuck inside or I call my partner and start voicing some suspicions I got that I really don’t think your little friend wants brought up. What’s it going to be?”
Megan swallowed heavily. “Look, detective, I don’t know what you think you know, but...”
“Oh I think I know plenty, but what I need now are facts .” Lopez wedged her shoulder against the door just in case and hissed, “Trust me when I say the only thing saving your friend from getting his ass kicked at the moment is the chance – the very small chance – that you can give me some dates that fit in with the timeline I have in my head. So what’s it going to be? Am I calling my partner or are you going to quit fucking me around and let me inside?”
The stupid thing w as that she didn’t truly believe in what she had suspected until Megan’s shoulders sagged in defeat and she stepped back to open the door fully.
“Son of a fucking bitch,” said Gina as she stormed in. “You had better have some fucking good booze in here.”
~*~*~*~
Kyle was amazed to find that he was enjoying himself immensely. Jonah was proving to be a funny and interesting conventionalist – if a horribly messy eater – and if he overlooked the occasional lapse into lecherous innuendo then he could see that having Jonah as co-parent to Shea would actually be a very good thing. He’d tried to keep the conversation away from himself as much as he could – or if he couldn’t avoid it just tried to talk about his first year in New York or his business – and had managed to learn that Jonah had a mother and sister, had lived in NY all his life and thought he had possibly the best job in the entire world ever.
“I mean, I get paid to chase down criminals and beat the crap out of them.” Jonah leaned on the table and grinned mischievously at Kyle’s disapproving expression. “How cool is that?” He twitched aside a fold of the black leather jacket he wore over his fitted t-shirt and proudly displayed his shoulder holster. “And they gave me a gun!”
“Oh my God,” said Kyle faintly, “Please tell me you’re kidding.” He narrowed his eyes accusingly. “I thought you had to pass some kind of psychological test to be a cop? Did you cheat?”
A shadow passed across Jonah’s face but before he could retort his name was called from over by the door. He turned in his seat and saw Danny Lee approaching them with a wide grin. “Goldman, I thought it was you.” He glanced at Kyle and then nodded down to his colleague. “What are you doing around here? I thought your place was across town?”
“Yeah,” Jonah indicated Kyle. “Just meeting a friend for coffee.” Not liking the way Danny glanced at Kyle with an absent smile and then lingered, looking faintly puzzled, he didn’t bother offering an introduction. “What about you?”
“Huh?” Danny looked away from Kyle and then back again with a frown. “I live just down the street. Thought I’d better get some groceries in before heading home. I’m sorry, have we met? You look really familiar.”
Kyle looked up from where he had been politely studying his hands whilst the two friends talked