Lee Mckenzie - To Catch A Wife

“Really lousy at it, actually.” He’d been hauled on the carpet by several former girlfriends, and one had used far more colorful language than that to describe his single-minded absorption with a case, but this was not the time to share those kinds of details with Emily.

“Within a few days after Eric’s funeral, there were three murders in Chicago. Different parts of the city, different times of the day over three days. Three victims who at first seemed to have no connection to one another. The only similarity was the MO. All three victims were stabbed multiple times and with the same knife.”

Emily paled. “I remember reading about them. Didn’t pay attention to the details, though. Those kinds of news stories give me the willies, which is why I prefer human-interest stories. You had to investigate the murders?”

“I did.”

“I’m sorry. “

He shrugged. “It’s what I do. It took some time, but we eventually figured out the connection. A social worker, a foster parent and a street person, all with a past connection to a young woman.”

“She killed them?” Emily sounded incredulous.

“No, her boyfriend did, and then she disappeared. He’s in custody now, but he’s not talking. Until this morning, we had no idea if she was dead or alive.”

“And that’s who you’re here to interview?”

“That’s right.”

“Why would she come to Riverton?”

“I guess I’ll find out when I talk to her.” He checked the clock again. He really needed to get to the station, ASAP. “Anyway, none of this is an excuse for not calling you. It’s just how I am when I get caught up in a case. Until it’s solved, it’s 24/7. And since it looks like I’m not getting that shave, I need to get to the station and get this interview over with. They’re holding her on a suspected DUI, but they can’t keep her there forever.”

Emily studied the card he held. He couldn’t tell if she was avoiding eye contact or if she had something else on her mind. She took a deep breath, let it out in a rush. “There’s something else.”

He had no idea what she was about to say, but he had a pretty good idea he wasn’t going to like it.

“That night when we were...together. Something sort of...um...unexpected happened.”

An uneasy sensation pooled in his gut.

“What do you mean by something un—” But his question wasn’t even fully formed when the answer hit him like a commuter train. Emily didn’t say anything. She simply waited as his scattered emotions became a single, coherent thought.

“Are you saying you’re...?”

She nodded.

Pregnant? His ability to think rationally had disappeared. No way. Not possible. It had been one night. One night. They’d been careful. He had been careful. These things were not supposed to happen to people who were careful.

“You’re sure?”

Another nod.

He walked to the door, taking in the street, the buildings, the people he knew so well. Everything looked as it always had. Perfectly normal. He swung around and took a long, hard look at Emily.

“Completely sure?”

“One hundred percent.”

Just this morning he had thought Emily Finnegan was the kind of woman he could possibly, someday, maybe fall in love with. Now she was having a baby. His baby. He was going to be a father. And then his mother’s unwelcome voice penetrated his thoughts. A father who isn’t married to the baby’s mother. What do you think people are going to say about that?

“We’ll get married,” he blurted. “Right away, as soon as you want.” The declaration caught him completely off guard.

Emily gaped at him. “Married? Are you out of your mind?”

“What did you expect me to say?”

Emily sprang to her feet. “I don’t know. ‘How did this happen?’ ‘What are you going to do about it?’”

He couldn’t help himself. He grinned. “I know how it happened. I was there, remember?” Then he sobered. Why would she think he would ask what she was going to do about it? Unless...no. He moved toward her, but she ducked out of reach.

Okay, not exactly the response he would have liked.

“Are you planning to do something about it?” he asked.

She nodded. “Have it, raise it.”

Her declaration was meant to be defiant, but it had him breathing a little better. She might not make this easy, but he had to do the right thing.

“Okay, then. We’ll raise it together.”

“Right.” Emily rolled her beautiful brown eyes. “That’ll be easy for two parents who live three hundred miles apart. Easy, until the next big case comes along, and you forget all about us for months on end. Yeah, that’s going to work.”

“Come on, Emily. I’m sorry I didn’t call. I know you think I’m a thoughtless jerk, but I’m not. Give me a chance to prove it.”

“And how do you plan to do that?”

He couldn’t believe he was about to say what he was about to say. “We’ll get married. You can move to Chicago. I’ll take care of you and the baby and...”

Horrified didn’t come close to describing her expression.

“What?” he asked.

“Oh, gee. Let me see. There is no way I’m moving to Chicago, and we hardly know one another, so I am not going to marry you.”

“Emily, we’ve known each other for years.”

“We’ve been acquainted for years. Big difference.”

“They’re basically the same things.”

“All right, then,” she said, offering up a challenge. “What’s my favorite color?”

He looked her up and down, as though her wardrobe might offer up a clue. “Yellow?”

“Wrong.”

“What’s my middle name?”

Hmm. Should he know this? Had it been mentioned during her nephew’s baptism, when the two of them had become godparents? Emily...? Emily...? He had no idea.

“When’s my birthday?” she asked, relentlessly hammering her point home.

Again, no idea. None whatsoever.

“See? You don’t know anything about me, but you think getting married is a good idea. You think I should walk away from my family and my job and everything I’ve ever known, follow you to Chicago and sit around in an apartment...or a house or wherever you live...waiting for you to get unbusy enough to be a husband and a father?”

“I don’t know, Emily. We’re about two minutes into a conversation I never expected to be having. We’re going to be parents, and I’m trying to do the right thing.”

“A marriage between two people who don’t know one another is not the right thing, so it can’t possibly be the best thing for the baby.”

Was she serious? “What do you suggest?” he prompted. “I ask you out on a date, so we can ‘get to know’ each other?”

“That would be a start.”

She was serious. “You want me to take you out to dinner and a movie? Drive you home? Leave you at the front door with a good-night kiss?”

She sucker-punched him with her smile. “That’s as good a place to start as any.”

Oh, man. She was dead serious. Women. Heaven help him. He would never understand them.

“Fine. We’ll do this your way. I’ll pick you up at six o’clock.”

“Tonight?”

“Tonight.”

“Oh, okay.”

“It’s a date.” Lamest idea ever, but if this was how she wanted to play it, then this was how they would play it, because in spite of her objections, he was going to convince her to let him do the right thing. Case closed.

* * *

EMILY PACED BACK and forth across her apartment’s tiny, cluttered living room. In Riverton’s early days, these second-floor spaces above the storefronts on Main Street had mostly been used as offices. This one, above what had long been home to the Riverton Gazette, had at various times been the office of a barrister, a land surveyor and an accountant. About twenty-five years ago, it had been converted into an apartment by removing most of the partitions to create an L-shaped living/dining/office area, separated from the single bedroom by a minuscule galley kitchen and an even smaller bathroom.