Conflict of Interest Read online

  Conflict of Interest

  By

  JAE

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  Copyright © 2008 By Jae

  All rights reserved. 1

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-934889-23-7

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-934889-40-4

  Audio eBook ISBN: 978-1-934889-24-4

  First Edition

  eBook Format

  Published September 2008

  Print July 2009

  This book is Published by

  L-Book ePublisher

  La Quinta, Ca. USA

  Email: info@ L-Book.com

  Web Site: http://L-Book.com

  Editors: Judy Underwood

  Cover Design by Sheri

  [email protected]

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  This work is copyrighted and is licensed only for use by the original purchaser and can be copied to the original purchaser's electronic device and its memory card for their personal use. Modifying or making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, without limit email, CD, DVD, memory cards, file transfer, paper print out or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Acknowledgments

  First and foremost, I'd like to thank my beta reader, Pam, who is in a class of her own. She has been incredibly patient and supportive through every step of the writing process.

  Special thanks to Rayne, KC, Lori, Jonel, Lena, and Michelle, who beta read parts or all of the story when I first wrote it, and to Margot and RJ for test reading Conflict of Interest and for their patience and help with finding the right names for these characters.

  Thank you to Kristin for patiently answering some of my very complicated questions about the finer points of the English language.

  I would also like to thank Roxanne for giving me this opportunity, Sheri for creating a wonderful cover, and Judy for making the copy editing process a pleasant experience.

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  Dedication

  For all survivors.

  Conflict of Interest

  CHAPTER 1

  "I'M GOING TO throw up," Dawn Kinsley groaned, rubbing her nervous stomach.

  "No, you won't." Her friend and colleague Ally just grinned. "Come on, you're a therapist. You're used to talking to people."

  "Not to one hundred uninterested cops who would rather be elsewhere and who won't give me the time of day," Dawn protested. She knew exactly what each of the police officers sitting on the other side of the curtain was thinking. Most of them would view her lecture as a waste of time.

  Ally shook her head with amusement. "A psychologist with glossophobia. I wonder what the APA would say about that?"

  "I'm sure the American Psychological Association would be much more concerned about a psychologist with your lack of compassion," Dawn shot back, now with a grin of her own. She knew she usually didn't have a problem with public speaking. She had held her own in front of large groups of gum-chewing high school kids, earnest college students, and renowned psychologists twice her age, but cops were a special audience for her. It was almost as if she was expecting to see her father sitting in one of the rows and was trying to impress him. Oh, come on, Doc, this is not the time to start analyzing yourself! she admonished.

  "Touché," Ally finally conceded.

  Both of them had to chuckle, and Dawn felt herself relax.

  "There are a few techniques that can help in these situations, you know?" Ally pointed out.

  "Let me guess... picturing everyone in the audience naked?" Dawn grinned at her friend. "And how would that help with my nervousness?"

  Ally shrugged. "Well, maybe it won't." She peeked out from behind the curtain, letting her appreciative gaze wander over the men in the first few rows. "But it might be nice nonetheless."

  "Maybe for you, but how would it be nice for me to picture a room full of naked male cops? Hello?" Dawn gave a little wave. "Did you miss the office memo informing everyone about my sexual orientation?"

  "Office memo?" Ally repeated. "Is that what they nowadays call kissing your girlfriend in the office's parking lot?"

  "What?" Dawn sputtered. "I never did that!"

  Ally rubbed her forehead and pretended to think about it. "No? Must have been Charlie, then." She pushed the curtain aside to glance at the audience again. "You know there are also a few female officers down there. You could look at them."

  "All two of them?" Dawn joked but stepped closer to follow Ally's gaze. There were more than two female cops in the audience, she noticed – but not many more.

  "Pick one," Ally said.

  Dawn nudged her with an elbow. "I'm here to give a lecture, not to pick up women, Ally."

  Ally rolled her eyes. "Pick one and concentrate on her during your lecture. Ignore the rest of the crowd. It'll help with the nervousness. So?" She pointed down to the seated police officers.

  The mutual teasing and joking was part of their everyday life in the office. Dawn saw no reason not to humor her friend now. She craned her neck to be able to look past the taller Ally. Her gaze wandered from woman to woman, never stopping for long until... "Her!" she said, pointing decisively.

  In the very last row, between a tall African American man in his forties and a younger man whose posture screamed "rookie," a female plainclothes detective was just taking her seat.

  "Ooh!" Ally whistled quietly. "Nice choice! Didn't know you liked them a little on the butch side, though. Maggie isn't nearly –"

  "Compared to Maggie, even you look butch," Dawn interrupted. "Besides, that detective isn't butch."

  She wasn't. Not really. The detective had short, jet-black hair, yes, and the stereotypical leather jacket covered what Dawn could see of her tall, athletic frame, but she also moved with a grace that was definitely feminine.

  "Dr. Kinsley?"

  Dawn looked away from the detective and turned around. "Yes?"

  One of the seminar organizers stepped next to them. "Here are your handouts." He handed her a stack of paper. "Are you ready to begin?"

  Dawn clutched the handouts but gave him a friendly smile. "Yes."

  "Good luck," Ally said, and behind the seminar organizer's back, she mouthed, "Remember: picture her naked."

  How's that supposed to calm my racing heart? Dawn wondered as she stepped out from behind the curtain and made her way over to the microphone with a confidence she didn't really feel.

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  "Where's your partner?" Detective Aiden Carlisle asked Ruben Cartwright as she slumped into a seat between him and her partner. "Terminal back pain again?" If I have to be here at this law enforcement seminar, so does everyone else, even hypochondriacs like Jeff Okada, Aiden thought grumpily.

  Ruben looked up from the paper airplane that had once been his seminar brochure. "Again?" he asked, shoving a strand of brown hair out of his boyishly handsome face.

  Ray Bennet, Aiden's partner, leaned over to him with a grin. He had known Jeff Okada for much longer than just the year Ruben had been partnered with him. "It only seems to act up whenever a continuing ed seminar comes along," he explained.

  "It acts up whenever I have to sit in one of these unhealthy first grader seats," Jeff Okada corrected as he walked up to them. Gingerly, the Asian American detective eased himself down onto the uncomfortable chair next to his rookie partner.

  Aiden sighed and glan
ced at her watch. She didn't want to be here any more than her colleagues did. Not that she didn't believe in the value of further education. It was just that she had a stack of unfinished reports on her desk and thirty open cases, which didn't get any closer to being solved while she sat here. Furthermore, the seminar prevented her from spending her lunch hour in the courtroom's gallery, watching her favorite Deputy District Attorney at work. Today, she lied to herself, she would have worked up the courage to ask Kade to lunch.

  Sighing again, she wrestled herself into a standing position and pointed to the back of the conference room. "I'm going for coffee."

  "If you want to live long enough to enjoy your hard-earned pension, I'd advise against that, my friend." Okada raised his index finger in warning. "In more than twenty-five years on the job, I've never been to a law enforcement seminar with even halfway decent coffee."

  Ray smirked. "In twenty-five years on the job, you've never been to a law enforcement seminar, period."

  Over the top of his sunglasses, Okada directed a brief but withering glance at Ray before he turned back to Aiden. "The lack of drinkable coffee is obviously a nationwide conspiracy from law enforcement brass to make sure nothing distracts their officers from the lectures. For the same reason, you'll never encounter doughnuts or attractive female lecturers at a law enforcement seminar."

  "Or comfortable chairs," Ray added.

  Okada threw up his hands in triumph. "Finally, someone's wising up!"

  Aiden smiled halfheartedly and sank back into her chair. Giving up on her caffeine fix, she pulled the now crushed seminar program out from under her. The wrinkled paper announced the title of the first lecture: 'Special Needs and Issues of Male and GLBT Survivors of Rape and Sexual Abuse,' speaker: D. Kinsley, PhD.

  "Great," Aiden murmured. They hadn't even hired a cop or someone who knew the reality of handling sex crimes to give the lecture. Instead, some antiquated Freudian in a stiff suit would bore them to tears with his academic, impracticable theories.

  A young woman carrying a stack of handouts stepped out from behind a curtain and crossed the podium – the Freudian's assistant or the poor soul who had the questionable honor of introducing the speaker, Aiden assumed. The woman tapped the microphone to test its volume and nodded. "Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm Dawn Kinsley, your lecturer for the first part of the seminar."

  Aiden's head jerked up. That's D. Kinsley?

  Nothing reminded Aiden of the academic Freudian she had imagined except the glasses on the freckled nose. Instead of a suit and tie, slacks and a tight, sleeveless blouse covered a body that was petite, yet not frail, and slender, but not model-thin. The strawberry blond hair wasn't pulled back into an old-fashioned bun, but cascaded in curls down to softly curved hips.

  So, she's the PhD, not the assistant, huh? That's my punishment for stereotyping. Of course, looking at her instead of an old man is not exactly a punishment, Aiden thought, eyeing the blond speaker appreciatively. However boring the lecture might be, at least she would have something captivating at which to look.

  The lecture began, and to her surprise, Aiden found herself looking away from the pretty speaker and down to her notepad to jot down interesting details about dealing with male rape victims. The lecture turned out to be informative, practice-oriented, and witty. She even caught Okada bending his aching back to take notes. The psychologist spoke with passion and sensitivity, never even glancing down at her notes.

  Instead, Aiden felt as if the psychologist was looking right at her, focusing on her as if there were no one else in the room. Oh, come on. Stop dreaming. There are a few other people in the room, you know? Aiden admonished herself. She listened with rapt attention to the rest of the lecture.

  Forty-five minutes passed almost too soon.

  "Knew I should have tried the coffee," Ruben mumbled when they began to file out of the room with the last of the seminar registrants. "If there's an attractive female lecturer, there's a chance the rest of your seminar conspiracy theory is bull, too."

  Okada stretched and shook his head. "I wouldn't bet your meager paycheck on it, partner. Some government employee obviously failed to check the lecturer's picture, but there's no way they would overlook a bill for Blue Hawaiian beans at forty dollars per pound."

  A chuckle behind them alerted Aiden to the fact that someone had overheard her colleagues' comments. She turned around and looked down into the twinkling gray-green eyes of Dawn Kinsley, their lecturer. The faint laugh lines at their corners told her that the psychologist was closer to thirty than to twenty as she had first assumed.

  "Sorry," Aiden said, pointing at Okada and Ruben, "they're not used to being out and about. Normally, we keep them chained to their desks."

  Dawn Kinsley didn't seem offended. Full lips curved into an easy smile that dimpled her cheeks and crinkled the skin at the bridge of her slightly upturned nose, which made the freckles dusting the fair skin seem to dance. "Don't worry, Detective, I've been called worse things than 'attractive.'"

  Aiden studied the gray-green eyes looking steadily at her. "How do you know I'm a detective?" It was disconcerting to think that anyone, even a psychologist, could see through her so easily.

  "Oh, I don't know, could it be the fact that we're at a law enforcement conference?" Okada chimed in.

  Dawn Kinsley smiled at him, but she spoke to Aiden. "The way you stand, walk, and talk pretty much screams 'cop' in capital letters. And the way you dress suggests you're a detective. Sex crimes unit?"

  Aiden nodded. "Aiden Carlisle." She extended her hand.

  "Dawn Kinsley, but I guess you already knew that." The psychologist nodded down at her name tag. Her handshake was as genuine and warm as her smile.

  "Hey, Aiden!" Ray, already halfway out of the door, waved her over. "We're gonna make a run for the nearest coffee shop before the next lecture starts. You up for it?"

  Forty-five minutes ago, she would have jumped at the chance to leave the seminar room, but now Aiden found herself hesitating. "Um... sure." She glanced down at Dawn Kinsley. "Would you like to come with us?" she surprised herself by asking.

  "I don't drink coffee." The psychologist laughed at the look on Aiden's face. "Don't look so shocked, Detective. I'm a tea drinker, and I'd love to accompany four of Portland's finest, but regrettably, I've got an appointment."

  "Maybe next time, then," Aiden said noncommittally, knowing they would likely never see each other again. Suddenly not as eager for a coffee as before, Aiden followed her colleagues out of the conference room.

  CHAPTER 2

  AIDEN RAPPED HER knuckles against the shiny surface of a watermelon, testing its ripeness. Then she decided that a whole melon would only spoil in her single-household and reached for a banana instead.

  She looked up from the fruit when a young man entered her personal space. As a cop, she was immediately aware of anyone violating a ten-foot zone around her. His gaze met hers, and he backed away. Scowling, Aiden watched him as he neared another shopper, who was busy nestling her apples into a shopping bag.

  Hey! That's the psychologist from last week. Buying fruit like the rest of us mere mortals – in my grocery store. Aiden forgot about the strange young man as she studied the psychologist. Wearing faded blue jeans and a white button-down shirt, Dawn Kinsley looked – in Aiden's opinion – at least as good as in the neatly pressed slacks and the blouse from the seminar. Aiden tilted her head and watched as Dawn pushed back stubborn blond strands that had escaped from her ponytail. Should I say hello? Would she even remember me?

  She hadn't made a decision yet when her trained cop eyes noticed a hand reaching into the psychologist's purse. A second later, the young man fled down the aisle.

  Dawn Kinsley seemed to comprehend what had happened almost immediately. She sprinted after him at a speed that would have done any street cop proud and grabbed his shirt before he could reach the door.

  The thief whirled around, towering over the small woman. He raised a threatening f
ist.

  Uh-oh! Aiden sprinted toward them before the situation could escalate further. She grabbed the raised fist and turned the man's arm behind his back in one smooth movement. "That was really dumb, Ms. Kinsley," she said to the staring woman. "Brave, but dumb. You shouldn't grab a thief, who outweighs you by at least forty pounds, without even knowing if he's armed!"

  Dawn Kinsley looked steadily back at her. "He outweighs you, too."

  Aiden straightened to her full height. "But I am armed and a trained police officer."

  "Oh, shit!" At the mention of her occupation, the captured thief started to struggle in Aiden's grip.