Inferna Nuntius

Chapter 9

9

When Derrick finally made his way back to their room, he was surprised to find Cassidy sprawled out on the floor, books surrounding her. He chuckled to himself and quietly closed the door, aware that she was engrossed in not only the books but her iPod as well. He stood in the doorway, admiring her from a short distance. He loved the way her long chestnut hair fell past her shoulders, cradling the top of breasts with soft curls. The very thought of her breasts caused him to twitch, his mind immediately going back to the events of previous nights. He felt himself swell slightly and warmth took over his body, staring in his belly and spreading across his skin quickly. He shook his head gently, folding his arms across his chest.

“Are you going to stand there all night?” Her voice called to him. He cocked his eyebrow at her and moved into the room, plopping himself down on the bed beside where she lay.

“Where did those come from?” He motioned to the books spread out around her. Cassidy laid her pen down and stretched her fingers, cracking her knuckles one at a time.

“The library had a whole stash of them, so I figured we could borrow one or two and try to get a leg up on this guy.”

“I’d like to get a leg up on you,” Derrick muttered before he had a chance to really think about his words. Cassidy glared at him through slightly parted eyes; her deep emerald eyes pierced through her eyelashes, stopping him in his tracks. “Sorry,” he apologized immediately, turning away from her. She rolled on to her back and began to laugh uncontrollably at him. He rolled his head side to side and slid down from the bed, joining her on the floor. “Ok, stop laughing. What did you find?”

Cassidy rolled back onto her front, grabbing her note pad from her left. “So, Turvey and Holmes are my new best friends.” She handed him a thick text book, flipping it open to a dog-eared page. “This is behavioral-motivation typology.” Her long index finger rested on the top of the page, gently tapping at the first heading.

Derrick flipped the book closed, grimacing as he read the cover. “These guys don’t mess around, do they?”

“Here, look.” Cassidy flipped the back to the page and scooted closer to Derrick, her arms resting on his thigh. “There are six classifications of rapists. We have power reassurance, power assertive, anger retaliatory, sadistic, opportunistic, and gang rape.” She pulled her note pad closer to her, handing it to Derrick to read her notes. “We can rule out gang rape since it was only one attacker. We can also rule out power reassurance and opportunistic since we think this guy stalks his victims.”

“How long have you been at this?” Derrick flipped her notes back and forth, thoroughly impressed by her work.

“How long were you at the bar?” She shot back, glancing at him sideways once again.

“Come on. We need to network while we’re here. I met the guys from Atlanta.” He informed her, setting her notes down. “They really wanted to meet you.”

“Oh, do they now?” She muttered, once again engrossed in her work.

“They just wanted to meet you, to talk to you.”

“About?’

“A job.” Cassidy pulled herself away from her paper and sat up, sitting face to face with Derrick. “They told me that they might have a job offer for you.”

“Doing what?”

“Police work. I don’t know, they wouldn’t get into too much detail about it, but they are interested in you.”

“I’m not really interested in leaving New York, though.” She replied.

“Then forget I said anything.” He stood up from the floor, stretching as he stood to his full height. “You were saying something about power reassurance….”