A Fine Specimen by Lisa Marie Rice

true. I can promise you that I won’t cause any trouble or
distract anyone from their duties. I’ll be so discreet you’ll hardly notice I’m
there. All I want to do is talk with the officers, get to know them well enough
to evaluate the questionnaire. Find out how they feel about their jobs. Find
out what their concerns are.”
    “Well hell,” Alex said,
disgusted. “I can tell you that right now, without having to interview them.
They want to put away the bad guys and stay in one piece while doing it.”
    “Of course they do.” She
nudged her little round scholar’s glasses back up to the bridge of her nose.
“But in order to do that, they need a strategy. A survival strategy. Cops are
both predator and prey, so like any animal in the wild they need to hunt while
convincing their enemies that they
won’t make an easy meal.”
    Laughter rumbled in
Alex’s chest but he refused to give in to it. This was not a laughing
matter, damn it. He absolutely refused to be charmed by Caitlin Summers, no
matter how pretty, no matter how smart she was. She was going to be a burden
and a distraction.
    He was going to open the
doors of his station house to her under duress and only because Ray Avery had
asked him to. And Ray was the only human being alive he’d do this for.
    “Academic theory always
has a positive rebound effect on the object of its study, sooner or later,”
Caitlin said softly. “So you really won’t have been wasting your time or the
time of your officers.”
    “Rebound effect?” Alex
heroically refrained from rolling his eyes. “You mean you think you’re going
to help us ?”
    Alex knew he was in
intimidation mode, but to his surprise, she didn’t back down. She clearly felt
she was on safe ground here.
    Caitlin nodded. “Sure. A
large part of behavioral psychology is based on the fact that we’re animals and
we follow the rules any animal species does. You eat or be eaten. You mate and
defend your young. You keep the troop or the flock or the pride together and
orderly by following the rules of hierarchy. Aggression must be used under
controlled circumstances or the group suffers. In this one aspect, the human
species differs from all other animal species. No other species has as many
rogue elements as humans. No other species requires that a percentage of the
energies of the group go into keeping order. It’s also very unusual in
primitive human tribes. That’s what makes modern law enforcement so
fascinating.”
    Alex grunted and looked
down at his plate, astonished to see that he hadn’t started eating yet. He’d
been starving and she’d made him forget his food. Ms. Caitlin Summers was
proving to be an even bigger distraction than he had originally thought. Not
much could get between him and one of Hank’s burritos when he was hungry.
Deliberately, he sank his fork into the now lukewarm burrito.
    Caitlin tilted her head
and studied him. “Go ahead, Lieutenant. Why don’t you tell me about a case
you’re working on and I’ll tell you what academic theory can do.”
    Alex stopped with his
fork halfway to his mouth, turning her words over in his head.
    No. No fucking way.
Police business stayed in the force. He wasn’t about to go blabbing about their
problems to the first pretty face who asked.
    And yet…and yet. Alex
was a good cop because he used everything he could, because he never spurned
help, because he thought outside the box. And this was a woman who’d spent
years studying law enforcement. Surely that counted for something…
    Shit.
    He was thinking about
it. What was the matter with him? Had he suddenly gone loco?
    “You don’t have to give
me names or details, Alex. Just give me the general outline of the problem.”
Caitlin smiled at him, lips curving gently upward. It occurred to him that some
women were smart not to use lipstick. Her lips were a very pretty color all
their own—a smooth, glistening pale pink. He could kiss her without getting
glop on his face.