midair from his wrist.
Carmine opened his drawer and then grunted. “You put my cuffs on?”
Turi quickly hid his hand behind his back, but knew it was useless. “What are cuffs?”
Turi swallowed hard when Carmine walked behind him, grabbed the arm that didn’t have a bracelet on it, and pulled it behind his back. He heard a click and then Turi found that his hands were trapped behind him.
“That’s what cuffs are,” Carmine said in a low growl. “They neutralize a suspect.”
Turning in circles, Turi tried his best to get them off. A large hand landed on his shoulder and then Turi saw Carmine holding up a key. “Hold still.”
He held still and soon both hands were free. Carmine dangled the cuffs in front of Turi’s face. “You shouldn’t play with these unless you’re serious about it.”
What the heck did that mean? Serious about what? Turi’s throat went dry when he saw the heat in Carmine’s eyes. He might not be worldly, but Turi knew when sex was on a man’s mind. He felt his face heat up as he glanced away.
“You can come with me, but you have to stay in the car.” Carmine shoved the cuffs into a little pouch that was attached to his belt before he headed toward the door. “Come on.”
With swift feet, Turi hurried behind Carmine.
After a twenty-minute drive, they pulled up behind a large van that had the words County Coroner on the side. He turned to Carmine. “What’s a coroner?”
“A person who picks up the dead body,” Carmine said as he opened his car door. “Stay here.”
Turi moved to the window, glancing out as Carmine walked to the open field. There were men all around his mate, a few squatting down, looking at something. Turi was curious as hell. Not that he wanted to see a dead body—but he had never seen a dead body before.
Making sure Carmine wasn’t watching him, Turi eased the car door open and stepped out, closing the door quietly behind him. He was going to take a quick look and then get back into the car. What harm could there be in just looking?
There were a few men walking around. Turi used the distraction to ease around the coroner’s truck. He wanted to look, but didn’t want Carmine to know he wasn’t in the car. From the way his mate acted, Turi was sure Carmine wouldn’t be happy about him not following orders.
Hell, the man just might put the cuffs back on Turi if he found him snooping around.
“Do we have an ID on the victim yet?” Carmine asked some guy standing next to him. Turi saw a small pad of paper in Carmine’s hand and his mate was writing something in it.
“Nothing yet. We took his fingerprints. Forensic should be running them through the database soon.” The stranger pointed over toward the road. “We have tire tracks. Maybe our John Doe was carjacked.”
“Just as soon as we figure out who he is, I want you to find out if a car is registered in his name. If there is one, I want a BOLO put out on it.” Carmine turned in Turi’s direction and Turi quickly pressed his back into the truck so his mate wouldn’t see him. He didn’t understand what they were talking about, but it sounded very interesting.
“I’m willing to bet it was not only a carjacking, but a mugging,” the stranger said to Turi’s mate. “He has no wallet, nothing to ID him. Maybe someone tricked him into pulling over and then they attacked him.”
“Well, we’re just getting started,” Carmine replied. “Let’s find out what evidence the crime lab gathered and go from there.”
When Turi didn’t hear anyone talk for a moment, he peeked around the truck. Carmine was standing two feet away, staring right at him. As he suspected, the man didn’t look happy that Turi was out of the car.
“I was just…” Turi wasn’t sure what to say. He was busted. Any excuse that came to mind sounded pretty lame to him, so he just stopped talking. He wasn’t about to dig himself deeper into the hole he was already in.
“Just messing up the crime