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against some of his files. “Can I buy you a can of oil?”
    Patrick finally looked up. “Is that supposed to be cute?”
    “Relatively speaking.” She wasn’t going to let him rob her of her moment. So little of what she did these days felt this good. The positive reactions she dealt with all squared themselves away on paper. That never produced a high. “C’mon, Cavanaugh, lighten up. We’ve still got the rest of the day to face together. It goes better on a full stomach.” When he made no attempt to get up, she added, “My dad always says you can’t trust a man who won’t eat with you.”
    He laughed shortly. “I take it your father never saw The Godfather. ”
    Perched on the edge of his desk now, she hooted. “You are a movie buff.”
    He didn’t like giving her points, didn’t like her feeling as if she knew something about him. The less you knew about each other, the less likely you were to get close.
    “I told you, that’s my sister’s department. You can’t help picking up a few things if it’s always playing in the background.”
    That was the second time he’d mentioned his sister. She paused to study him for a moment. “Are you close, you and your sister?” And then she answered her own questions. “Silly question, I guess.”
    The computer network was down, temporarily halting the exchange of information that would allow him to get the name of the owner of the dead woman’s sports car. Sometimes progress created nothing but stumbling blocks, he thought with annoyance. He didn’t bother sparing Maggi a glance. “Only if you think that I’m going to give you an answer.”
    “So what are you, like, the Lone Ranger?”
    It became obvious to him that subtlety was lost on her. She was probably the kind who had to be dislodged with a two-by-four or a crowbar. “The position of Tonto is not open.”
    Since he didn’t look up, Maggi found herself staring at the top of his head. He had deep, straight black hair, the kind that tempted a woman to touch, to feather her fingers through it. She purposely slipped her hands under her as she sat.
    “That’s okay, I don’t do sidekicks—I do partners.”
    He finally looked up. “Aside from catching bullets with your bare teeth?” The expression on his face grew darker. “What the hell were you thinking at the bank?”
    Another wisecrack was on the tip of her tongue, but then, she decided to tell him the truth. She’d acted because she was afraid.
    “That he was going to fire on you if you drew your weapon the way you were planning to.” And then, because it was getting too serious, she added, “I didn’t want to lose a partner before I won you over with my sparkling personality.”
    “How did you know what I was going to do?”
    “I saw it in your eyes,” she said simply. “Sometimes, you can’t go in like the Lone Ranger. Sometimes you have to go in like Fay Wray.”
    He stared at her. “Come again?”
    “Fay Wray. The woman in King Kong. ” There was still no recognition in his face. “The screamer.”
    “You didn’t scream.”
    “No, but I got properly hysterical. Enough to throw him off and get the drop on him.” Because it was obviously causing friction, she didn’t want to continue talking about the foiled bank robbery. “Anyway, it’s over. C’mon, Cavanaugh.” Playfully she tugged on his arm. “My stomach’s rumbling.”
    He shrugged her off. “No one’s stopping you from going to lunch.”
    “I hate to eat alone.” She would have pouted prettily if she’d thought it would work, but she knew it wouldn’t. Cavanaugh wasn’t the type to go out of his way to please a woman.
    He glanced at her before going back to his report. “Go to a crowded restaurant.”
    “I’d rather go to lunch with my partner.” She didn’t like being ignored and he was doing a royal job of it. This time, when she tugged on his arm, it was a hard jerk to get him to look at her again. “Hey, you owe me.”
    Her words more than