McAllister Justice Series Box Set

by Reily Garrett

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I just need to move around a bit.”

  “Let’s make some hot chocolate.” Royden lifted the covers but stopped when she covered his hand.

  “No. It’s all right. Really. I’m okay. I’m just gonna grab a drink of water.”

  As if knowing she’d head downstairs, he urged, “Take Diego with you.”

  Before she could reply, the dog jumped from the bed and trotted out of the bedroom with his ears perked. Upon arrival at Royden’s two-story country home, he’d examined every room as if claiming the space as his own.

  The temperature had dipped when the drizzle started at sundown. Downstairs, the rain-washed countryside yielded a silvered view of forest and wild grasses. If not for the home’s isolation and Royden’s strict detail for security, she’d crack a kitchen window for a wisp of the clean, crisp air.

  Diego sat in the living room, his gaze roaming outside and his head tilting to the side. A keener sense of hearing allowed him to easily pick up subtle sounds that only whispered through her thoughts.

  Mechanical actions of filling a water glass allowed her mind to filter repetitive flashbacks and ponder her predicament, until the shepherd’s whine snapped her attention to the front of the house. Setting her glass on the granite island, she padded over to see what perked his interest.

  Was the killer watching them, planning his next attack?

  “You want out, boy?” His signal to go out was to paw the door, hence, Ethan and Lexi kept his nails trimmed.

  He barked but not the typical intruder’s warning. His ears swiveled, and he remained alert with no sign of aggression. Ethan had warned that the dog sometimes chased deer.

  She waited. If someone watched the house, they’d know they couldn’t sneak too close. If not, there was no problem.

  Minutes passed as she weighed her options. Waking Royden would flag her fear and weakness. Not an option. Frequent sleepovers lessened the feeling that she was in hiding.

  When the shepherd lost interest in whatever had caught his attention, he padded to her side and nudged her leg.

  “You’re such a good boy.” Abby took a deep breath, satisfied with her decision.

  In returning to bed, she felt Royden stir and pull the covers back. The question hung between them, so she spared him the anxiety.

  “I’m fine. I think he just saw an animal or something.”

  With Royden’s arm around her once again, she snuggled against his chest, content and secure.

  Diego hopped onto the bed and plopped down, facing out, ever watching.

  Sleepless nights usually coincided with physical activity and sated bodies before morning. Abby sighed; the past two months’ changes initiated alterations in lifestyle not consistent with her desired future.

  Come morning, she was due for a serious round of introspection.

  ABBY WATCHED Royden grit his teeth before narrowing his eyes. “Sweetheart, I’m taking you into work, end of story.”

  “Not unless you tell me why. Something’s changed and I’m not budging until you spill.”

  She’d gotten up early after hearing him exit the shower. When she’d come downstairs, he’d been waiting. It didn’t take long to see through the calm façade. He’d remained quiet during breakfast, his mind burning through various possibilities of whatever concerned him.

  “Abby.”

  “No more secrets. Remember? That’s what you swore.”

  His lips thinned as he removed a small evidence bag from his jacket.

  “What’s in it?”

  “A round from a sniper’s gun.”

  “Damn. Where?”

  “On the front stoop.”

  “Before you ask, I’m not going to hide out in some safe house. This prick found me halfway around the world. He can find me anywhere. We just have to find him before he makes another attempt.”

  Dropping his chin to chest, he sighed. “I know, sweetheart. I know.”

  When he held his arms out, she stepped forward and snuggled close. It was the warmest, safest place in the world.

  ROYDEN SMILED in passing several clerks along the corridor. His best effort received frowns from two out of three.

  “Loosen up, cowboy. We’re in the office and plenty safe.” She’d never been one to accept hovering and would’ve found his presence cloying if a strange foreboding hadn’t set up shop in her chest. The prior night had rattled her more than she’d admit.

  “Abs, I’m gonna bring you lunch today. It’s nice outside, and we can sit at a picnic table in the courtyard.” The firm’s office space encompassed the entire second floor of the horseshoe shaped building. “How about a sandwich from the new pub on Fourth and Main.”

  “Sounds great. I’ll need a break by then, I’m sure.” Abby nodded to her assistant in passing. “You really didn’t have to walk me to my office, you know. I learned my way around years ago and you’re getting curious stares.” Half the women they passed undressed him with their gaze.

  “Not worried. I have you to fend them off.”

  “It’s why I carry pepper spray.”

  The intended joke died a quick death when she stopped in front of her desk. The blotter sat askew. Unusual. She narrowed her gaze while scrutinizing her personal space. Though not admissible in court, her instincts served her well and had pointed her in the right direction on many occasions.

  Royden scanned the space then stepped to the window to survey the exterior. Tension tightened his shoulders before he turned to face her. “What is it?”

  Although she’d previously enjoyed having a glass wall to her back, now it provided visual access to anyone wanting to catalogue her movements or take a shot from the wooded area. Of a sudden, she felt exposed, vulnerable.

  “What’s wrong, Abby?” No one occupied the courtyard below. The small shrubs hid no apparent threat. No one sat at the benches chatting or taking a break.

  “This plant is facing the wrong way, two leaves have broken off, and my calendar is crooked.” Opening each drawer in succession, she checked the contents. Nothing appeared missing or out of place.

  “Maybe you moved it accidently before leaving, and don’t plants lose leaves occasionally?”

  “No, this is a perfectly healthy plant. I turn the blossoms to face the sun each morning. This section should be facing the door, not the sidewall.” Pointing to the young plant, she added, “Look here. Someone has broken off the leaves.”

  “Maybe your assistant did it by accident?” The dubious brow raised declared his confusion.

  “No. She wouldn’t. She knows better than to re-order anything in this office.” Her peculiarity and affinity with organization and consistency concerning work life baffled even herself. It was one reason she loved being with Royden, who was slightly disorganized.

  He’d been the first man to coerce her from her shell and become somewhat spontaneous. He’d thought she’d taken things too far with what he called her adrenaline junkie phase, but in fact, each feat was an affirmation of life after her abduction.

  “Is anything missing?” Unable to remain still, he paced in the small area, alternating scanning the courtyard and the infinite space beyond.

  Apprehension filled her mind and dropped her stomach. “My safe. Let me check it.” Her heel snagged on the institutional carpet in her haste to get to the closet. As usual, the door remained closed. Yet a small ridge of dirt contrasted the off-white fibers near the doorframe.

  Royden pulled her back, his grip on her upper arm tightening.

  “Hold on, Abs.” Nudging her aside, he opened the door, one hand on the knob, the other palming the gun at his hip.

  Abby stepped back, the momentum of her earlier self-assurance fading. It was a mental retreat into a dark room below ground, quiet, with no subtle noise other than the steady thrum of her heart to reaffirm life.

  Royden switched on the small light. “Appears nothing’s been disturbed. Take a look, Abs, but don’t touch that dirt.”

  Growing up with
five brothers educated her on the fallacy of showing weakness in the face of fear. Two steps brought her to the threshold.

  “Let me open the safe and see if everything is there.”

  “You remember the combination?”

  “Yeah, it was the date of our first kiss.”

  Royden’s jaw dropped. “All this time, and you’re a closeted romantic. How did I miss that?”

  “You’ve been blinded by my devious mind and rigid self-control.”

  “More like your honesty, stunning beauty, and integrity... Not necessarily in that order.” He crouched beside her, careful not to disturb the ridge of soil that had caught his attention. “Wait, put these gloves on and only touch the outer edge of the dial. Don’t contact the shackle or exterior case.”

  Doing as requested, she opened the safe, her breath locking tight as it swung wide. Inside, one of her worst nightmares as an attorney took form, an empty folder.

  “Damn. There’s a file missing.” Abby reeled back, balanced by Royden’s arm. The ramifications of losing such critical documents would echo through her career. Besides Salsman, Abby’s assistant was the only other who knew about the safe.

  Brad locked the common file room containing the firm’s confidential information each night, but anyone working at the firm had access during office hours. Current events supported Phyllis Rollison’s paranoia and Abby’s lack of due diligence.

  “Which file?”

  “Phyllis Rollison, wife of CEO Theodore Credlin. How’d they know where to find the combination?” Keeping the safe a secret reaffirmed her notion of a pipe dream.

  “Actually, it’s common to hide a password somewhere on one’s desk, easy access and all that.” Royden stood and held out his hand. “C’mon. I want you to sit with your assistant for a bit. This is now a crime scene.”

  * * * *

  Royden cursed even as he breathed a sigh of relief. They finally had a string to pull. The missing file and the attempts on Abby’s life couldn’t be a coincidence. They now had a thread to unweave the shroud leading to the right direction and a possible motive.

  It wasn’t the first time his hand shook and probably wouldn’t be the last, not when his heart belonged to a five-foot-five dynamo who’d proven herself hell on wheels in the courtroom.

  His first phone call went to Mathew McAllister, not because he was Abby’s oldest brother, but because the family networked both in and out of the police force like nothing he’d ever witnessed.

  Whenever a sibling found trouble, the entire crew involved themselves. On frequent occasions, Abby was the one who disentangled her brothers from sticky situations, her knowledge of law as sharp as her nose for trouble.

  By the time he’d called a crime scene tech, several staff members surrounded Abby, each posing questions. She’d shaken off the tinge of uncertainty that earlier mashed her lips between teeth. Now, she stood determined and strong.

  “Hey, what’s going on here?” An air of pompous authority surrounded the shorter man’s approach while the expensive suit failed to hide the slight bulge at his waist. He pulled himself up to his full height but had to tip his head back to look Royden in the eye.

  “Waiting for a tech to arrive. You’re Bradly Thempkin, right?” The man who badgers Abby to no end. Returning the favor seemed appropriate.

  “Yes. I’m the supervising attorney for this section. What’s going on here?”

  “This office is a crime scene, and until I’m finished, no one is going in.”

  Bradly made a show of peering around Royden and into the office. “I don’t see a dead body in there... I thought you worked homicide. What has she gotten into now?”

  “I’m not at liberty to discuss details, though I’ll take your concern into consideration.”

  “If she’s putting the rest of the employees at risk by being here, maybe she should consider taking a leave of absence.”

  “Your coworkers are not in any danger, Mr. Thempkin.”

  As much as Royden wanted to crush the man before him, his priorities included finding Abby’s stalker. A mental breath cleared the haze of anger and forged a more pleasant expression. Relaxing his shoulders, he reverted to his training.

  When interviewing witnesses, Royden initiated a pattern, an approach to put the subject at ease and establish a rapport. Information came easier when the interviewee didn’t feel the bite of interrogation. Years of practice allowed him to get a feel for a person’s default expressions so that later he could separate truth from deception.

  Experience helped him pick out nonverbal tells that guided his conversation. A soft change in pitch, nonessential information added to a story for the sake of cementing the lie, or clusters of body movements indicating stress, all combined to round out his assessment.

  After manipulating the conversation enough to draw a mental bead on Bradley’s normal response patterns, Royden went for the jugular.

  “Tell me, what is your interest in Theodore Credlin?”

  A tic at the corner of the older man’s right eye preceded the attorney’s gaze sliding back to Abby.

  “Hey. If she’s divulging information about our clients, she’s violated more than a few laws that can get her disbarred.”

  “He’s not a client that I’m aware of. Has he contacted you in reference to his divorce?”

  “That would be unethical. I’ve not contacted the man.” The attorney looked away again, his mouth set in a firm line. When his gaze returned to the office in question, fury radiated an unspoken threat. “What was taken?”

  In making a statement, he’d not answered Royden’s specific question.

  “Now why would you assume something was stolen?” Royden couldn’t determine if the angry aura was directed at Abby or life in general.

  “Because there’s no dead body. Unless you can see something I can’t.”

  A review of the prior discussion during the McAllister’s family get-together affirmed the supervising attorney’s keen interest in Abby’s case and the veiled threats meant to influence her decisions. “Tell me, Mr. Thempkin, where were you last night?”

  The half-sneer curling one side of the attorney’s mouth preceded his muttered, “Home. Asleep. And alone. It wasn’t the night to snare the little witch.” The nod in Abby’s direction indicated his intent.

  Before Royden could snatch the man up by his expensive lapels, a strong hand latched onto his forearm.

  “Detective Patterson, what d’ya have for us?” Mathew McAllister’s not-so-subtle tug edged Royden away from the confrontation. The formality of the greeting declared the detective’s businesslike nature and determination to continue along the same vein.

  “Someone broke into Abby’s office last night.” Royden watched as his quarry walked toward Abby with angry sputters. They were due to have a meeting of the minds in the near future.

  Matt turned to face Abby, who held up her hand with a small smile. Her expression declared her ready and willing for a verbal sparring with her supervisor.

  Turning back to Royden, he gestured for them to step aside for a quiet conversation.

  “What was taken?” Matt checked out the small gathered crowd, confusion knitting his brow. “I know damn well she wouldn’t touch anything after realizing that.”

  Royden nodded. “Phyllis Rollison’s will was taken from Abby’s safe. The intruder left behind some dirt. Abby swears it wasn’t there yesterday when she left, and there was no cleaning crew last night.”

  “Her office is always spotless, so I’m inclined to believe it’s our first piece of solid evidence.”

  A soft shuffle signaled the arrival of the crime scene techs. “Hey, guys. What’s up? Somebody nail a lawyer?” Like his partner who also carried a case, the lead tech wore a blue jumpsuit.

  “Conlin. Thanks for the speedy response.” Royden gestured to the office and explained the situation and that it tied into a larger case.

  Conlin jutted his chin toward Abby. “Hey, we try, but when it’s one of our
own, we damn well step it up a notch.”

  As the techs entered the office, Abby strode to Royden’s side. “How long before I can get back to work?”

  “Not until they’re done.” Royden began, hesitant to say the words guaranteed to piss off his better half.

  “Until we clear the employees here, you’re off.” Matt’s face set in hard lines, as if preparing for an inevitable battle.

  “Um, no. I am going to stay—and work.”

  “Abby, listen to me.” Matt held his hand out, his index finger inches from his sister’s nose. “You can’t go in your office.”

  She matched him stare for stare. “I can work in Gena’s office. She’s out on maternity leave for another month. Think they’ll be done in there by then?” Her sarcasm indicated she’d wait Matt out as long as it took.

  Royden blew out a breath, knowing he needed to prevent the argument from escalating. “Why don’t I take you out for a big breakfast, Abbys? It’ll give the guys time to take pics and collect evidence.”

  Matt nodded his approval.

  “All right, cowboy. Let’s go.” Turning to her older brother, she added. “I am not taking time off. I will not be secluded. And I will not hide. So put that in your pipe and smoke it while I’m gone.”

  If he hadn’t known her so well, Royden might have missed the slight tightening about her eyes and mouth indicating she wasn’t as confident as she appeared. Circumstances presented challenges she accepted at every turn, regardless of the inner demons gnawing at her insides. The cave-in and scar on her upper arm proved a reminder of life’s fragility.

  He admired her strength and courage. She was a partner he’d cherish for a lifetime, but even partners needed help on occasion. Sometimes, they didn’t realize they needed it. Try as he might, he couldn’t get her to see that she didn’t have to carry the entire load alone. It was one part of their relationship she didn’t understand.

  Instead of hammering her with questions or providing distractions during their drive, he waited until they seated themselves in a cozy café to speak. Her knowledge of his usual methods of approach necessitated frequent changes.