Hot Pursuit
Jennifer Bernard
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Also by Jennifer Bernard
About the Author
Prologue
The Knight brothers always did things their own way. Honoring their father's passing with a pre-dawn plunge into the creek behind their property made complete sense to them.
It was the only time the old man had ever seemed happy—fishing in the stream with his army buddies when they came through Jupiter Point. Robert Knight had been a respected figure in town and a strict disciplinarian with his family. Sitting around a stuffy room with a bunch of other people who love-hated the man held no appeal. His children would honor him in their own damn way.
Will Knight, as the oldest of the four brothers, went first. From their favorite spot on the flat rocks above the gully, he dove through the ghostly morning mist into the rippling water. Ice closed over his head, a violent shock to his system.
Just like murder was.
He broke the surface, gasping. Murder. Dad had been murdered. And no one knew who had done it. But someone must know. That was the thought that kept him up at night. Someone knew.
"Still alive down there?" Tobias called to him, softer than he normally would because of the early morning hush of the surrounding woods.
"Give me a minute, don't know yet." Half panting, half laughing, he kicked his feet against the current to stay in place. "Come on, you wusses. Am I the only one man enough to take the plunge?"
"Nothing manly about hypothermia," Ben said. He was crouched on the rock, ready to tip over into a dive. "Something important might get frostbite."
Aiden, the youngest brother, still only eight, laughed like a drunken hyena. His spiky blond hair and wide eyes made Will's heart ache. What was going to happen to Aiden?
Their father had been found dead six weeks ago. Will had stepped out of his Constitutional Law class to receive the news in a phone call from Tobias, the second oldest brother. After delivering that bombshell, Tobias had added, "Mom's a mess. How soon can you get here?"
Will had immediately flown home from his law school in Arizona. The police had quickly determined Dad's death to be murder. Shortly after that, Mom had left, saying she needed some time to deal with the situation. Their sixteen-year old sister Cassie had insisted on going with her.
A mess. The whole situation was a mess. A godawful, gut-wrenching mess.
Tobias cannonballed into the creek. Tobias was a big guy, the strongest of them all, and he made a gigantic splash that nearly swamped Will. When he surfaced, water streamed off his dark hair as he gave a wild "whoop."
He paddled over to Will, who was busy spitting water out of his mouth. "I got news," he said.
"What, that you're a jackass?" Will swiped a bit of river debris off his neck. "I've known that for twenty years."
"You say jackass, I say badass." Tobias smirked as he treaded water.
On a normal day, Will might continue the back and forth. It was what they did, as Knight brothers. But today wasn't normal, no matter how much they tried to pretend. Everything was changing. Will felt it in the current swirling at his feet, the mist hovering in the air. "Okay, badass, what's your news?"
"I'm joining up. Saw the recruiter yesterday. Army, like Dad. I figure, I don't know. It's the best place for me right now."
Will's stomach dropped. He didn't want Tobias to leave, but his brother was right. He'd always been the wildest, the angriest of them all. He was a force to be reckoned with, the one most likely to clash with Dad. If Tobias didn't get a handle on his volcanic emotions, he might head down a bad path, and fast.
"Good move," he finally said.
"What is?" Ben's head popped up near them, sleek as a honey badger's. While Will and Tobias had been talking, he'd slipped into the water. Probably while making some kind of funny face to amuse Aiden. He was eighteen, soon to graduate high school, a mixture of bravado and vulnerability.
"Tobias has boot camp in his future. Better practice your 'Sir, yes sir', bro."
Ben blinked water out of his eyes. "Shut the fuck up."
Will frowned at him, surprised by his rattled tone. "What's wrong?"
"This friend of Dad's called me up, he runs an Air Force ROTC program at State. He thinks I should join. I could be a pilot."
Ben had been obsessed with flying since he was a kid. Will couldn't imagine anything more perfect for him than the Air Force.
"But I told him I wasn't sure. I should stick around here. What if Mom doesn't come back, what about the investigation, what about—"
"No," Will interrupted firmly. "Do it. Go. It's what Dad would want. Mom too, if she could get her head clear."
His two brothers stared at him.
"I got this. I'm not going back to law school. I need to be here. For whatever happens. For everything you said. The police investigation, Cassie, Mom—"
From the bank of the creek, Aiden whistled and waved at them. When they looked in his direction, he performed a goofy little dance before launching himself off the rock. He was still airborne when Will finished his sentence. "For Aiden."
Their youngest brother hit the water with a splash like an exclamation point. Or like a clash of cymbals, separating before and after.
It would be eleven years before all four Knight brothers found themselves in the same place at the same time again. Jupiter Point. Home. Where all the same questions still burned.
1
The Jupiter Point sheriff's press conference was just getting underway when Merry Warren claimed her spot at the front of the small pack of reporters. As a workaholic and multi-tasking maniac, she'd been working on three other things during the drive from town. Between a phone interview, prepping questions for the sheriff, and breakfast in the form of coffee-from-a-cupholder, it was a miracle she'd made it in time.
She pulled out her little reporter's notebook. At the lectern set up outside the public safety compound, Sheriff Perez was reading a statement about a recent arson spree in the campgrounds and wilderness areas near Jupiter Point.
"Did I miss anything?" she whispered to a camera operator from one of the local cable channels.
"I'm missing my pillow, that's all I know." He yawned hugely, as if he couldn't possibly be more bored.
For Merry, any chance of boredom vanished when her gaze landed on the man standing just behind the sheriff.
Deputy Will Knight.
The tall deputy's hands were clasped behind his back, his stance relaxed, but every line of his broad-shouldered, long-legged body warned, "don't mess with me."
Under his deputy's baseball cap, his cool gray eyes met hers. He showed no reaction to the sight of her, not even the irritation she normally got from him. Which was totally mutual. Deputy Slow-Mo, as she'd nicknamed him, was the most frustrating law enforcement officer she'd worked with in her three years in Jupiter Point. He ought to have "no comment" tattooed on his foreh
ead. Even getting that "no comment" took forever; sometimes she thought he dragged the process out just to mess with her.
She screwed up her nose at him. Childish, she knew. But Will Knight had a way of bringing out the brat in her. He stared impassively back. He could have been one of the royal guards at Buckingham Palace for all the reaction he showed.
Sheriff Perez was finally reaching the end of his prepared statement. Since she already had a hard copy of it, she didn't bother taking notes.
Instead, she indulged herself with one more moment of tweaking Will Knight. She made another ridiculous face at him, twisting her features and lifting her upper lip in a snarl.
Was that a smile denting one corner of his firmly etched mouth? His eyes flicked away from her, as if he was trying to keep from laughing. Yes! Mr. Cool and Confident wasn't quite as oblivious as it seemed at first.
"Ms. Warren, did you have a question?" The sheriff's abrupt shift from reading his statement to addressing her directly made her jump.
"Oh. Yes, sir. I absolutely do have a question." She scrambled for her mental list of questions. One of her best assets as a reporter was her crystal-clear memory. She still wrote everything down, just to be safe, but she rarely forgot anything. "I'm sure readers of the Mercury News-Gazette will want to know if there's any risk of this arsonist striking inside the town itself."
"That hasn't been his pattern so far."
"'His'? Are you saying the arsonist is male?"
Sheriff Perez shuffled the papers on his podium. "We can't say that definitively, but most arsonists are male. We're working with a very specific profile on this one."
"Does it seem strange that, with such a specific profile, you don't have any suspects yet?"
Perez shot her a weary look. No other reporter ever asked as many follow-up questions as she did. "We're getting there, Ms. Warren. I have my best deputy on the case." He tilted his head toward Will. "He has a ninety-eight percent arrest rate. I'm sure we'll have a suspect soon."
He looked hopefully at the other reporters in the gaggle, but no one else stepped in with a question. So Merry waved her hand again.
"Is there a chance this is more than an arson spree and that's why you haven't been able to track down a suspect?"
"How about I let the deputy in charge take this one?" Sheriff Perez beckoned Will to the podium.
Will stepped to the microphone with as much wariness as if it were a snake. The TV reporter behind her gave a low, "mmm," as he arranged his long body behind the podium. Merry knew just how she felt. Will Knight was one long, tall drink of water.
Possibly spiked with valium for that extra dose of Slow-Mo.
"Can you repeat the fantasy…uh," he coughed, "I mean, question?"
Merry lifted her chin. She'd been following this particular story for a while and had a theory. No good-looking sheriff's deputy was going to mock it out of her. "My question is, since the profile doesn't seem to be resulting in a plethora of likely suspects, is there a chance you're working from an incorrect theory on the case? That it's not a typical arson spree but something different?"
"Such as? I'm all ears. Nothing we like better than having the press take care of business for us."
"Well, I'm wondering if you've considered the possibility that the fires might be related to the recent uptick in opioid arrests near Jupiter Point?"
"Absolutely." Will nodded soberly. "We've also looked into potential ties to the increase in unicorn spottings in the Sierras."
A titter ran through the crowd. Sheriff Perez, just beyond Will's shoulder, beamed. Merry's face heated.
Oh, that Will Knight, he was going to pay for this. It was one thing to deny, another to mock. And Will, with his dry, deadpan, slowpoke manner, knew how to slip the knife in.
No problem. Merry came from the mean streets of Brooklyn and could take care of herself. "Very thorough, thank you. Meanwhile, do you have anything to say to the tax-paying families in Jupiter Point who are wondering why a serial arsonist has been at large for more than six months?"
Will's calm gray gaze sparked with annoyance. A-ha. There was the irritation Will Knight usually showed around her. She'd take irritated over impassive any day.
"The families of Jupiter Point know we're working to keep them safe. And the Mercury News-Gazette can do its part by urging everyone to keep their eyes open for anything suspicious, especially if they’re out hiking, fishing, or camping. Now if that's it for questions, we'll wrap things up here and get back to work."
Merry raised her hand again. "One more. Who's going to be in charge while Sheriff Perez is on his honeymoon? Congratulations, by the way, Sheriff."
Sheriff Perez shook his head with a laugh and leaned back toward the mic. "How'd that news get out?"
"You know I never reveal my sources." She gave him an impish smile. "But we're all really happy for you." She clapped for him, the other media members joining in. As a reporter, it paid to be on good terms with the law enforcement community. That meant that her life would become a lot more difficult if Will Knight filled in for the sheriff. He was the only one she hadn't managed to charm. He was un-charm-able, that was why. Rigid, stick-up-his-ass, arrogant—
"Deputy Knight will be in charge," the sheriff announced. "I'll be gone for two weeks, starting next month, and you'll get to make his life miserable for a while."
Will smiled—arrogantly.
Oh joy.
As Merry stalked toward her car after the briefing broke up, she heard footfalls behind her. Those long strides told her it was Will even before she spun around to face him.
"Are you following me? Because I just remembered another question," she said as he came to a halt before her. "Why are you such a jackass?"
"The unicorn crack went too far, huh?" He tipped back his baseball cap with a half-smile. "Sorry about that."
She gaped at him. When did Will Knight ever apologize? She didn't want him to. They were adversaries. That electric current that always hummed between them proved it. "Take that back."
He looked confused. "Which part?"
"The nice part. It doesn't fit. Unless…" She frowned at him. "You want something, don't you?"
"Maybe. How about a coffee?"
She jingled her car keys between her fingers. Her nerves were jumping. It felt as if he was standing unusually close to her, though she could see perfectly well that he wasn't. "Why?"
"For caffeinating. Every reporter I know drinks coffee. Don't tell me you're the one exception."
He rested his hands on his hips. Damn, he wore that uniform better than any man had a right to. She was already late for about five other things, but if he was going to give her a hot story tip… "I don't really have time for coffee. I have to race back to town for an interview and I have a deadline."
"I'll make it quick. It doesn't have to be coffee. It just has to be private."
This was getting more and more interesting. "Fine." She gestured toward her trusty Corolla. "How about my car? It's very private. No bugs. I mean, there might be actual bugs. But nothing that can record."
She opened the passenger door and ushered him in. He was so tall, he had to grip the metal frame and duck down to fold his body inside the car. He closed the door behind him. As she rounded to the driver's side, she realized her heart had picked up its pace and was practically pitter-patting. She spent a lot of time in her car, driving from one interview or story to another. It was almost like inviting Will into her home.
Which she would never do.
She and Will didn't get along. They never had, not since she'd first taken the job at the Gazette and started pestering him for information. Every time they saw each other, whether in a professional context or out and about in Jupiter Point, they got into it. They were complete opposites. He moved slowly, she practically ran everywhere she went. He was from Jupiter Point, she was a transplanted city girl. He was a law-and-order type, she made a career out of questioning authority.
Also, he was bossy and arrogan
t.
"I see you put my seat back," she said as she slid into the drivers' seat.
"So my legs would fit." They still didn't, exactly. His knees were spread apart so they wouldn't slam into the glove compartment.
"There's no need to get comfortable. I don't have much time."
"Yeah, I don't think 'comfortable' is on the agenda," he said dryly. He reached behind his back and dislodged a chew toy in the shape of Shrek. He looked at it quizzically. "Friend of yours?"
"Stress ball. Helps me relax."
"You? Tense? Never would have guessed it."
She sighed and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, which had a shaggy purple cover that made her smile. "I don't have time for chitchat, Knight. Why are you here? What do you want?"
He squeezed Shrek, creating a breathy squeak. "Your, uh, speculation about the rise of opioids and the campground fires. I wanted to give you a heads up about that."
She turned toward him eagerly. "I knew it. I knew there had to be a connection. My gut never lies."
"You need to drop it," he said flatly. "It's not something you can pursue right now. If you let it go for now, I promise you'll be the department's first call once they can say something."
The hairs on the back of her neck lifted the way they always did when she was getting close to a real story. "So there is something to it, but you want me to ignore it? That's going to be hard to do. My brand-new boss will be very interested in a story like this."
"Right, I heard you got a new editor over there. What's he like?"
She grimaced, then quickly tried to pretend it was a smile. It didn't work; Will saw everything with those gray eyes of his. She'd noticed that fact before.
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