Colton's Dangerous Liaison

by Regan Black

  “He isn’t wailing or trying to get away from her. The little guy falls in love with anyone who smiles at him these days,” Melissa murmured. “I can’t believe that woman is someone familiar to him.”

  “Why not?” he queried.

  “Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anyone familiar to Danny who is also this invested in Everleigh Emerson’s innocence.”

  The Emerson case was all over the news and on the front page of every paper since the trial began. Everleigh, a local barmaid, had allegedly cheated on her estranged husband, Fritz. Then she apparently had killed him with a paperweight during an argument over divorce.

  Using the controls like a pro, Melissa rewound the few seconds of video in the winter garden. “I do not recognize that outfit at all.”

  “Here.” He switched two monitors in the middle of the setup to show the arrival of wedding guests. “Let’s see if we can pinpoint her arrival for the ceremony.”

  “Reception,” Melissa suggested. “The ceremony was a small service. I’m absolutely certain no one with that hat was at the ceremony.”

  “All right.” Antonio adjusted the timing of his search. Within minutes, they found her. “Here,” he said, pointing.

  Again, Melissa leaned closer to the displays and this time her knee bumped against his. The pleasant simmer from the inadvertent contact surprised him.

  “Damn. Between the hat and the other guests, her face is blocked. You’d think the hat would’ve made it harder to tuck in close,” she said. “She knew what she was doing.”

  “Seems so,” Antonio agreed.

  She reached for her phone and made swift notes in some app. “Clearly, she cares about Everleigh. That narrows the suspect pool quite a bit.” She looked up at him then, her blue eyes deep with a desperate intensity. “Can you show me to the conference room you set up for my team, please?”

  “Absolutely.” The sooner he got her out of this small space, the better. Those eyes of hers drew him in, tempted him to offer more comfort than practical assistance. That was a dangerous line he didn’t dare cross.

  The desk phone rang and he checked the monitors instinctively, braced for more trouble. “Ruiz,” he answered.

  His event manager gave him an update. “Thanks. I’ll pass that along,” he said, replacing the handset. “The reception is winding down,” he told Melissa. “The bride and groom are saying their farewells while the staff creates to-go boxes for everyone with food and cake.”

  “I’m sure they appreciate that.”

  “Sounds like a friend is keeping the boy’s mother company so you can focus on the search,” he added, escorting her from the security surveillance room. “I’ve also been warned that the media is gathering,” he added. “We’re keeping them outside and offering no comment.”

  He’d been tempted to keep the presence of the press to himself, but a child was at risk. This wasn’t the time to let her walk into a media circus just to be petty. In the hallway outside the conference room on loan to the GGPD, he paused, giving in to that strange and persistent need to comfort her. “Good luck, Chief Colton.”

  Then he walked away, hoping they wouldn’t cross paths again anytime soon. She was temptation, pure and simple, and challenged his resolve to steer clear of anything with the potential for an emotional entanglement.

  Chapter 2

  Melissa took a breath, helpless to keep her gaze off Antonio as he walked away. The man rattled her. Always had. He was only a few years older than her, but she’d always admired his commanding presence in any environment. Oh, he was tall and lean, too, and she found him sinfully handsome with his perfectly styled dark hair and sharp-edged short beard. His unfailing self-confidence only added more depth to his overall appeal. She doubted Antonio Ruiz had ever experienced an insecure moment in his life.

  She wasn’t sure what cologne he wore and, since its scent was practically addictive, she would never dare ask. The strength in his hand, his voice, when he’d helped her through that terrifying moment when the ransom message had come in... He’d kept her from an embarrassing breakdown. That had been categorically chivalrous. Kind. She hadn’t expected kindness, not from the man who made no secret of how little faith he had in the GGPD.

  From a layman’s perspective, she could understand his frustration with her department. He’d reported a murder and had expected justice, especially after the body had been found. But contrary to Antonio’s statement, they didn’t have anything tying Orr to the crime. Worse, Antonio had been a suspect himself for a short time as the GGPD worked the case. Good police work meant following every lead, even those that turned out to be bogus.

  Although she didn’t appreciate his nosing into confidential aspects like the specifics of the ransom note, they definitely needed his resources and assistance. Preparing the initial aspects of the search here on-site saved them valuable time when every second counted.

  So why was she out here, musing over Antonio, when they had a baby to find?

  She walked into the conference room, hoping her team had a list of suspects started.

  Troy—who was a GGPD detective, her cousin and Danny’s uncle—gave her a hopeful look from his seat on the far side of the big oval table in the middle of the room. “Tell me you have a face or potential ID to go on.”

  “I wish.” She rubbed at the tension gripping the back of her neck. “We found the woman in the navy blue dress and that hat as she entered tonight, but her face was obscured. She came through the front doors with a crowd of reception guests, but I’m not exactly sure where she waited for her moment. Did anyone in the reception remember seeing her?”

  “No,” Troy replied. “So far, it doesn’t look like she spent any time in the ballroom. I’ve questioned the guests closest to Desiree’s table, based on the wedding videographer’s footage.”

  “Anyone recognize her or the hat?”

  “No,” Troy repeated. He scrubbed a hand over his short black hair. His hazel eyes were haunted and she knew he wanted to turn the city upside down until they found his nephew. “I’m only guessing, but it makes sense that she might have joined the reception when the dinner buffet opened.”

  “Lots of movement, more distractions,” Melissa agreed, thinking it through. “And less than a half hour later, she scoops up Danny and heads straight for the garden.”

  “He wasn’t crying.”

  “I know. That worries me,” she admitted. As a part-time sketch artist, Desiree was often in the police station. Everyone on the force had probably met Danny at one time or another and he was an outgoing child who didn’t seem to have any fear of new faces. Did someone inside the GGPD have an issue with the Fritz Emerson murder case? “Any progress on the ransom message?”

  “Nothing beyond the wording of the message. Full words and punctuation strikes me as someone over twenty-five.” He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, defeated. Looking up, he said, “I’d be surprised if the phone is even in one piece anymore.”

  That was the trend for criminals. Burner phone, blocked number, disposed of after immediate contact. It didn’t narrow the suspect pool at all.

  “Chief?”

  She turned toward her cousin, Grace Colton, a brand-new cop on the GGPD roster. “You have something?”

  “I called Mason County Prison and verified Everleigh is in her cell. No visitors since the start of the trial.”

  “Good work. Thanks.” She looked around the room. “All right. Female and over twenty-five is a starting point. Give me what you have on Everleigh Emerson’s relatives. Let’s clear them one by one. Female first.”

  She was tempted to step out of her heels, but she couldn’t run around barefoot. “Where’s Clarke?” Maybe he could swing by her house and pick up a change of clothes for her.

  “He went to find the public defender, following that mention in the ransom note, to dig into the evidence aga
inst Everleigh.”

  “Good.” Spotting a stack of notepads with the hotel logo and a pile of matching pens, she chose one of each and sat down with Troy. Making notes as Troy reviewed the list with her, she got a good picture of Everleigh’s potential support system.

  She felt every second ticking down, and worried that the kidnapper was taking Danny farther out of their reach, or worse. Tapping the pen to her palm, she tried to breathe through the crushing pressure. This wasn’t just any case. And when she found the kidnapper, she’d...

  “Do you need to go home?” Troy asked.

  Melissa went still at the suggestion, remembering she had a responsibility to her officers and the community to be objective. “I should ask you the same thing, seeing that you’re a closer relative than I am.”

  “I’m not leaving this to anyone else.”

  “Then we work it together.”

  She looked up when Officer Shea and his black Lab Ember came in. “Chief,” Shea began, frustration tightening his features. “Danny’s trail goes from the reception straight to the parking lot and ends. We can’t pick up anything helpful beyond that.” Ember tilted her head, ears perked as she waited for a new command. “We did a sweep of the interior of the hotel, but there’s no indication he’s here.”

  Melissa ignored the wrenching pain in her heart—she’d been so hopeful. “You’ve done plenty.” They knew where Danny wasn’t, which saved time and angst. “Thank you both.” She reminded herself that the kidnapper was female and that likely meant better odds for Danny. When the K-9 team left, she turned back to Troy. “Any chance we’re missing a motive?”

  He scowled at his notes. “Like what?”

  “Do you think the mention of the Emerson case is a diversion tactic?”

  He looked at the ransom message someone had printed out while she’d been with Antonio in the security office. “No. The message was too personal, in my opinion. Too emotional.”

  She agreed, but she needed to avoid any tunnel vision that could mislead them and delay Danny’s rescue. They would find him; she couldn’t entertain any other outcome. Those few minutes skimming video with Antonio had threatened her confidence. His concern that her department wasn’t up to the task was palpable. He wasn’t the first person to be upset with her department and he wouldn’t be the last. People didn’t understand that GGPD’s investigations were rarely cut-and-dried and cases weren’t solved in the convenient span of an hour-long television show.

  She had good, devoted people in her department. Having worked her way up the chain of command, she’d known most of them for several years. They were passionate about their work, but still only human. Mistakes happened because people weren’t perfect. They needed to be perfect tonight.

  “Start sending units out,” she told Sergeant Brad Joseph. He’d loosened his tie and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt. His suit coat was draped over the back of a chair. “Park teams of two at each of the addresses that Detective Colton gives you. Report only,” she added. “I don’t want anyone to engage unless they are sure the child is in imminent danger.” The stout man picked up his phone and got to work.

  Melissa reminded herself that overall, the GGPD had a superb success rate with most cases, from misdemeanors to felonies.

  Then there were cases like the Wendy Paxton murder. Cases that became convoluted and troubling and remained unsolved. Antonio had come into the station and reported that Drew Orr allegedly admitted to having killed his girlfriend, Wendy. The GGPD had found the body a few miles away on a remote hiking trail in the county park just north of his hotel. The case had gone cold, despite Antonio’s report and a thorough investigation. The security cameras in the park showed Orr and Wendy entering the park in his car that day, matching his statement, but the light and angle made it impossible to tell if she had been with him when the car exited the park. Naturally, Orr was the prime suspect and they’d tried to punch holes in his alibi, but it had held up. The department had been hoping for something helpful from the forensics team, but when the lab finished the evaluation, none of the DNA evidence at the scene connected Orr to the crime. The whole situation still bothered Melissa.

  Please don’t let Danny become one of those cases.

  The Paxton family still wanted justice for Wendy. Melissa did, too. It was hard to ignore that a killer had gotten away with the crime. Antonio was right to be frustrated with the GGPD over the lack of results in the Paxton case and with Orr’s intentionally misleading allegations. He didn’t seem to understand they’d worked it by the book, even following up on Orr’s assertion during questioning that Antonio was the killer. The lean, sexy hotelier had a solid alibi, but it seemed he still held a grudge against her and her department. Understanding his point of view didn’t make it any easier to be around him. And now her baby cousin had been kidnapped right under her nose.

  She wanted the city’s trust, and gaining the confidence of community leaders was a big part of that. Ruiz had a great deal of influence, considering the number of people in his employ and countless others who carried out work here. His poor opinion of the police could trickle down as a result of his doubts and fester until she had a real problem.

  She returned to the chair next to Troy. “Can you think of anyone else who benefits if Everleigh Emerson is exonerated?” she asked, keeping her voice low.

  Troy shot her an incredulous look. “You’re serious.”

  “I am.”

  “Melissa, all due respect, you’re off base. It’s too soon. If the logical assumptions—relatives and friends eager to clear her—don’t pan out, then we can dig deeper. I think it’s a waste of our limited time to look at long shots this early.”

  She gripped the pen in both hands. “Thank you. I needed to hear that. Walk me through the closest relatives first. Who do you like? Who has the ability to pull this off?”

  Troy sat up straighter. “We’re assuming the kidnapper was in disguise?”

  “Safe bet. But disguise or not, it was a woman, not a man dressed as a woman,” Melissa said.

  “Why are you so sure about that?” Troy challenged.

  She reminded herself this was the rhythm of working a case—idea, debate, next idea. “I’ve seen all the available footage of our kidnapper entering and leaving the hotel. I don’t think it was a man’s walk or a man’s way of carrying a toddler.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “As you said,” she reminded him, “we can explore secondary options once the first and most obvious suspects have been cleared. As fast as she disappeared, I want to conduct interviews based on the proximity to the hotel.”

  “Divide and conquer?”

  She shook her head. “Just you and me. If we divide and conquer, we’d have to segment the list and then we’re stuck wondering if someone got played.”

  “Understood,” Troy said. “I’ll get our route planned.”

  Due to the nature of the ransom note, she hoped they could bring Danny home before she had to issue an Amber Alert. Melissa addressed the officers Sergeant Joseph hadn’t sent out yet. They’d been trickling in from the reception and the search, each one of them wanting to help. “No one speaks to the press,” she began. “I’ll give a statement to the media in just a few minutes.” She looked around at her team, most in wedding attire, others in their GGPD uniforms. “Thank you all for stepping up. I’m confident we can bring Danny home safely to his mother. Tonight.”

  She assigned two officers to stay at the hotel to handle any further developments, and another team to stay with Desiree at her house. “If you see anything, call it in, no matter how trivial it might seem. At this point, everything is a possible lead.”

  When she had everyone’s agreement, she walked out, taking a moment in the restroom to freshen up before she faced the media waiting outside. By some miracle her hair was fine. All credit to her stylist for that. Wishing she could do this in her unif
orm, she added a bit of color to her lips. She clipped her badge to the sash cinching her waist, just to make it clear she was on duty and in charge.

  Taking one last deep breath, she headed for the hotel entrance and walked out alone, to the flash of lights and barrage of questions. It was all she could do not to duck and cringe.

  “Your attention, please...” She waited for the voices beyond the extended cell phones and microphones to quiet. “Earlier this evening a child went missing from the hotel. My officers began a search immediately. At this time, the Grave Gulch Police Department is working every possible lead and we are confident the child will be found soon. If we feel that help from the public is warranted, we will distribute more information. Thank you.”

  A chorus of “Chief!” and “Chief Colton!” nearly knocked her back as everyone vied for her attention.

  “Is the child a boy or girl?”

  “Where are the parents?”

  “How old is the child?”

  “Did the search dogs find anything?”

  Melissa waited a beat. She had to find the balance that would stem the tide of rash speculation and still protect the integrity of the search, as well as her cousin’s privacy.

  “The child is eighteen months old,” she reported. “A boy. That is all I am willing to share at this time. I’m asking you to give us room to work so we can bring this crisis to a safe and swift conclusion. Thank you for your time.”

  She ignored questions about ransom demands, time frames and suspects. A question about her attire nearly stopped her in her tracks, but she ignored that, too, relieved to slip back into the warmth and steady lighting of the lobby.

  “Nicely done,” Troy said as she returned to the conference room. He’d removed his suit coat and tie, and rolled back his shirtsleeves to his elbows. Though the dress shirt was a step above his normal attire, he resembled the expert detective she saw most days at the station. He shot her a quick grin. “Thought you were going to snap at the comment about your dress.”