“He watched her from outside—beforehand—probably multiple times before making his move. He got inside without a problem. Your guy is more than decent at B&E.”
Harry’s eyebrows popped up. “There’s a pry mark on the back door. It’s becoming one of his trademarks. It seems this guy started out as a cat burglar and worked his way up to cold-blooded maniac. According to the neighborhood watch program there have been a number of petty thefts within a six-block area during which time he took nothing of real value, stuff like costume jewelry, pairs of panties, a few extra house keys have gone missing, insignificant items like that. Although four streets over, he did steal a couple of nickel-plated Berettas he found hidden in a portable safe, which he managed to get inside by picking the lock. So far, that’s about the extent of his bounty though.”
Skye gnawed at her bottom lip, thinking, considering. “Then Sylvia didn’t let him in. He watched. He waited. He broke in with some skill and he surprised her while she slept.”
Harry bobbed his head. “Let’s step out into the hallway for a minute.”
“Gladly. This is a little too much even for me.”
At Harry’s direction, the crime scene investigators moved in to bag and tag, collect and preserve. But once Harry got to the living room he turned to Skye and lowered his voice. “Did you pick up on anything in there?”
Skye rolled her eyes before giving him a sneer meant to mock his question. “Since when are you a believer in that sort of thing?”
Harry ignored the attitude. “How about we get out of here? I’ll buy you a cup of coffee.”
“Why?”
“I’m trying to make peace here, Skye. Unless you’d like me to reconsider and we remain in neutral corners for another few months. Is that what you want?”
Skye blew out a breath. “No. I don’t want that. But I have to say, I was surprised to hear from you. It’s been almost three damn months.”
As they drifted out the open front doorway of the victim’s townhome and headed into the little courtyard outside, Harry acknowledged in the only way he could. “I know…but I needed time.” He scratched the stubble on his cheek where he hadn’t bothered to shave. “I took Callie out to Orcas like you suggested. You were right. It’s beautiful out there. We had a great five days of a long overdue second honeymoon.”
For the first time Skye showed her dimples when she smiled. “Told ya. Glad you two had fun. It’s about time.”
Harry made a thumbing gesture over his shoulder. “There’s a coffee shop two blocks that way. Feel like stretching those long legs?”
“Sure. That’s how I wear out so many pairs of boots. Good thing I know a great thrift store.”
Harry shot her a look. “You’ll never take a dime of Ander’s money, will you?”
“It’s his money. He earned it.”
Harry shook his head. “Washington is a community property state.”
“Man, you are tired. Did that little part about a wedding escape you? Josh and I aren’t married.”
This time, Harry’s mouth twitched at the corners. “Yet. By this time I’m sure Ander knows what a stubborn person he’s getting with you. I’d warn him about that but I’ve never seen you so…besotted.”
“Besotted? Where do you come up with this stuff?”
“Over the moon then where a man is concerned,” Harry corrected. “And you aren’t telling me Ander isn’t just waiting for you to come to your senses and take that walk down the aisle with him.”
Skye gave Harry a steely-eyed glance while a bead of sweat popped out over her brow at the idea of that. “He hasn’t asked me yet, Harry. And even if he did, the answer would still be no way.”
“Why? Does he have bad habits that didn’t show up in the background check I did on him?” Harry held up his hands to explain before Skye exploded in his direction. “A purely precautionary measure at the time. I’m sure if I hadn’t done it, Travis Nakota would have.”
Skye knew that was probably true. Travis had been her father’s best friend. When her father, Daniel Cree had been alive, Travis and Daniel had been like brothers. And since the death of both her parents in a car accident, Travis had always been there for her. At least, until the day she’d gotten shipped off to live with a nutty aunt and uncle in Yakima. But Harry’s disclosure about the background check on Josh still didn’t make it right. “That was so unnecessary, Harry. Josh had the perfect life before he met me.”
“Did Josh tell you that?”
“Of course, he didn’t. He didn’t have to. I’m not blind.”
“You’re selling yourself short,” Harry stated flatly. Thinking it best to end this topic of discussion and move on, he added, “Hard to believe Callie and I hadn’t gone over to Orcas before when it’s a mere ferry ride away. Has Josh taken you back out there recently?”
Skye bristled at the question. But then, just as easily she searched Harry’s face, decided it fell under the heading of small talk between old friends and not meant to have any other connotations other than banter between longtime pals. “We spent Fourth of July weekend there.”
“I’m glad you found someone, Skye. I am. If I didn’t tell you that before I’m telling you now. Ander seemed…different though at the cabin that day, different than the first time I met him. I can’t put my finger on it. As long as the guy makes you happy though, it’s about time you had that. You deserve it.”
“He does make me happy, happier than I’ve ever been before. We still haven’t known each other all that long, Harry. I might’ve fallen hard and fast but it’s the real thing, at least as much as I know about things like that.”
“And Travis Nakota accepts this relationship?”
Skye frowned. “Why wouldn’t he?”
“I don’t know. I always thought Travis was a little on the overprotective side where you were concerned.”
The comment struck a nerve with her. “That’s weird. Josh said the same thing.”
As soon as they reached the coffee shop, Harry swung the door wide so Skye could go in first. He followed her to the counter where they placed an order for two no-frills coffees. They kept the chat light until the barista handed them steaming cups which they took to the condiment bar for cream and sugar. Once they’d settled in at one of the tables, Harry got back to business. “So did you pick up anything back there?”
“You mean other than the fact your guy is one very sick puppy? He enjoys what he does, Harry. I can tell you that. A lot. But Josh could probably tell you more.”
Harry caught what she’d said. His brow creased in genuine puzzlement. “That’s the different thing I saw that day at the cabin last time we talked. And that means exactly what?”
Harry thought back to when Josh and Skye had disappeared for a week right after Ronny Wayne Whitfield had his throat ripped out by some type of animal, supposedly a wolf.
Harry stared long and hard at Skye, took in that stubborn set to her chin. When she said nothing, he uttered a soft, “Ah.”
She’d walked right into that brick wall she thought now. A tap dance might be required to get around the truth. “I wouldn’t say it’s new, exactly.” She’d have to learn to keep her trap closed from now on around Harry. Unlike the way things had been in the past, full disclosure was not a good idea or an option. She backtracked to purposefully downplay her comment. “Since I first got together with Josh, for some reason, the man’s interested in what I do. But you probably knew that already. Josh is a smart guy with skills you could use. He brings a lot to the table as far as investigative tools are concerned. That’s why he offered up his programming skills to find the whereabouts of all those girls shipped off to foreign destinations. If he could help track down the phony manifests used in human trafficking, the guy’s an asset any day of the week.”
Harry picked up his cardboard cup, sipped through the opening on the plastic top. “I guess we’ll have trouble getting past this, won’t we?”
“It doesn’t have to be that way. But the ball
’s in your court.”
“Okay, I’ll level with you. I know you have some sort of gift for finding people in trouble. No doubt Josh’s methods are more conventional than yours.” He raised a hand to stop her from responding so quickly.
But instead of tossing out a pithy reply, Skye offered up a poker face. She’d play out the hand now and let Harry have his false impressions. So she listened as he got to the point.
“I’ve tried to wave this off. I admit I was skeptical in the beginning. You know that. But…over the last couple of months, I’ve decided to accept the fact you refuse to share how exactly you do whatever it is you do.” He ticked off three names. “Ali Crandon. Hailey Strickland. Erin Prescott. All found alive after a few days of captivity after getting snatched in broad daylight by sexual predators. There’s no way you got that lucky...without some…vibe, some psychic ability…or something else entirely.”
Skye wasn’t about to admit the “something else entirely” amounted to having a Nez Perce spirit guide in the form of a silver wolf named Kiya. Even though lately, Kiya belonged more to Josh than to her, it didn’t make for a simple conversation over coffee. “Harry—”
“I’m not finished. Just be quiet a minute and let me finish what I have to say. Because of that and more, I know you have something extra that works. Not sure what it is. Not sure I care. But whatever it is I want to make good use of it. There’s no better time like the present, no better case than this one. I’ve already contacted the FBI about this sick son of a bitch. Their profiler got back to me after the fourth woman. I’ll share what I have from them because I want you onboard with this, Skye, full out with the approval and sanction of the department. We’re slowly getting to the point where we’re grasping at straws on this one.”
“But you said you have his DNA.”
Harry nodded. “That we have. But it doesn’t do us a damn bit of good without a hit, which we don’t have…yet. The department isn’t willing to sit back and wait either. You have a knack and I need you to put it to good use to help me catch this guy before he kills twenty. Hell, maybe he’s already reached double digits for all I know and we just haven’t connected the bodies from other jurisdictions yet. If bringing you into this I also have to deal with Josh Ander, then so be it. But I’m about to stick my neck out with my captain and the department on this entire thing…in a big way. I’ll take some flak for it.” He wouldn’t admit he’d already taken a considerable amount of razzing from the other detectives after what had happened last spring on his own beat.
The entire incident had haunted him for the better part of three months. It had stuck in his craw like a pill that refused to go down right. The fact that Skye Cree and her partner, Josh Ander had been the ones to pull off a miracle had almost caused him to resign from the force. The two of them had managed to put an end to a human-trafficking ring operating in Harry’s own backyard—without any help from him.
They had found and rescued six young girls ranging in age from ten to sixteen who otherwise would’ve ended up dead or destined to a life of servitude in the sex-trade industry. There were some things better left out of the public domain. In Harry’s opinion, one that he’d spent a considerable amount of time stewing about for the past two months, Skye and Josh’s involvement topped that list.
And when she rolled her eyes at him from across the table, it was then he added, “You have my word though that you use anything out of the ordinary to get results this time, I’ll keep it to myself. That’s a promise.”
Hearing that, Skye sent him a dismissive stare. “I need a little more assurance than that, Harry. I don’t want to get blindsided and hung out to dry by the press. If they should catch wind of—”
Harry didn’t let her finish. “They won’t. I’ll see to that.” But when she continued to bore holes in him with those deep blue eyes, he decided to lay all his cards out on the table and level with her. “Okay, I admit there have been some rumors floating around. But that’s all they are, Skye. The media’s convinced you had something to do with finding those girls and that the department, specifically me, covered up the whole thing.”
Harry pointed a finger at her. “We both know that isn’t true. And yet, what I do know is this. You and Josh were somehow able to locate the whereabouts of those missing girls in that warehouse. I have no idea how you did it. I’m not sure I care anymore. But I know you two were there that day, Skye. Not for public consumption, I know.” Harry paused to take another sip of the steaming brew, looked at Skye over the rim.
When he set his cup down, he went on, “I’ve been a good, clean cop for more than twenty-five years, Skye. For the first time in my career you gave me pause to question that. Right or wrong, well, mostly wrong, you took the law into your own hands that day and we both know it. I understand why you did what you did. How you dragged a man like Ander into your ‘cause’ is anyone’s guess.”
When he saw those violet eyes narrow, the irritation flare in the purple orbs, he knew she was about to spit fire at him. So Harry held up his hand. “Don’t bother with that temper of yours. We’re going to start over here, Skye, with a clean slate. You can thank my wife for that the next time you see her. We’re going to do this by the book though. Except for your ability or whatever it is you and Josh bring to the table to get the job done, I don’t want details. I won’t ask troublesome questions and demand answers. What I care about is getting results.”
Right this moment, he had a serial killer who needed to be his main focus. That was all he cared about at the moment, not some wedge he’d had a difficult time putting behind him. Because the extraordinary woman sitting across from him was a resource he didn’t intend to disregard any longer, no matter how much his cohorts gave him grief about it. But he needed to make sure there were no slip-ups this time. No misunderstandings about the rules.
“I admit I should’ve listened to you. You tried to tell me about the human-trafficking problem. There, I said it. Happy now? Whitfield had been in the sex-trade business for years, off my radar in Tacoma—doing God knows what right under my nose for years—I’m not proud of that. I had to come to terms with that, Skye. Or I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
“You wanted to quit?”
“I did. And this sick bastard I’m dealing with now is one of the reasons I didn’t. But in order to come to terms with what happened at the warehouse, I choose to think of it like this. You did what you did out of a sense of justice. That day you were my partner when you walked in there to take care of business. I guess maybe you and Ander both were. You got the job done while I—refused to listen—if not for you and Ander those girls might’ve never seen the light of day ever again. You think that fact hasn’t kept me up nights? Well, think again, because it has. I almost turned in my badge. If you and Ander hadn’t shown up when you did, I shudder to think where those girls might be right now, how they’d be forced to live.”
“Which I still have no intentions of confirming or denying,” Skye muttered when she finally got a word in.
“I know you don’t. And it doesn’t matter to me.”
“Do you mean that, Harry? Because when I looked down at my phone this morning, I’ll be honest, I almost didn’t pick up. I hadn’t heard from you since that day at the cabin. I was pretty sure there was no salvaging our friendship.”
That’s one of the reasons it was Harry who made the first move. He stretched his arm across the tabletop, patted Skye’s hand. “So how about it? Will you help me catch this son of a bitch, Skye? You’ll get the usual consultation fee from the department.”
“See to it the money goes to The Artemis Foundation and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
Harry nodded. He’d expected no less from Skye Cree. “I’ll be happy to arrange that.”
She flipped Harry’s hand over and grasped it tightly in hers. “Then you have yourself a couple of consultants. Because Josh is in this thing, too. For the long haul. And trust me, Harry. You won’t be sorry you added Josh to the mix.”
Chapter Two
The Artemis Foundation had found a home in the same upscale high rise in downtown Seattle where Ander All Games had their corporate offices.
It had not been Skye’s first choice. At first, she had resisted what she termed “palatial digs” inside a “too-fancy” address. She would’ve felt much more comfortable locating The Artemis Foundation in a little bungalow near her current studio apartment. In fact, she had preferred it that way.
But since Josh and his business partner, Todd Graham, owned the building, the two men didn’t actually charge the foundation rent. And once Josh had dangled free space, even forever frugal Skye Cree had recognized a tipping point. Because she respected a healthy bottom line, especially for her own non-profit organization, free had been the one thing she couldn’t ignore.
So she’d opted for the smallest office space in the posh building and squeezed The Artemis Foundation into a nine-hundred square-foot afterthought of a suite on the third floor.
The gaming headquarters might have taken up the proverbial executive floors at the top but the square footage she’d agreed to “lease” was ample room for a one-woman operation. And right now, that’s exactly what it was.
Skye didn’t have a staff, although her friends had offered to volunteer their time and services whenever the situation called for it. Lena Bowers, a widow and honorary aunt figure Skye had relied on in the past, was the perfect go-to person to direct traffic. Lena was good with people. And the woman had recently taken in a stray off the streets. Lena now had temporary custody of one feisty teenager named, Zoe Hollister. Zoe, a former runaway who Josh and Skye had encountered living a hand-to-mouth existence now ate regular meals, wore clean clothes, had a roof over her head. If Skye wasn’t mistaken, Zoe even had a trip to the mall planned to shop for new clothes for eighth grade in the fall. Thanks to Lena, Zoe had been given a second chance to end her life living out of a cardboard box.
Skye Cree 02: The Bones Will Tell Page 2
