Seal It With A Kiss (McClellan Trilogy)

by Judy Hagemann

  “I had a feeling that Judge Walker would rule that way. He tends to like all the evidence to be in order before an arrest.”

  “That’s a bullshit way to run a courtroom. He let a rapist and murderer go free today.”

  “Until he has the proof in his hands, he doesn’t think so.” Captain Lewiston pointed out.

  “He had better hope nothing happens in the next few days then.” Brock warned.

  “Here’s your next case.” He said handing a stack of folders to Brock.

  “What is it?” Holly asked.

  “A series of high-end home invasions—artwork, jewelry, and silver are the top items taken. These homes have pretty sophisticated security systems, but the perp or perps seem to be able to disarm them. They are usually in and out in under ten minutes. It has to be an inside job of some kind, but we haven’t been able to connect any dots between the homeowners. The homes seem to be in different subdivisions and on opposite ends of town. There have been four in all with the last one occurring three weeks ago. Are you two up for it?”

  “Absolutely Captain.” Holly responded.

  “Great. You can get started on it immediately.”

  Wednesday morning Brock received a call from Attorney Holt. “The DNA matched up with our perp with a 99.9% probability.”

  “That’s great news! I’ll have a couple of officers go pick him up right away.”

  Brock hung up and dialed O’Malley to tell him to pick up Todd Jenkins. “We’ve got him now!” He said to Holly. “DNA is a match. O’Malley is heading out to pick him up as we speak.”

  “Then it’s over?”

  “Yes—it’s over.”

  Holly and Brock packed Friday morning for their flight to Tampa later in the day before heading to work. The day was a blur to Holly as she was worried about getting to the airport on time and making their flight. Once they were settled in their seats, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you sure you’re ready to meet my parents?”

  “If they are anything like you, I will love them.”

  “Then you Detective McClellan, are going to be in for a surprise!” Holly said with a grin.

  “What the heck does that mean?”

  “You will see soon enough!” With that, Holly put in ear buds and began listening to music.

  In just over two hours, the plane was landing in Tampa. They got to the lobby of the airport when Brock heard an audible scream and a man and woman were waving their arms and running towards them. Holly took a deep breath, squeezed Brock’s hand and said, “Ready or not, here they come!”

  Her mom wrapped her arms around Holly before kissing her on the cheek, “We’re so glad you came to visit for the weekend and when we heard that you were bringing someone with you, well that just thrilled us even more honey.”

  Brock surveyed Holly’s parents noticing that her mom wore spandex pants with an oversized floral top, her hair was long and wavy, and she wore sunglasses that appeared to be three sizes larger than they should have been. Her dad on the other hand could have walked back into the sixties and not looked out of place. He reminded him of John Lennon. Her dad extended a hand to Brock, “In case you missed it, we’re Holly’s parents. I’m Steve Cavanaugh and this here’s my wife Gladys. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  When he didn’t let go of Brock’s hand, Brock returned the greeting, “Nice to meet you. I’m Brock McClellan…”

  “OH! You’re the fella that called asking if we were in an accident almost a month ago!” Gladys exclaimed.

  Looking at Holly, “Now why would you have told him that? I just don’t understand.”

  “Mom—dad—can we just not do this here? I’d like to get to the house and get settled in. It’s been a really long day.”

  They headed out to the parking area, placed their luggage into the trunk of the car and headed out onto the freeway towards their house. Brock and Holly were sitting in the backseat when she leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Are you okay?”

  He nodded, “You really should have warned me.”

  “What? And miss the expression on your face?”

  Brock and Holly’s parents spent the next day and a half getting to know each other better, and Brock found that he really did like her parents—quirkiness and all—he even saw a little bit of that in Holly in the way she talked to Charlie like he was human. Now he knew where she got it from and it all made sense to him. He chuckled at the thought. It was almost time to head back to the airport and he had yet to ask her dad for his approval to marry Holly. He saw an opportunity and he took it. “Mr. Cavanaugh?”

  “I thought I told you to call me Steve.”

  “Sorry—Steve, can I have a moment to speak with you alone?”

  “Sure, how about we grab an iced tea and head out to the patio.”

  Iced tea in hand, they sat down at the patio table. “Seems you have something on your mind, Brock.”

  “Yes sir, I do. The thing is, I have fallen in love with your daughter. I realize that I haven’t known her for very long—it’s only been a couple of months, but truth is, I have never wanted to settle down with anyone—ever. Actually, I never saw myself as husband material or a family man. I never wanted to…‌until now. Sir, what I am trying to say is, what I would like to know is—may I have your permission to ask your daughter to marry me?”

  Steve took a long sip of his iced tea staring at Brock in silence. Brock’s mouth went dry and he could feel his heart beating in his chest as he waited for Holly’s dad to say something—anything. “Sir? This would be a good time to say something.”

  “Yes, I suppose it would.”

  “And?”

  “So, you really love her? I mean really love her? Not ‘I love her today but not a year from now’.”

  “Yes sir, I do.”

  “So this isn’t a game for you to see if you can break my little girl’s heart?”

  “No sir. I am nothing like Kevin. I adore your daughter and I promise you that if I get your approval to marry her, I will never intentionally hurt her.”

  Again, Steve was silent and stared at Brock, “Young man, I believe you. I think you really do love my Holly, so yes—you have my approval.”

  “Thank you sir.” Brock said as he stood and shook Steve’s hand and breathed a sigh of relief.

  As they arrived at the airport, Brock’s cell phone rang. “Hello?”

  “Detective McClellan?”

  “Yes?”

  “This is O’Malley.”

  “I’m about to get on a plane and head back to Texas—Can it wait until I get there?”

  “It’s about Todd Jenkins.”

  “What about him?”

  “I never got him picked up the other day—he was in the wind.”

  “What? Why wasn’t I informed of this before now?”

  “We thought we could track him down and get him into custody, but we didn’t and now there has been another rape.”

  “Shit—What aren’t you telling me?”

  “It wasn’t like the others. It was Holly’s next door neighbor. As in her real neighbor—not the apartment that was set up for the undercover job, but next door from her house. I think he is sending a message.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  When Brock hung up the phone, Holly demanded to know what was going on. He reached for her hand and pulled her aside, “I have some bad news.”

  “What happened?”

  “For starters, they never picked up Todd Jenkins the other day—he wasn’t anywhere to be found.”

  “So he is out there trolling for his next victim?”

  “Not exactly—he struck again last night, and not his normal victim this time.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He raped your next door neighbor—Marcy Erickson.”

  “Oh my God! Do you think he found out where I lived and since I wasn’t home, he attacked Marcy instead?”

  “I do. I think he is sending a message—the message being that he is comin
g after you.”

  “That son of a bitch can just come and get me then.” She said angrily, “We got him once, and we can do it again.”

  Once the plane landed in Houston, Brock and Holly headed down to the precinct to see if there was an update on finding Todd. Unfortunately he was still in the wind. The address that was listed for him was vacant and had been for quite some time. His parents hadn’t heard from him in months, and the bars where he worked paid him in cash. They had hit dead end after dead end—Todd had become a ghost.

  “He can’t just disappear into thin air. Let’s check cell phone records, financial records, DMV records. I want every rock turned over—someone knows where he is or how to find him.” Brock ordered.

  “We are on it, but it has been a slow process.” Officer O’Malley offered.

  “We need his picture plastered in the paper and on television. Hell, I will put up money for a reward for any information that leads to his arrest if I have to.” Brock continued.

  It was past ten before Brock and Holly left the precinct and headed for home—neither one of them saying a word the whole time. It wasn’t until they were in the house that Holly finally spoke, “I need to go back to my house.”

  “Did you forget something?’

  “No. I mean I need to go back to my house, as in I need to move back to my house. If we are to catch this sick bastard, I am going to need to go back to my house. He is coming after me, so let him come. I already showed that I can handle myself, and I will do it again. I couldn’t stand it if he lashed out at someone else because he couldn’t find me.”

  “No—that is a horrible idea, I won’t let you.”

  “My mind is made up. Tomorrow, I am moving back to my house—I haven’t really moved in here completely, so it’s just a matter of grabbing what little I have and taking it back to my house.”

  “Then I am coming with you.”

  “You can’t—if he sees you or knows that you are there, he will just strike out at someone else close to me. I can’t let that happen—I won’t let that happen.”

  “I don’t have a good feeling about that Holly. He’s a loose cannon right now—there is no telling what he is up to or what lengths he will go to. It’s just plain dangerous and I don’t like it.”

  “Duly noted, but that doesn’t change the fact that if we want to catch him—I still need to be the bait. He has now made it very personal by attacking my next door neighbor. You yourself said that he did it to send a message. The message is ‘I’m coming for you’…‌ I say, come and get me.”

  “I have always trusted my gut feelings Holly, and my gut feeling says this isn’t the route we need to go.”

  “I know you feel a need to protect me, but I’m telling you that I can handle it.”

  “It’s not that I don’t believe you. Under normal circumstances you can more than handle yourself, but what I am telling you is I don’t want you to shoulder the risk.”

  “It’s getting late—can we resume this in the morning? I just want you to hold me tonight.”

  Brock’s phone rang at three in the morning, “Hello?”

  “Hey bro, it’s Luke.”

  “What’s wrong? Is Brooke okay?”

  “We’re headed to the hospital, Brooke’s water broke. She thought she was having those Braxton Hicks contractions all day, but come to find out—they were the real ones!”

  “We’ll be right there.”

  “We? Is Holly there with you?”

  “Yeah. See you soon.”

  “What’s wrong?” Holly asked.

  “Nothing is wrong—Brooke is headed to the hospital—her water broke.”

  Holly jumped out of bed and dressed quicker than Brock. “Hurry up—we need to get going!”

  “I don’t see what the hurry is. From what I have heard this could literally take hours.”

  “Or she could have it by the time we get there if you take any longer getting dressed.”

  When they arrived at the hospital, they were met by both sets of parents with Sam arriving shortly after. No sooner was Brooke settled into her labor and delivery room, than the doctor told her they were ready for her to push. Luke held her hand and ran a cool washcloth across her forehead. “Almost there beautiful—you can do this.”

  Twenty minutes later, the doctor declared, “It’s a girl!”

  Luke didn’t realize he was crying until his tears hit Brooke’s cheek as he leaned down to kiss her. “We have a baby girl sweetheart.”

  “I told you it was a girl!”

  “Really? Are you going to make me admit I was wrong so soon? Okay, I was wrong and with two females in the house now, I will probably never be right again!” He said laughing.

  After she was cleaned up and given her Apgar score, the nurse brought the new baby girl over to her parents. “Who wants to hold her first?”

  “Let her daddy hold her, I am still pretty shaky.”

  Luke beamed as he took his daughter into his arms and kissed her on the cheek. “Hi precious girl.” Luke froze as he realized that they hadn’t picked out any names yet, “Brooke—we need to come up with a name.”

  “How about Hannah Rose McClellan?”

  “You had to have that already picked out—did you?”

  “Maybe.” She said as she smiled at him. “What do you think?”

  “I like it and I think it suits her just fine. Are you ready to go to your momma Hannah Rose?”

  Hannah started to suck on her fist as Brooke cradled her in her arms. Luke couldn’t wait to tell everyone he was a dad and that he had a baby girl. He ran to the waiting room and found everyone pacing the room waiting to hear the news. “Well?? Are you going to keep us guessing?” Brock asked.

  “Hannah Rose McClellan has arrived and she is as beautiful as her momma.”

  Everyone congratulated Luke on his daughter and wanted to know how soon they could see her. “Once Brooke is moved to a private room, you can all meet Hannah. She has blonde hair and blue eyes just like her mamma.”

  Holly excused herself and let Brock know that she wanted to go to the gift shop and pick up a gift for Hannah and would be right back.

  She took the elevator down to the first floor where the gift shop was located only to find that it wasn’t open yet. There was a drug store a couple of blocks away, so she decided to get in the car and drive the short distance. She had only driven one block when she heard “Hello Peaches—miss me?”

  Holly looked in the mirror to see Todd sitting in the backseat of the car with a gun drawn on her. “What do you want?”

  “I want you to drive to your house.”

  “You know you aren’t going to get away with this—you will get locked up and they’ll throw away the key.”

  “Shut up and drive.”

  Holly slowly reached into her pocket and dialed Brock’s phone number hoping that he would be able to track her.

  Brock noticed that Holly was gone for over ten minutes so he started to head downstairs when he got a call from her. “Hey babe, I was just coming looking for you.” When she didn’t respond, he listened closer and could hear a conversation between her and someone else. His immediate reaction was that she had accidentally dialed him and he was ready to hang up when he heard a man’s voice tell her to drive faster. “Shit!” He ran back to the waiting room and shouted “I need someone’s cell phone right now! I’ll need car keys too!”

  Sam handed Brock his phone and car keys, “What’s wrong Brock?”

  “The rapist has Holly—they’re in a car. I need to keep this line open to Holly’s phone and I need to call the station on yours.”

  Brock dialed the precinct and ran through the hospital and down the stairs leading to the first floor. He hit the panic button on the key to locate the car. When the alarm sounded, he ran as fast as he could. Mary at the precinct answered the call, “Precinct ten, this is Mary.”

  “Mary—Detective Brock McClellan—I need a trace immediately on the following cell phone number 713-55
5-3155. It’s Detective Cavanaugh’s phone—the rapist has her.”

  “I’ll run it right now.”

  In the mean time, Brock heard the following conversation, “What do you plan to do with me?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough—now keep driving and don’t even think about making a wrong turn because I know where you live.”

  “Never mind Mary—I know where he is taking her. I need the closest cruiser to get to her house and an officer to get inside her residence. We need to surprise him.”

  Brock gave her Holly’s address and was told that there were two cruisers fairly close. He prayed that they would get there before Holly and be able to help her until he got there.

  Holly tried to keep a conversation going with Todd so that Brock could figure out not only what was going on, but also to be able to find her. With all of the self defense training she had, she knew that driving a car with a gun at your back was pretty risky. She also knew that she needed to take that risk and try something—anything—because she didn’t want him to get her in the house. She looked into the rearview mirror and noticed that Todd wasn’t wearing a seat belt and she knew immediately what she had to do.

  Brock wished he had lights and sirens so that he could get through the traffic faster, but driving Sam’s car limited his driving abilities. He couldn’t risk innocent people’s lives with erratic driving, yet he had to save Holly. He hadn’t had a chance to propose to her yet—he hadn’t had an opportunity to tell her that she meant the world to him. “Hang in there Holly—help is on the way. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  The words barely came out of his mouth when he heard a loud crash and her phone went dead. When Brock hung up the phone, Holly demanded to know what was going on. He reached for her hand and pulled her aside, “I have some bad news.”

  “What happened?”

  “For starters, they never picked up Todd Jenkins the other day—he wasn’t anywhere to be found.”

  “So he is out there trolling for his next victim?”

  “Not exactly—he struck again last night, and not his normal victim this time.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He raped your next door neighbor—Marcy Erickson.”