Searching (PAVAD- FBI Romantic Suspense Book 18)

by Calle J. Brookes

  Some of the tension filling Jac eased. Friends, families, the smell of the concession stand being ran by older siblings and parents—it was beautiful. Normal.

  Free of the darkness that normally surrounded her workdays.

  Sometimes, life at PAVAD could get pretty dark. Her last case had been dark—that was for sure.

  She’d just finished a case where an eleven-year-old would never see the sun again. He’d been blinded by his own cousin and nearly killed. Jac’s team had arrived just in time to save his life.

  Not something she would ever forget.

  When the little girls’ basketball game at Brynlock Academy ended, Jac excused herself from the Andersons and headed down to where the green team was congregating.

  She had an eight-year-old to catch.

  The high school teams would be playing soon—and the crowd would double. She wanted to find Emery and get a spot closer to the action. Emery loved watching the teenagers play. She had a well-known crush on Simon Brockman, one of the star players.

  She’d buy Emery dinner at the concession stand, say hello to a few friends from work who also had kids at the school, and get Emery distracted by getting to stay at the high school basketball game—which would end well after her normal bedtime.

  Before Emery got worried that her father wasn’t there to take her home.

  Max very rarely missed Emery’s games. It was a promise he’d made to his daughter years ago. One Jac had done her best to help him keep. It had been weeks since she’d been to one of Emery’s sports events, since she’d been with the little girl.

  Tonight’s phone call had come completely out of the blue. He almost hadn’t caught her at all. Emery’s father had been desperate. Jac had been his last resort. That had come through loud and clear.

  Max Jones, her former partner, had been avoiding her. In every way he possibly could.

  That big stinking coward. She’d like to take his size thirteens and shove one right up his chickeny rear end for this.

  But here she was now. Watching over his daughter, like she had so many times before.

  Emery needed her; that was all it had taken to have Jac dropping her plans and rushing to the school. She came up behind a familiar strawberry-blond kid wearing the number 17 on her jersey. She tapped the little girl on the shoulder. “Hey, kid Jones.”

  Emery turned. Her eyes, a clear blue, widened. “Jac! Jac! You’re here!”

  Jac found her arms full of wiggling, sweaty little girl. She tightened the hug just a bit. She’d missed this kid so much.

  Jac looked over Emery’s hair at the crowd surrounding her. The coach was eyeing her with suspicion. Jac couldn’t recall meeting her before. Jac pulled her badge free. “I’m Agent Jaclyn Jones. I’m here to pick up Emery. Her father got called in to work.”

  “I...no one called me about it. Are you her mother?” The woman eyed her appraisingly.

  Jac shook her head. Jac knew the protocol for the school’s events, and she understood how important it was. “I have permissions on file with the school. Her father is waiting for a phone call if there is a problem.”

  “There won’t be,” a voice said from behind the coach. Jac recognized the school principal, a woman around her own age she’d met many times before. “Emery’s father called me a few minutes ago to ensure we knew Jaclyn had permission to pick Emery up this evening. Hello, Jaclyn. How have you been?”

  Jac made small talk with the principal and a few of the other mothers while she waited for Emery to get changed out of her basketball shoes and grab her bag. Before she knew it, she found herself agreeing to volunteer at the next field trip, after the winter holiday break.

  She’d have to make certain to put in for comp time, but she had plenty accumulated. She was an old hat at field trips now that Emery was in the third grade.

  The principal, Jayda, was an extremely persuasive woman when she wanted to be. Jac made plans to call Rachel or Julie and finalize those plans. She’d volunteered with both of them before, and they usually split responsibilities for the group. They worked well together, playing off one another’s strengths. She enjoyed it, the whole pseudo-PTA-mother thing.

  It was so normal, so opposite of what she did on a day-to-day basis.

  Emery had asked Jac to help with her school activities before. Jac understood why; most of the parents that volunteered at Brynlock were female. There were a few involved fathers, of course, but most of the volunteers were mothers.

  Emery was very much about fitting in exactly as her friends did right now. She had some insecurities she was battling. There weren’t many single fathers at Brynlock. Emery thought that made her too different.

  That meant, if they had a mom or stepmom at the school, Emery wanted someone who looked like them, too. She was all about conforming now.

  It drove Max nuts.

  He was so insecure about his ability to parent a little girl. Jac understood it, though; she’d been that little girl before.

  The father Jac had had was a monster.

  Emery’s father was the exact opposite. Emery was just going through a natural phase of noticing her contemporaries and obsessing over every possible difference between them. Jac hadn’t minded; she loved working with kids. If her life had followed a different path, she would most likely have been a teacher, or pediatrician or child psychiatrist.

  Now, she spent most of her time split between the Child Exploitation Protection Division and the Complex Crimes Unit Team Three of PAVAD. Team three ended up with the cases involving children more often than the other teams. It was starting to become their specialty. That was a natural evolution of law enforcement teams—some became better at certain cases than others.

  Jac had worked with Emery’s father for more than five years. She’d known and loved the little girl almost as long. She was going to enjoy this rare night hanging out with her favorite kid in the world.

  It would help them all—Emery would be safe, Max would be free to focus on whatever he was doing, and Jac would be able to forget for a while a little boy whose entire world had changed over stolen video games.

  Jac needed to forget right now.

  She’d just try not to worry about the tension and the secrets in Max’s voice tonight.

  Because something had happened at PAVAD.

  Max was right out there in the middle of it.

  That…that could be very, very dangerous right now.

  3

  FBI Agent Todd Barnes clutched the envelope of cash close and hoped no one saw him. He’d seen several people entering the school gymnasium that he recognized. He’d only been a few yards behind one of those people, but fortunately for him Jaclyn Jones hadn’t turned around long enough to identify him.

  He slouched and pulled the ball cap down and tightened his Carhart coat over his clothes. The jeans and sweatshirt beneath were a far cry from what he usually wore. He’d bought the whole outfit off the rack at a dollar store just for this.

  He wanted to blend in with all the good little sports daddies at Brynlock academy.

  He had a special project tonight. One he wasn’t about to screw up.

  Todd knew he was being tested. Seeing just what he was willing to do.

  If it meant bringing down PAVAD, he would do anything asked of them. It couldn’t keep going on unchecked like it was. That was going to get someone killed. Todd had the scar to prove it.

  The man he was supposed to meet was late.

  Todd pulled his hood over his head and waited under the streetlight like he was supposed to. He’d always hated the damned rain. Rain in November was ten times as bad. It was fucking cold out here tonight.

  Someone walked by him. Todd swore and backed out of the light.

  It was one of those damned Lorcan brothers’ wives. The redhead with the weird hazel eyes and the chest that made men drool.

  Well, Todd would drool, too. If she was his. He tried to heat himself up by imagining her naked for a few moments.

  Hard to
do with the two kids she was carrying into the building right there. They certainly ruined his image of her.

  Maybe it was time he started doing the work to find another girlfriend. One he could be serious about this time. Could count on; the last woman he’d been seriously involved with had left him for one of his former teammates. He’d never forgive Agent Strette for that betrayal.

  Once this thing with PAVAD was over, he’d have a hell of a lot more money in his pocket. He’d find a woman of quality.

  He could buy a house. Find a lady to share it with. It would be nice to have regular sex again with a woman who cared about what he had to say. One he could train to do what he liked in the bed.

  Who knew? Maybe he’d actually like her, and they’d tie the knot and have a few kids. Send them to a fancy place like Brynlock. Then he wouldn’t be going back to a plain, empty apartment.

  A school basketball game, he thought. What a shit-in-the-hole.

  All TV-sitcom perfect.

  There was the damned director of PAVAD’s wife right there, a toddler on her hip and at least half a dozen kids trailing after her like ducks, with half of them wearing team sweatshirts under their coats.

  She looked all prissy and rich and sexy in that older woman kind of way.

  Even that billionaire asshole married to the blonde from PAVAD forensics was there, strutting around like he owned the place. Mr. Moneybags jogged up to the redhead and took the youngest baby out of her arms.

  Hell, for all Todd knew, the guy probably did own the place now. News was always going on about him buying up stuff. Him and that Barratt-Handley guy from down in Texas. Like it was a competition or something.

  After fifteen minutes, the man Todd was supposed to meet finally came out.

  Todd was seriously unimpressed.

  The guy was completely unremarkable. If he hadn’t said the code word, Todd never would have realized it was him. What a wiener.

  Todd handed over the envelope, turned, and strolled away.

  He’d driven all the way from Dallas just to do this.

  It would be worth it to see PAVAD destroyed.

  4

  Max and the rest of the men combed over Andy’s office. It felt wrong to violate a friend’s personal space like this, but the determination burning in his gut wasn’t going to be stopped. Not until he had the answers. There were cartoons on the walls, signed with Andy’s distinctive scrawl. Mixed with photos of Abbie, Alexis and little Audra. And Audra’s twin Ashton, who hadn’t made it to his first birthday.

  Andy’s world.

  Max took one three-by-five candid off the wall. Andy and his girls—at the last PAVAD picnic. Max’s daughter and his partner Jac were visible in the background, smiles on their beautiful faces.

  Max had snapped the photo. It was shortly after Andy and his wife had separated.

  Andy’s ex had called twice to see why he wasn’t at the basketball game right now, her voice ringing out on the old-fashioned answering machine. Andy always had been resistant to technology. Andy would only use his bureau phone when on the clock, and had complained about that many times.

  Jac had set it up for Andy once or twice while Max watched. Not that Max was all that into technology, either. But he had had Andy beat by a mile.

  Grief threatened again, but he shoved it away. He wasn’t going to do Andy a damned bit of good if he turned into a blustering idiot.

  Max slipped the photo out of the frame and turned it over.

  In an obsessively neat hand were the date the photo was taken and the ages of all the girls, including Emery. Andy had been extremely detail oriented and mathematically inclined. He’d calculated the girls’ ages right down to the number of days. Jac’s, too.

  Andy had fit in well with the forensic accounting team he’d been on. He’d been happy on that team, and passionate about his work. He’d enjoyed it. He valued it. And Max would have bet his left arm that Andy wouldn’t have betrayed it.

  Not without damned good reason.

  Max was going to find that reason.

  Ed came up behind where Max was videoing the office and the paperwork he’d seen there. “Sebastian has already grabbed all the computer equipment. He’s going to take it directly to his wife. She’ll process it…outside the PAVAD server, using her brother-in-law’s, instead. They’re both at Brynlock now. She’s going to ride out to Lucas’s place with his security team. Evidence won’t leave his place until we’re damned well ready for it to happen.”

  Not exactly strictly by the books, but no one was going to say a word about it.

  Not tonight. Not after…this. They all knew the consequences of what they were facing now.

  Andy was one of their own.

  Sebastian Lorcan’s wife was the head of the computer forensics team, and was also associated through family connections to two of the most advanced law enforcement tech companies in the world. That meant access to the best equipment out there—some that wasn’t even released to the market yet.

  She was the best with a computer Max had ever seen. He just nodded. Of course, the director would be calling out the best for this.

  It was PAVAD.

  Andy had been one of them.

  He switched over to still photo mode and kept snapping photos. He wasn’t forensics, but he was going to document everything he could. Everything. Without even thinking about it, he slipped the snapshot into the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt.

  He’d find the answers for those girls.

  Then he’d return the photo to their mother.

  This was going to tear Angie apart.

  He was going to go through the rest of the house before the evidence techs got there as well.

  There might be things that the general teams at PAVAD had no business seeing. He had already gotten clearance from the director and Mick to do just that.

  Everyone knew this case was going to be outside the lines.

  Andy would always cross those boundaries.

  There were three memory cards taped to the back of a drawer in the small office that connected to Andy’s bedroom. Max photographed them, then removed the cards, in gloved hands. He handed them to the director.

  Anything. Anything at all could turn a case in an instant. They all knew that.

  The cards wouldn’t have been hidden if there wasn’t something important on them.

  “We sure he was the one selling secrets?” one of the Lorcan brothers asked. They sounded very similar; Max looked over his shoulder to see just which one it was. It was Seth. The earring was a dead giveaway. The other two triplets were more severe in appearance, and often confused for one another even more. “I really can’t believe it of him. And I’ve seen where one teammate was framing another before.”

  “I don’t know yet. I...he was a good guy. At least, he appeared to be. Hell, my daughter has spent the night with his a few times before.” Max had seen things on the job that he still didn’t understand, even with his experience as a profiler. Andy being a traitor to PAVAD—he wouldn’t believe until he had irrefutable evidence of it. He just couldn’t.

  Seth nodded. “I thought so, too.”

  “If that changes, if I find anything that says he was framed…whatever happened here...someone shot him. Took him away from his family. I will find them.” If nothing else, Max owed those children answers.

  His phone beeped with a text, interrupting his next round of photos.

  I have Emery at my new place. We have pizza. She can spend the night, no problem. Call me when you want me to bring her home. —Jac.

  Some of his tension lessened. His daughter was safe and protected and with someone who loved her.

  Now, Max could fully focus on what he needed to do.

  5

  Andy’s house appeared exactly as it always had. Max had picked him up there a few times. It had once belonged to Andy’s parents, before they’d died. Andy had moved in after the divorce.

  It was close to where Andy’s ex-wife and girls lived. He wante
d to be near if they needed him.

  Max had hauled boxes from the moving truck Andy had rented—while Jac had set up Andy’s computer and internet system.

  Emery had played with the girls in the backyard. It had been a normal, if rare, off day for them all that had ended with a backyard barbecue—and Andy’s neighbor coming by to check out the pretty redheaded lady wandering around the place.

  The man had wanted Jac’s attention. He’d been persistent.

  Max and Andy had enjoyed chasing him off and teasing her about it the next day.

  Beautifully normal. It had ended with three little girls and a baby eating hot dogs and marshmallows.

  Andy would never have that again. Nothing Max could do would give that to him again.

  He documented the basement, then stepped further inside. Andy was meticulous, everything was in its place.

  The wires were out of place.

  Max moved closer.

  There was a timer. And it was armed. It clicked down another eight seconds before his mind processed what he was seeing. Seventy-two seconds remained.

  Only seventy-two damned seconds.

  Max ran, yelling for the other men to get the hell out of the house.

  He grabbed the director of PAVAD from where the man was studying photos in the hallway. They were the furthest from the exits. “Out! Bomb in the basement! Everyone out now! Get outside!”

  Both men ran.

  They hit the backyard together. Forty feet from where Andy’s body lay.

  Next to the same damned grill they’d used to make the girls’ dinner that day.

  Fire slammed into Max’s back. He went down.

  Max knocked into the director, the force of the blast sending both men to the ground.

  He stayed where he was, the ringing in his ears mixing with the roar of the explosion behind him.

  Men were yelling. Moving.

  But not the man next to him.

  Max coughed, opened his eyes, and looked, afraid of what he’d see.