Gillian nodded. “Agent Savino will be reviewing interviews with all witnesses on both victims.” She glanced around. “Does anyone have the duty roster Captain Maroney drew up?”
Turner shifted through the papers he held, handing her a single sheet. She scanned it, not seeing Brad’s name. Hiding her surprise, she glanced back at him. “I don’t see Detective Mitchell listed on the roster.”
“He’s not assigned to this case,” Turner told her with satisfaction.
She concealed her reaction. “Since he sat in on the briefing, I assumed he was part of the team.”
“Captain gave Brad the usual hands-off.” Debra Fulton responded before Turner could.
“Gory details aren’t necessary,” Spiers added, still casual, but now more watchful. “He’s got a conflict of interest. Something personal but nothing you’ll have to worry about.”
Gillian swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat, the memories nearly flattening her. That little bit of nothing had taken away everything she’d valued.
She reached for her most professional tone. “This crime gets to everyone.” As she pushed forward with the meeting, a singular thought lingered. What had happened to Brad in the past year? What had he done to get himself banned from the very cases he’d gone into law enforcement to solve and prevent? And how in the world was she going to get over the emotions he still stirred?
CHAPTER TWO
LATE THAT AFTERNOON Brad had no trouble tailing Gillian’s black Eclipse. But short of bugging her car, he didn’t know what she was learning. He’d extended his lunch hour to follow her, yet Brad knew this method wasn’t going to get him any nearer to the actual case. And he couldn’t ask Shawn Spiers to keep him informed. It was one thing to go out on his own limb, another to drag a friend along.
The stoplight changed from yellow to red as Gillian glided through the intersection. Not concerned, Brad waited out the red, confident he could easily pick up her trail again. But by the time he reached the next intersection, he still hadn’t found her.
Before the light could change, Brad felt a mild impact as his car was nudged from behind. Swearing beneath his breath, Brad hoped the other driver would agree to drive away. He started to glance in the rearview mirror, but his cell phone rang and he answered it. Police business came before minor fender benders.
Maroney’s impatient voice came through the slim phone.
Brad glanced at his watch, realizing he’d been gone longer than he’d intended. As he considered his explanation, he saw a shadow fall across him, then a body blocked the light coming in his open driver’s side window. And despite his captain’s steady dialogue, all Brad could do was stare.
Gillian bent over, planting her hands on the window opening as she leaned closer. “You looking for me?”
Since she’d spoken loud enough for Lou Maroney to hear, the captain started sputtering and Brad could almost see his long, thin face flushing the way it did when he was really ticked.
Completing his phone call by agreeing to head back to the station to meet with his boss immediately, Brad pushed open his door as Gillian stepped back.
“Cute,” he commented, angling his head toward her car. He’d seen easily that she’d bumped his SUV with such precision that neither car had sustained any damage.
“I wasn’t trying to be,” she replied, crossing her arms.
“Then what gives?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking that?” she demanded.
So she was angry. He should have guessed she would be. He should also have remembered how good she was at her job. Although his tailing had been expert, her detection was also.
“You’re not assigned to the case, Brad. And I’m guessing from the squawks I just heard, that Maroney didn’t know you were joining the hunt on your own.”
Brad had little defense. Still he stepped a foot closer. “You know what this means to me.”
Memories rushed between them, flattening, gut-wrenching memories.
Gillian looked at her trim loafers, the air of her anger dissipating, gradually deflating her stance. “Yeah. I know.” She glanced back up at him. “But getting in my way isn’t going to change the past and it sure won’t help the children we have to save now.”
Brad felt the increased presence of the desperation that never completely left him. “You don’t know that. With my experience—”
“You could be a liability,” Gillian said bluntly. “I’m not trying to be unkind, but I have to be honest. Your experience should be a help, but obviously it hasn’t been or Maroney wouldn’t keep you off the case.”
“I lost my head once,” he admitted.
She met his gaze, her luminous dark eyes deepening with too much knowledge. Knowledge of him. “And we need calm, cool heads. You’re not the victim here, Brad, or even part of the victim’s family. Their interests have to be first priority.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Brad insisted. “That’s why I want to help.”
Gillian glanced down and then away. “I know. Look, I don’t have time for this discussion right now. And from the sound of your telephone conversation, you don’t, either.”
Not waiting for his response, she walked to her car and slid inside. Within moments she was speeding past him. He pounded the hood of his vehicle, but the motion didn’t begin to vent his repressed emotions.
And only the impatient honking of waiting cars made him climb into his SUV to make his way back to the station.
IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG for Brad to reach the precinct house, but he found his steps lagging before he got to Captain Maroney’s office. The two of them went back a long way. Lou had been Brad’s first commander when he was a raw rookie straight from the academy.
It hadn’t been an accident when Brad had applied for a transfer to this particular precinct. Houston was large enough that he could have picked a dozen others. But Lou Maroney was a good man, one who hadn’t asked about Brad’s reasons for moving. However, he had zeroed in quickly on Brad’s vulnerability on cases involving missing children. Luckily, not that many had fallen under their jurisdiction. But after working one, Brad hadn’t been assigned any others.
Stepping into his commander’s office, Brad anticipated the contents of the coming lecture. The red flush Brad had expected on Maroney’s face had faded.
“Shut the door,” Maroney greeted him.
So it was going to be a real yellfest, Brad thought, shutting the door, then dropping into a chair. “Ran into some traffic getting back to the station.”
Maroney stared at him steadily. “Is that what tied up your entire morning as well?”
“I was—”
“Don’t bother. We both know what you were doing. Can’t say it came as a surprise. Didn’t actually expect the FBI to be within hearing distance, though.”
“I didn’t, either.”
“No problem. You’re to stay out of this case. Completely.”
“Lou, I went over my lunch hour about twenty minutes. It’s not as though I ever cut my time short. But if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll skip lunch tomorrow.”
“No,” Maroney replied. “It won’t.”
Brad frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re usually sharper on the uptake. Brad, you aren’t to approach the detectives or agents assigned to this case to so much as ask if they want coffee. You do and you’re on suspension.”
“Suspension?”
Maroney’s face was sober, unrelenting. “Until the case is resolved. Do we understand each other?”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I’ve never meant anything more. I intend to make sure Katie Johnson returns home safely. And, God willing, Tamara Holland. I can’t take the chance you’ll screw that up.”
“I lost my head once, but only after we caught the perp. It didn’t compromise the case.”
“That’s because the victim was already dead.” Maroney’s voice held no inflection. “If you were to lose your head while the victim
s are still alive—”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“I’m not taking any chances.”
Brad could scarcely believe Lou would take this unreasonable stance. “And you’d suspend me rather than take advantage of my experience?”
“While you’re working for me, you’re staying out of the investigation.”
Brad met his boss’s gaze and saw no leeway there. “Fine.”
“Just like that?” Maroney’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Pretty much. Effective tomorrow, I’m taking a leave of absence and I won’t be working for you.”
Now Maroney’s thin cheeks did flush red with anger. “Damn it, Mitchell! You can’t be of any help on this case.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Lou. I’ll fill out my paperwork and have it on your desk this afternoon. I have years of vacation and sick days built up.”
“Brad, I can’t stop you from requesting leave, but for God’s sake, think about what you’re doing!”
Brad met Maroney’s eyes. “That’s exactly what I am doing.”
“If you get in the way, it’ll cost you your badge,” Maroney warned.
No one understood, Brad realized. But that wasn’t going to deter him. No one could. Not Maroney, not even his ex-wife.
THAT EVENING GILLIAN entered her apartment wearily. She’d spent the day in the field interviewing Katie Johnson’s parents and much of her family, then meeting individually with the detectives on the task force, and it was well after eleven o’clock before she headed home.
Kicking off her loafers, Gillian dropped her purse on the hall table, keeping the stack of file folders in her hands. She needed to read all of them before morning.
Feet sinking into the deep pile of the pale peach carpet, she padded through the semilit living room. She had deliberately chosen the feminine furnishings, hoping to wipe out thoughts of Brad and the home they’d shared. Somehow, it just emphasized her loneliness that much more.
The decor was not what she would have chosen when she was married. Plumping a pillow, she ran her fingers over the textured fabric. No, then she’d thought in terms of how to make their home one a man could ease into like a favorite pair of jeans. Now it looked more like a delicate evening gown. One for a very single woman.
The phone rang, interrupting the first quiet of her day. Gillian considered ignoring it, but the ties of both family and job had her picking it up on the second ring.
Her sister, Teri, didn’t bother with routine greetings. Instead she launched into a diatribe on what was wrong with each member of the PTA, from a parent’s perspective. Although Teri had once been a special-education teacher herself, she’d stayed home after the birth of her twins.
“Too bad you can’t work up a real opinion,” Gillian replied wryly when Teri paused to take a breath.
Teri snickered. “Sorry. David’s out of town and I haven’t talked to anyone over five today.”
Knowing her sister’s hands were full caring for the children without David’s help at bath and bedtime, Gillian found that special place in her heart for family warming. “Teri, what in the world are you doing phoning me? And don’t give me that ‘I need to talk to an adult’ baloney.”
“Well, I do enjoy speaking with someone who’s graduated from junior high school, at least,” Teri defended weakly. “Okay, fine. Just wanted to make sure you’re doing okay.”
Although Gillian had been working long hours for several years, her parents and siblings still worried when she didn’t answer her phone at ten in the evening. She hesitated, wondering how much she should share with her sister. “I’m okay.”
“That was said with a notable lack of conviction.”
The silence hummed between them for a few seconds.
“All right, Gillian, give. What’s the matter?” Gillian could almost feel her sister’s concern across the phone lines.
Teri’s familiar comforting tones got to her. “I had somewhat of a shock today.”
“Shock?”
Hearing similar shock in Teri’s voice, Gillian sighed. “Nothing horrific.” She closed her eyes, trying to keep the quiver from her voice. “I saw Brad today.”
“Oh, Gilly!”
The tears Gillian had been holding back escaped. “It really shook me.”
“Of course it did. Do you want me to come over? Damn! David’s out of town. Do you want to come here?”
Gillian shook her head.
“I’m guessing you’re shaking your head no,” Teri said after a brief pause.
Sniffling, Gillian grasped the phone closer. “I’m exhausted, Teri. I had to act like seeing my ex-husband was just a run-of-the-mill experience.”
Teri clucked sympathetically.
“And I’m working with locals I just met today—going in as the lead.”
“There probably wasn’t a moment alone to sort out your feelings about seeing Brad.”
Gillian didn’t speak for a moment, staring out of her window at the dark night. “My past didn’t so much creep up on me, instead it slammed right into the present.”
“I know it hurts,” Teri replied gently.
“Like hell,” Gillian admitted. “I knew I’d see him eventually, but…”
“It wouldn’t have been easy regardless of the circumstances, sweetie.”
“He asked why I didn’t tell him I was going to be at his precinct. As though I knew.”
“That was diplomatic of him.”
Gillian picked up on the mild sarcasm. “What?”
“You know I liked Brad—a lot. But I didn’t like the way he hurt you.”
“The divorce was my idea,” Gillian reminded her.
“That’s semantics and you know it. He walked away unscathed and you, you…”
Gillian flinched and Teri seemed to sense it over the phone.
“I’m sorry, Gillian. That’s the problem of speaking only with kids. You forget to think before you blurt out the first thing that springs to mind.”
“It’s okay. This topic’s always a mine-field, well-thought-out or not.” Gillian wondered yet again if that would ever fade, if her marriage would become simply a barely remembered event from her past.
“Yeah,” Teri agreed, with the truth only a sister only speak. “Still, I want to offer support, not more grief.”
“Hey, I know you’re always there for me.”
“You sure you don’t want to come over?”
“I have a real early morning tomorrow. This case is a killer and I’ll need my wits about me.”
“Okay, but I’m here if you need me.”
With the connection broken, Gillian slowly replaced the receiver, surrounded by silence. And the emptiness in her apartment seemed even more lamentable.
CHAPTER THREE
BRAD HAD NEVER CONSIDERED how it would feel to be working on a case without the ability to flash his badge when needed. Or how he’d feel having to ask his ex-wife about the case.
He wasn’t being especially careful or vigilant about following Gillian now. He’d lost her at a red light but knew she was heading back to the station. She was bound to realize he was tailing her before the morning was over—yesterday was proof of that.
His cell phone rang. He considered letting it go unanswered. There would be no urgent police work calling him.
Briefly cursing old habits, he snapped open the phone.
“Mitchell.”
“Hello, Mitchell,” Gillian responded calmly.
He scanned the immediate area, wondering if she’d caught on to him already.
“Hello.”
“I talked to Maroney this morning.”
“Uh-huh.”
“He told me about your leave of absence.”
Brad glanced around again, but she wasn’t behind him. “Yeah.”
“So I’m wondering how long you plan to tail me.”
Damn. She was even better than he’d given her credit for.
Gillian’s voice broke the sudden si
lence. “I think we need to talk about this.”
“I’m on my own time. Nothing that concerns you.”
“Do you think your captain would agree?”
She had him there. “How about an early lunch?”
“I’m at the park about two blocks north,” she replied. “There’s a hot-dog vendor on the corner.”
Brad remembered the days when all they’d needed were sloppy hot dogs in the park, laughter and love to be happy. Apparently she’d forgotten those times. Or they didn’t carry the same memories for her. He sighed. It was, after all, just a hot dog. “Sure.”
It took only a few minutes to reach the park and spot her Eclipse. Gillian was leaning back against the car. He knew she wasn’t trying to be provocative, but that didn’t matter. Trying to ignore his physical response, he parked quickly and got out.
Gillian met him halfway between their cars. “I only have a few minutes.”
“Just enough time for a hot dog.”
At the cart, Brad pulled out his wallet, while placing the order. “Two hot dogs, both with mustard and chili, one with kraut. A Coke and an orange soda.”
As the man prepared their hot dogs, Gillian looked at Brad.
“What?” he asked.
“Just surprised you remembered my order.”
For some strange reason, it bothered him that she thought he could so easily forget. He shrugged in reply as they accepted the food and then strolled to an empty bench.
Brad unwrapped his steaming hot dog and tried to guess how long it would take Gillian to say what was on her mind.
As he wondered, she stared out across the park. A young mother with a toddler in one hand and an infant in a stroller paused by a small slide. The girl climbed the ladder, then shrieked in delight as she slid down into her mother’s waiting arms.
Gillian pulled her gaze away, then took a small bite, washing it down with soda. “Not that many people drink orange soda anymore. It was lucky the vendor had some.”
“I doubt you wanted to meet to discuss orange soda.”
“No.” She took a deep breath. “I have to believe that Maroney knows your abilities far better than I possibly could. If he doesn’t want you on the case, then I don’t want you trying to help on your own.”
Vanished (Harlequin Super Romance) Page 2
