Bound by Duty

by Valerie Hansen

  “Unless you refuse permission. If you do, that points to culpability. My CO can always ask for a search warrant.”

  “I know. Actually, given the morning I’ve had, I’d almost welcome it. Just don’t scare my little boy. Or the babysitter.”

  “I’ll try not to. I was kind of surprised to see who you got to watch him.”

  “Portia Blackwood, you mean?”

  “Yes.” Linc had been shocked to see Justin’s daughter show up. “Does her father know she’s here?”

  “I assume so. Captain Blackwood posted a notice asking parents to consider Portia for babysitting to give her something constructive to do now that she’s living with him. I called and left a recorded message and she got back to me.”

  “I can’t believe Blackwood gave her permission to sit for you in the first place, considering the possibility of your brother showing up.”

  “Oh, dear. I didn’t think to ask when she called. Maybe she went behind his back.” Zoe lowered her voice. “I’m not sure she’ll work out anyway. She didn’t seem very enthusiastic when she arrived.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. My Freddy normally spends a lot of his time at the day care and preschool on base and he’s perfectly happy there.”

  “I can’t understand why you called Portia in the first place.” Following closely, always on alert, Linc climbed the stairs to the second-story apartment with Zoe and Star. “I hear the captain has his hands full with her.”

  “Well, that’s to be expected,” Zoe countered. “He wasn’t on scene often until Portia’s mother passed away.” Linc saw her cheeks redden. “Sorry. That sounded too harsh. I shouldn’t be gossiping. I don’t know the facts firsthand.”

  “I’m sure my captain did the best he could in a difficult situation.”

  “I’m sure he did.”

  Linc noted she had not locked her apartment door and remarked on it. “I’d really be more careful if I were you.”

  “I usually am. I guess I figured Portia would lock it when I left.” She stepped inside and called, “I’m home!”

  Linc saw a barefoot child hurrying toward her, arms open wide as if he hadn’t seen her in months. The little boy’s grin was a mile wide, and his hazel eyes that matched Zoe’s twinkled. His hair was curlier and more blond than light brown, but otherwise he was the spitting image of the staff sergeant.

  When she dropped her groceries to scoop the toddler up in her arms, Linc was oddly touched. This was a personal side of her he had not noted. The mutual love was so evident, so strong, it seemed to fill the tiny living room.

  Zoe kissed Freddy’s cheek as he wrapped his pudgy arms around her neck and shouted, “Mama!” Seconds later, he noticed the dog and started to squirm. “A puppy!”

  “Whoa. Hold on, honey. That’s not a puppy you can play with. That’s a member of the air force, just like Mama is. The dog is working right now.”

  “That’s right,” Linc said. “Star and I are going to go check your house while you and your mother wait right here. We’ll be back in a few minutes and then I’ll introduce you. Okay?”

  The eager child was nodding. “Uh-huh.”

  “Good.” Linc looked around. “Where’s your babysitter, Sergeant Sullivan?”

  “Beats me.” She turned to her son. “Where’s Portia, Freddy?”

  “She has time-out.”

  Zoe was obviously confused. That made two of them. Concerned and on high alert, Linc gave her a hand signal to wait, then took Star and began to work his way through the apartment, room by room. Only one door was closed.

  He placed the heel of his hand on the grip of his holstered pistol, prepared to make entry and threw open the door.

  Portia’s ensuing scream was loud enough to be heard over the roar of a jet engine.

  * * *

  Zoe clasped Freddy tightly and took cover behind the kitchen island. It wasn’t until she heard the clicking of Star’s nails on the hardwood floor that she raised enough to peek over the top. There was her so-called babysitter, clasping an iPad to her chest and breathing hard. Linc and Star were herding her ahead of them and it was evident she was one unhappy teen.

  Rising, still holding her son close, Zoe scowled. “Where did you find her?”

  “Sitting on a bed with the door shut, so she could instant message her friends without being disturbed.” He gave the girl a light tap on the shoulder to urge her to fully face Zoe and the boy as he continued. “I’m glad you weren’t gone long, Sergeant. If you had been, who knows what might have happened.”

  “I agree.” Swallowing her anger, Zoe spoke as sternly as possible while her insides quaked with fear for Freddy’s welfare. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to use your services again, Portia. I’m sorry.”

  “Whatever.” The sullen teen flipped her long blond hair back defiantly.

  “We’re both fortunate that the person who scared you just now is one of the good guys,” Zoe said. “It could have been anyone.”

  Portia huffed. “Here? We might as well be in jail.”

  “Normally, I’d agree with you,” Zoe said, eyeing Linc for clues to his opinion of how she handled the situation and feeling assured they were both on the same page.

  She addressed the girl. “I put aside two hours’ wages for you before I went to the store to make sure I had the right change.” She sat Freddy on the counter and steadied him while she reached up to open the overhead spice cabinet. “It’s right—”

  Stunned, Zoe stopped with her hand raised. “I know I put it here. I remember doing it.”

  Linc spoke quietly. “Is it possible you only meant to leave the money and it slipped your mind because you were distracted?”

  “I don’t think so.” Zoe was beginning to wonder herself, although there was no way she’d admit it, particularly not to him. “All right, Portia,” she said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a handful of bills. “Here. If this isn’t enough, I can write you a check.”

  The girl grabbed the money without counting it. “I don’t need your check. I only took this job in the first place to get out of the house.” Still clutching her iPad, she hurried to the door and let it slam behind her.

  “Whew.” Zoe let out a breath. “I wouldn’t want to be that girl’s father. It’s hard enough being a single parent without stumbling into the job late the way the captain did. It’s too bad he wasn’t able to be a stronger presence in the girl’s life when she was younger.”

  “Yeah. Deployment can mess up families.” Linc eyed the half-open kitchen cabinet and scowled. “You know, you have been under a lot of stress lately.”

  “Meaning?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe it’s finally getting to you. You’re all by yourself with a child to worry about. You’re under suspicion. Your convict brother could show up here at any minute and you still have to perform your normal teaching duties. That’s a lot to process.”

  “Why don’t you just spit it out?” Zoe demanded. “You and your boss are sure I imagined the shooting and now you’re suggesting I’m losing it over little things, too.”

  “Are you?”

  “No.” It was almost a shout and frightened her son into reaching for her. Penitent, Zoe lifted him into her arms and stepped back. “I’m sorry if I scared you, honey.” Looking at Star, she asked Linc, “Did you mean it when you promised he could pet your partner?”

  “I did.” To Zoe’s delight, the man even smiled slightly, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

  “Let’s go into the living room where we can be comfortable,” Linc said, leading the way. “I normally don’t take Star’s vest off when we’re working, but I’ll make an exception today.” He sat on one end of the small sofa with his K-9 at his feet and proceeded to unbuckle her harness.

  “Where should we sit?” Zoe asked, realizing that whatever Colson said, she’d end up close to him. There wa
s no way she was going to get one inch away from her three-year-old son in the presence of a trained attack dog so, like it or not, she was going to have to grit her teeth and cozy up to the security man.

  “Right here is fine,” he said, keeping his attention focused on Star while indicating the empty end of the settee.

  Yup. Really close, she thought. Oh, well, I can do anything for Freddy’s sake. I certainly don’t want him to grow up scared of authority or become a criminal like his uncle, Boyd. Boyd’s latest crimes made her almost wish she hadn’t taken back her maiden name. Given the treasonous acts associated with her late husband and her plans to make the air force her career however, it had seemed the lesser of two evils. She supposed it still was.

  To Zoe’s surprise, the cop seemed to mellow as he relaxed and petted the rottweiler. His voice was low, his expression appealing. When he spoke softly to Star, the K-9 gazed into his eyes with total adoration. The pair had gone from imposing threats to friendly neighbors in the blink of an eye. Why couldn’t Sergeant Colson act this way when he was shadowing her? She would have liked him a lot better if he had.

  That thought stopped her heart. Liked him? Her? No way. He was just another problem to face, another hapless bird sucked into her jet intake, ready to cause a crash. So why was she having such a hard time continuing to dislike him?

  Because he was being so kind to Freddy, she answered easily. A big scary cop and a trusting little boy were relating to each other as if they were meant to be best buds.

  Linc held out his large hand and Freddy grasped it without hesitation. The sight of the man safely guiding her son’s little chubby fingers toward a dog powerful enough to harm them touched her heart. Her son had never known his father, never had a male role model. And until that moment, Zoe had not realized the enormity of what he’d been missing.

  FOUR

  Linc wasn’t surprised by the way Star treated the trusting little boy after a proper introduction, but his own reactions to the situation gave him pause. A feeling of tenderness he had not anticipated flowed over and through him, leaving a sense of peace and rightness behind. What was that all about? He didn’t even like kids. At least he didn’t think he did. Truthfully, his experiences with small children were limited, and he’d always viewed them as sort of alien creatures. Cute but unknowable. So how had he apparently managed to connect with this one?

  He cast a sidelong glance at Zoe and was awed by her expression, as well. The way she was gazing at her son left no doubt of her love and devotion. From what Linc could recall, nobody had ever looked at him that way, not even his own mother, and as far as his dad was concerned, he might as well have been invisible—unless he’d misbehaved. Then his father had taken plenty of notice and dished out serious punishment.

  Such thoughts pulled Linc from his earlier calm and left him wondering what Freddy’s father had been like. There wasn’t much background information in Sergeant Sullivan’s personnel file, but since she’d chosen to revert to her maiden name, he figured there must have been notable conflict.

  “You’re doing fine,” Linc told the child. “Just pet her gently. She likes her ears scratched like this.” He demonstrated, then laughed when Freddy tried it. “Not so hard, okay? Star wants to keep her ears attached to her head. She needs them to hear with.”

  Freddy giggled. “Silly.”

  Linc’s grin was genuine and widening. He really got a kick out of this kid. “Here. Let me tell her to lie down and you can scratch her tummy. She loves that, too.”

  Instead of bending over Star as she dropped to the floor and rolled onto her back on command, Freddy threw himself down beside her and reached across her body to wiggle his fingers in her short soft hair. “Tickle, tickle.”

  She turned her head without rising and gave his cheek a lick. Childish laughter filled the room, and the boy put his hands over his face. “Eww. She kissed me.”

  “Because she likes you,” Linc replied. He looked at Zoe. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  “It does my heart good to see Freddy so happy. If it takes a little dog slobber to make that happen, how can I mind? Besides, the newest info on keeping kids healthy is to raise them with animals and let them build up resistance to germs.”

  “Good to know.” Linc startled slightly when his radio went off, and he cupped a hand over his earbud, listening to the dispatch coming over his radio.

  Zoe gently touched his forearm. “Is everything okay? It’s not Boyd, is it?”

  “No.” Linc put on his blue beret and gave Star’s leash a tug. “We have to go downstairs for a few minutes. A couple of our dogs that were still missing after they were all released last month have been sighted coming this way. I’m supposed to keep an eye out and try to capture them.”

  It was all he could do to avoid looking at the place where her hand still lay. The sensation was electric. When she withdrew her slim fingers, he almost wished she hadn’t.

  “We won’t go far,” he said, rising. “Hand me your cell phone and I’ll enter my number. We’ll be right downstairs if you need anything.”

  “I can manage my brother if he does show up,” Zoe countered, complying anyway. “He doesn’t scare me.”

  “Well, he should.” Linc gave her back her phone and paused just long enough to put his dog’s working vest back on her. That also gave him time to be certain Zoe was taking his warning seriously. When she sobered, he was satisfied.

  Star accompanied him to the door, tight at heel position. Linc glanced back. “Lock this after me.”

  “I will.”

  “Now,” he added, when she didn’t immediately act.

  “Yes, sir,” she said, giving him a smile and a mock salute.

  More chatter was coming in over his radio. Linc keyed his mic. “On my way. I’ll meet you in the street.”

  With a last look at the woman and child, he turned on his heel and left. Normally, he would have waited until he was certain she had locked her door, but the last messages indicated that several of the missing dogs were nearby. His plan was to position himself on the lawn of the apartment building and wait, hoping that Star’s presence would draw the others in. Many of the highly skilled K-9s had been found and returned to the CAFB training facility, but there were still thirty-two dogs missing, including four special animals. He wanted to find all the dogs, of course, but locating Glory, Patriot, Scout and Liberty would be a real coup.

  A Security Forces SUV was approaching slowly, driver and passenger scanning the area. Linc waved them down.

  “I haven’t spotted any loose ones yet, but I just got down here,” Linc called.

  Novice trainer Bobby Stevens, the driver, nodded and glanced up at the apartment windows. “We have an audience. Did they see anything?”

  Linc followed the same line of sight and felt his heart skip like a flat stone thrown onto the surface of a placid lake. Zoe and Freddy were peering out their open window, watching the drama in the street unfold.

  “No. I was working up there with Star when I got the call. We were all sitting in the living room.”

  The SUV passenger, Master Sergeant Caleb Streeter, chuckled wryly. “Must be nice getting to sit around all day, Colson, while the rest of us bust a gut chasing reports of dogs.”

  Under different circumstances, Linc might have returned the taunt. Instead, he chose to tamp down his pride and stay silent. The most important task was catching the Red Rose Killer, and as long as Zoe Sullivan was on base, she was still their best, most important lead.

  In the shadowed corners of his mind lurked the realization that he also wanted to keep her safe. Her and her little boy, a child whose openness and charm had touched his heart in a way he couldn’t begin to explain. Maybe it was Freddy’s lack of a father that made him identify with the boy, Linc mused, remembering the shame his own dad had brought upon him and his mother by going AWOL, becoming a thief and finally
being arrested and jailed.

  That was one thing he unfortunately had in common with Zoe. Neither of their families was anything to be proud of. And neither of them could do a thing about changing the past. Linc had spent his adult life trying to rise above the stigma of his untrustworthy, unreliable father.

  The comparison between his situation and Zoe’s struck him like the blast from a jet engine. He was not a bit like his father, so why did everybody seem to think Zoe Sullivan would side with her brother, given the opportunity?

  Because she’d kept in such close touch with Boyd, he reasoned, clenching his jaw. That was the difference, and it was a big one.

  His eyes were drawn to the apartment window again. As a single mother who had the responsibility of caring for Freddy, would she jeopardize his well-being for the sake of a killer? Approaching the question logically, Linc didn’t think so. The trouble was Boyd had always been good at hiding his true nature, at least at first. The women who had refused to date him and men who had somehow crossed him had paid the price for thwarting the emotionally twisted man. Could his seemingly innocent sister be the same kind of person?

  A loose German shepherd, tail flagging and ears erect, drew Linc’s thoughts back to the current task. The dog was trotting toward Star, panting as if smiling and acting ready to play.

  Linc crouched down. “Come here, boy. That’s a good boy.”

  Although the dog slowed and lowered its head as if deciding whether or not to flee, it continued in their direction, then stopped nose to nose with Star. Linc’s hand moved slowly, surely, until he was able to slip a looped leash around its neck. The shepherd wore no collar or ID band but since each member of the training project had been microchipped, he knew the dog would easily be identified.

  Streeter had left the vehicle, and Linc handed him the dog he’d caught. “Looks like this poor guy missed a few meals. Do you want me to hang around down here a little longer, just in case others show up?”

  Streeter shook his head. “No. I’ll load this one and cruise the rest of the neighborhood.”