by Debra Webb
‘The truth is, Dan,’ Harold reminded him, ‘we can’t prove what Allen did or did not do when he entered the department’s motor pool that day just before Chief Harris picked up the Taurus.’
‘I suppose,’ Dan countered, ‘that we also can’t hazard a guess as to why he may have taken additional steps toward that same end just days later. Any way you look at this, he was up to something that involved Jess.’
There was a whole hell of a lot they didn’t know but some parts were damned obvious.
‘One could say this latest development might indicate Chief Harris knows more than she’s saying.’
Outrage lit deep in his gut but Dan tamped it back. ‘Do not take this investigation in that direction, Harold,’ he cautioned. ‘If you do, you will not like my response. Is that understood?’
‘I’m a little concerned,’ the determined man persisted, ‘that perhaps you are right now reacting on emotion rather than logic. Using your position to protect Chief Harris in this matter won’t go unnoticed, Dan. It—’
Dan halted him with a deadly look. ‘We will not go there. Are we clear?’
Harold relented with a somber nod. ‘Quite clear.’ He gathered his notes. ‘You know I’ll do my best to solve this puzzle, but I’ll be honest with you right now. After talking to Ted’s wife, I just don’t believe he took off and left his whole life behind. He’s got two kids, Dan. This’ – he threw up his hands – ‘circumstantial evidence aside, there is absolutely nothing in his background to suggest a character flaw that deep.’
‘Stranger things have happened.’ Dan worked at cooling off. Harold had struck a nerve and seemed to want to just keep tap dancing there. ‘I do agree this behavior is out of character. That said, until we find him or someone or something that can provide the answers we need, we have no choice but to consider that Allen may have crossed the line.’
Jess would be the first to point out that everyone, man or woman, possessed the potential for evil. It was not crossing that thin, often hard-to-see line that made the difference. They could speculate every day, including Sunday, and never know what led to the chain of events that played out those last few days before Allen disappeared. Another of Jess’s favorite sayings whispered through his mind. Find the motive, find the answer.
‘I would be remiss in my duties if I failed to do exactly that,’ Harold admitted.
In his capacity as division chief of Crimes Against Persons, the task before Harold was a heavy one. Allen was one of their own. A cop Dan had known, as Harold pointed out, for many years. That was the part that made this whole mess so unpalatable. To that end, just as Dan would not permit this investigation to drag Jess more deeply into the muck than speculation had already managed to do, he didn’t want questions about Allen’s loyalty to the department to play out in the media.
‘For now, as far as the world knows, Captain Ted Allen is a victim of unknown circumstances,’ Dan clarified. ‘We need the community’s eyes and ears on this one without unnecessary scrutiny.’
‘Someone somewhere saw or heard something,’ Harold agreed. ‘All we need is to have that someone come forward.’
Unfortunately that didn’t always happen. ‘Put a little more pressure on his closest buddies. One of them may know or suspect something they don’t feel comfortable coming forward with just yet.’ The code among law enforcement officers was strong, as it should be. No one wanted to be the reason another cop’s reputation was sullied.
‘I’ll pursue that avenue personally.’ Harold stood. ‘You’ll pass this news along to Chief Harris? Or, if you prefer, I can speak with her.’
Dan wished there was a way around giving Jess this news. For her own safety, she needed to be kept abreast of where the investigation was on Allen. ‘She’s waiting in my office now.’ At least he hoped she was. He’d sent word to her via Detective Wells since she opted not to answer his calls more often than not lately.
‘I won’t keep you, then.’
‘For the time being,’ Dan said in closing, ‘I have no choice but to consider potential interim commanders for the gang task force.’
‘Schafer’s a good man,’ Black mentioned. ‘He’s worked closely with Allen for more than a year.’
‘I’ll keep him in mind.’
Dan followed Harold from the main conference room more frustrated than when he’d arrived half an hour ago, and he would have wagered that was not possible. Allen’s vanishing act was troubling on several levels.
The truly unsettling part was the idea that they had just begun this investigation. A very good possibility existed that things would only get worse from here.
His secretary held up a fistful of messages as he passed her desk, but he waved her off. Those would just have to wait.
‘Chief Harris is waiting for you,’ she called to him as he reached his office door.
Dan hesitated and turned back to his secretary. ‘Thank you, Sheila. I’ll take care of those messages later this afternoon.’
She smiled. ‘I’ll hold your calls.’
Dan returned the smile. He gave himself a mental boot in the ass for failing to show his appreciation of his support staff often enough. Sheila and Tara, his receptionist, kept his office running smoothly. He’d be lost without them. At times like this they only got noticed when they did something wrong and that was wrong.
Jess was waiting. He took a breath and reached for the door once more. Her showing up on time was rare. That was the first good news he’d heard all day.
‘I guess turnabout is fair play,’ Jess announced as soon as he’d cleared the doorway.
She stood in front of his desk, bag draped on her shoulder as if she had been contemplating leaving. She’d had a hell of a long night and day. She had to be exhausted. Just a few hours before she’d gotten called out to a possible homicide they had broken their number one rule, not once but twice. On her bed . . . on the kitchen counter . . .
Get your head in the right place, Burnett. ‘I apologize for making you wait.’ He rounded his desk and took a moment to decide the proper approach for giving her this sensitive news.
As if he’d telegraphed the thought, Jess’s gaze narrowed. ‘What’s going on? The only time you stay over there’ – she pointed to his position behind his desk – ‘instead of sitting over here with me’ – she hitched her thumb to one of the two chairs stationed in front of his desk – ‘is when there’s trouble.’
He’d have to remember that next time. Though generally whatever he’d hoped to recall went out the window when they were alone together without his desk between them. Today, however, it was important that he keep his head on straight. ‘Let’s have a seat and catch up on what we have so far.’
She stood there, arms crossed over her chest, for several frustrating ticks of the mega-tense muscle in his cheek. He resisted the urge to work his jaw or reach up and rub at the damned twitch. As if she understood exactly how long she could hold out before he exploded, she finally sat, crossed those long, toned legs, and stared at him expectantly.
For the first time in nearly two hours, he let his guard down and said aloud the words that had turned to stone in his gut. ‘We found Captain Allen’s SUV. It was parked at the Amtrak station over on Morris.’
She tried to hide her initial reaction but he saw the pain and worry creep into her expression. ‘Was he found?’
Dan shook his head. ‘Just the vehicle.’
They had no body. No evidence that Allen had been harmed or kidnapped. He’d simply vanished. How the hell did a fifteen-year veteran of the force go AWOL? Leave his family in the lurch? Possibly try to kill a colleague? It didn’t add up. Particularly since none of his credit cards had been used and the money he and his wife had in savings was still there – every dime of it.
‘Then we don’t know any more than we did,’ Jess said, sounding disappointed and frustrated. ‘No way he just vanished into thin air.’ She seemed to be talking more to herself than to him. ‘It’s a simple matter of physics, ma
ss occupies space.’
He didn’t miss the hint of hope she tried to cover with the frustration in her tone. Her feelings were understandable. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Allen’s case solved, but until his body was found, there was at least reason to hope that maybe, possibly, he was alive. But in Dan’s opinion, they were kidding themselves to hold on to any optimism.
Besides, if Allen was alive, unless he was a prisoner, he had changed sides and was now a criminal. Was that better or worse than the theory that he’d been murdered?
Dan heaved a sigh. He couldn’t put this part off any longer. ‘We also got his cell phone records.’
Denial instantly started to cloud her expression. She instinctively understood that this had something to do with her. ‘Have any calls been made since he dropped off the map?’
‘No.’ Like Dan, she didn’t want to deal with the monumental and dark possibilities this case opened up but sadly it was necessary.
The silence hung between them like a black cloud.
‘The last time his cell reached out to a tower, it was near your place, Jess. Around four Friday morning.’
For another three beats she stared at him. He saw the moment when full comprehension dawned on her. Her shoulders slumped and uncertainty replaced the denial in her expression.
‘My Audi was tampered with sometime before I got up that morning . . . I had to call Lori for a ride and . . .’ She blinked, disbelief widening her eyes. ‘So he really is the one.’
‘We can’t prove he installed the explosive in the Taurus you were driving last week. He was in the motor pool the day I ordered the Taurus for you. The clerk admitted he’d gone outside for a smoke while Allen was there. As for your personal vehicle, we can only assume that given what happened with the Taurus, Allen intended to do the same with your Audi and was interrupted or ran out of time for some reason. Since we can’t prove either one just yet, we’re keeping that part out of the media. But we both know how this looks.’
‘Why would he do that?’ Jess shook her head. ‘I’ve made a lot of serious enemies in the past.’ She looked away. ‘But they’re usually the bad guys. Not other cops.’
‘If Allen did this,’ Dan said, ‘he is a bad guy, Jess. Just because he carries a badge doesn’t make him immune.’ He wanted to round this damned desk and hold her. Damn propriety.
As if she feared he would do exactly that, she stood and squared her shoulders. ‘Anything else?’ She smoothed a hand over her skirt to avoid eye contact. ‘I have a murder case to get back to.’
Apparently he had been wrong about which part of this briefing he dreaded the most. This next part had his gut clenching. Or, hell, maybe it was just saying it all out loud to her. ‘We need to go over your Audi again, Jess. Check for prints and anything else he may have left behind. And your apartment.’
Rather than argue as he’d expected, she wiped her face clean of emotion and said, ‘I’m a person of interest. I understand that. I’ll talk to my landlord and set it up. Anything else?’
‘You understand how important this is and that it’s not about you having done anything wrong. No one’s calling you a person of interest, Jess.’ Not as long as he was chief of police. He searched her face, her eyes, needing to be absolutely certain she was okay with how this was going down. He hated like hell that any part of this made her feel guilty or threatened.
‘Of course they are. We all know what constitutes a person of interest. I’m connected to this, Dan. Good or bad, I’m connected. And just because the guy didn’t like me and may have tried to kill me and then disappeared doesn’t mean I did anything wrong. I’m sure no one thinks that.’ She laughed, the sound hardly amusing. ‘My landlord barely knows me but he surely won’t think I’m guilty of any wrongdoing. I’m certain he’s just wishing he hadn’t picked such a troublesome tenant.’
He couldn’t take it any longer. Dan bolted around his desk. As if he’d intended to grab her and throw her over his desk for an encore of last night’s out-of-control lovemaking, she backed up a step, bumped into the chair. Damn it. He stood there, helpless, wishing he could hold her for just a moment, but she didn’t want that. She wanted to play by the rules.
Rules he knew better than to break – for all the good that knowledge had done him last night. Or now.
‘You absolutely did not do anything wrong, Jess,’ he said, going for soft but sounding rough. ‘Your landlord will understand. I’ll clear it with him if you’d like.’ He wouldn’t mind an opportunity to talk to the guy again. He still had reservations about that setup.
‘Not necessary.’ Jess dug in her bag for her pad and pencil. ‘Give me a time frame so I can run it by Mr Louis.’
‘The sooner the better.’ Dan forced his body to relax. Harold was actually pushing for today to get into Jess’s apartment, but Dan wasn’t springing that on her. It was past one now. The man would just have to cool his heels until tomorrow.
Jess made herself a note, then jammed everything back where she’d gotten it inside that bottomless pit of a leather bag she hauled around. ‘I’ll take care of it. Anything else?’
She’d asked that three times already, angling for some indication that the meeting was over so she could get back to work. She was the strongest woman he had ever known.
Despite just how shitty this day had been so far, he felt a smile coming on. She hadn’t dried her hair after her shower. Back in college, she had always complained if he tried distracting her before her hair was dry after a shower. Just like back then, that mass of blond locks looked all wavy and sexy. She’d made a halfhearted effort at a ponytail but wisps had worked their way loose. And the glasses. She didn’t wear them all the time, but when she did, he couldn’t help thinking of that old classic eighties video ‘Hot for Teacher.’
‘This is exactly what got us into trouble last night,’ she warned.
He snapped out of the lust coma and slid his hands into his pockets. ‘You’re right. We broke your number one rule.’ No point pretending he didn’t know what she meant. She was the only woman who had ever made him want to break the rules.
‘Our rule, Burnett.’ She cocked an eyebrow. ‘We should show a bit more restraint next time, wouldn’t you say?’
‘We should.’ He would try. He really would.
‘How long will they need my car?’
It took a sec for him to shake off the I-want-you fog wrapped around his brain and to focus on the answer to her question. ‘You’ll have it back tomorrow. You can use one from the motor pool tonight.’
‘I don’t think so.’ Her laugh was the real thing this time. ‘I can catch a ride with one of my detectives, thank you very much.’
‘You could catch a ride with me,’ he proposed. Smart, Burnett. Spend time alone with her in her apartment again tonight. Way to go, idiot.
She smiled and he felt a little twinge deep in his chest. That smile and those lips had haunted him for two decades. God, he was glad she was back where she belonged. Home. Close to him even if not with him, officially.
‘I should get back to work,’ she said with a pointed look that told him she had a good idea what was on his mind.
Before he could formulate a response, she gave him her back. At forty-two he shouldn’t still have those moments of uncertainty as to what to say or do next, but here he was watching her go with no idea how to proceed either way.
Jess paused at the door. ‘By the way, we’re invited to the Barons’ Labor Day party. Mark your calendar, Burnett. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.’
Leaving him dumbfounded by the announcement, she was gone before he could ask how the hell that invitation had come about.
He heaved a big breath that did absolutely nothing to relieve the frustration banding around his chest. On top of all the rest, apparently between now and Labor Day he would need to explain his past with the Baron family. The whole story.
Something else he wasn’t looking forward to. He’d spent ten years trying to put that nightmare behind hi
m.
Chapter Seven
Vestavia Village, 4.00 P.M.
Jess finished her tea and placed the glass on the elegant crystal tray waiting on the coffee table in the middle of Frances Wallace’s unexpectedly opulent gathering room. Not a living room or great room or den, she had explained to Jess. The condos had gathering rooms with mini kitchens equipped for serving cold refreshments. No cooking kitchens or dining rooms. There was no need. The residents’ meals were served in the facility’s dining hall.
At least this way there was no worry about anyone accidentally burning the place down.
‘This won’t stop them,’ Lucille argued. ‘The construction will continue anyway. Our situation has not changed. At all. Why would we want to kill Scott much less bother doing so?’ The last she delivered with a look that proclaimed the mere idea grated like broken glass against her delicate sensibilities.
Lucille Blevins was as blunt as Frances and about as delicate as the Glock Jess carried. She was the eldest of the group and made sure everyone understood that detail carried certain privileges.
And the two janitors had called Frances the ringleader. Ha!
Frances sighed loudly. ‘Mercy alive, Lucille. No one’s saying that.’
‘You said it.’ Polly Neal lifted her thin chin in consternation. ‘Said you wanted him dead. I heard you. So did everyone else.’
Molly Jones, Polly’s twin, nodded adamantly. ‘I heard it too.’ She turned to the others. ‘We all heard it. Didn’t we?’
The heads of the other three, Geraldine Lusk, Colleen Sharp, and Pansy Cornelius, moved up and down in frantic agreement. They stole a glance at Jess and stopped abruptly. Then another of those free-for-alls started with everyone assuring Jess that Frances would never hurt anyone. Absolutely not. Not even Scott Baker.
No wonder Frances felt compelled to rally around these ladies despite every last one of them being a tattletale. Well into their eighties, all lacked the actual know-how to dive into a war against the facility’s board unless their strategy was to frustrate them to death. The sort of ladies who lived their whole lives with husbands taking care of everything. Nothing wrong with that for those who chose that lifestyle. Had Jess’s mother lived, she would have been the same way. Lily’s relationship with her husband wasn’t that different even now.
