A Wanted Man (Cold Case Detectives Book 1)

by Jennifer Morey

  “And now he’s had to find a new location.”

  Penny put her finger to her mouth and then wagged it as a thought came. “But that was a trapdoor in the kitchen floor. If he already had the girl under his control, why the need for a trapdoor?”

  “The cuts did look new in the floor,” Kadin said.

  Detective Cohen looked from Penny to Kadin. “We’ll take a closer look at the previous owner. Locate him. Have him watched.”

  Good. While he did that, he and Penny could concentrate on Jax.

  Penny’s phone went off. She had a text message. Kadin saw her hand tremble as she read and he grew alert.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  She showed him the message.

  You’re next if you don’t back off.

  “May I?” Cohen took the phone and, after reading the message, handed it to one of his other detectives. “See if you can trace that call.”

  “Yes, sir.” The man took the phone and went over to a windowless van.

  Kadin followed with Penny at his side.

  The detective opened the side door and revealed a state-of-the-art crime scene van. The office area behind the driver’s cab could also function as a command center, with all the latest communications equipment. He climbed inside where two other officers sat before laptops. Kadin stepped up into the large van as well, taking Penny’s hand to help her up.

  She eyed him as though his act of chivalry had warmed her. For a tough businesswoman, she sure could be soft with him. He tried to deny how much he liked that.

  Behind the office area, a sliding-glass door separated a more spacious work area with coin-style flooring and several shelves and bins to store evidence. A fume hood with an exhaust fan had been installed above the long, stainless steel countertop for working with chemicals. There were other items as well—a portable generator, refrigerator and sink, even a small bathroom.

  He’d gotten well acquainted with the crime scene van for his daughter, and it hadn’t been as swanky as this. The detectives hadn’t allowed him to participate in much of the processing, naturally, but he’d insisted on studying the evidence. A year later and Kadin had tracked down her killer. Six men had to stop him from killing the man.

  “Kadin?”

  He turned to Penny, aware that he’d drifted off into memory and that he’d been staring aimlessly at the evidence bins.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Fine,” he replied curtly. He’d gotten good at pushing the worst thoughts back to the dark pits of his mind.

  The detective had handed one of the officers Penny’s phone, and that one worked away on his laptop. The screen ran text and switched to a new display.

  “Must have been one of those disposable phones. Bet he tossed it after sending the text.”

  “Find out who sells disposable phones in the area and then look for anyone who’s bought one in the last week,” Kadin said.

  Detective Cohen nodded his consent to the men in the van.

  “We’ll go try to find Jax,” Kadin said. “Clearly his brother isn’t the one trying to frame him.”

  “Maybe no one is trying to frame him,” Penny said.

  No, Kadin thought to himself, he had a niggling feeling that Jax knew more than he’d let on. He’d had that feeling all along.

  “Be careful with him,” Cohen said to Kadin.

  Kadin needed no warning. He could handle Ballard and any danger he kept hidden. Jax’s DNA didn’t match what had been recovered from Sara Wolfe’s crime scene, but he had to be connected somehow, whether through the previous owner of his property or not.

  * * *

  Unable to locate Jax, Kadin took Penny back to her apartment. What she didn’t expect to find waiting for her was her father. That came as quite a shock. The sputtering deadbeat dad she’d met in North Dakota seemed more the type to hide in his perfect life. But he hadn’t. The concierge had allowed him to sit in the lobby until they arrived. Now, late at night, she could see him in the small sitting area, looking right at her.

  Penny stopped walking. “Did you...”

  “I didn’t arrange this, no,” Kadin said, standing beside her and placing his hand on her shoulder.

  Her father stood and after a few seconds of hesitation, he stepped nervously toward her.

  “Kadin gave me your contact information,” he said.

  When had he done that? She sent him a glare.

  “I emailed it to him before we left North Dakota,” Kadin explained.

  Another thing he’d neglected to tell her? She didn’t reprimand him now, not in front of her father.

  “I hope you don’t mind me coming here unannounced,” Alias said. “After you left, I’ve thought of nothing else but you. Can we talk?”

  He wanted to talk? Now...after all these years? Her anger sprang from her core, sensitivity she normally didn’t have making her vulnerable. She didn’t know what to do with it, this foreign feeling of insecurity. Why did she feel this way? She’d never been insecure before. What had shifted inside of her?

  Traitorous thoughts ran back to when Kadin had asked her if she’d moved to Salt Lake City to get away from her mother. She’d said no, but now she wondered if that was completely true. Why had she left her hometown? Why, really?

  To get away from her mother? Or to avoid this? She may have told herself she didn’t want to know about her father, but she did. She didn’t want to know about why he left, why she hadn’t been important enough to keep in his life.

  She feared attempting to start a family because of that. And now she was pregnant and afraid of what Kadin would do.

  He wasn’t a good choice for a family man. He was what her mother called a runner.

  “Maybe now isn’t a good time,” her father said in her lengthy silence.

  “No.” Her hurt came from insecurity and she’d not allow that to dictate her actions. “Come up to my apartment. I’m glad you came to see me.”

  She must have shocked both men. Kadin did a double take and her father’s face went slack in surprise.

  “This won’t be easy on you,” she said to her father and then looked pointedly at Kadin. “Either of you.” When Kadin grinned at the fiery woman he recognized, she headed for the elevator.

  Up in her apartment, she sat her father at the kitchen island and went about getting them water. Kadin left them alone, going into the guest room with his laptop. She felt incredibly awkward as she put two glasses down on the island counter. Moments later, she found the courage to look at him, his face, his features, trying to determine which resembled hers. Not much. She resembled her mother more.

  Seeing that he’d done the same with her, she breathed a laugh and took a sip of water.

  “Are you sure you’re my daughter?” he asked, breaking the tension.

  “Are you sure you’re my dad?”

  With that, his joking faded and he became serious. “Penny, I want to explain.”

  “You already did.”

  “That I was young, yes. But I was wrong for not coming to see you sooner. During college. After. Definitely before I met my wife and had kids.”

  Not able to disagree, she didn’t respond.

  “I was a coward. I also knew how your mother felt about me, or thought she did.”

  “You don’t think she loved you?”

  He shook his head. “No, I know she did love me, the way any seventeen-year-old loves. But I don’t believe she loved me like two people should when they get married and have kids.”

  She couldn’t argue with that. “Sometimes I think she still loves you.”

  “She has the idea that she does, or that she did.” He drank some water and pressed his hands together, his forearms on the island counter. “You see, your mother is a feisty, fun-loving, in
dependent woman.”

  She smiled. “Boy, you have that right.”

  “She was always that way. Fiercely independent. We would argue about everything. I had to give in or she wouldn’t give up. She had to live her own way.”

  That sounded familiar. Penny stopped smiling. He’d just described her.

  “I’m not saying that’s bad, but if you ever wonder why your mom never married, that’s why. She doesn’t need a man in her life.”

  “I think she does.”

  “She may fancy the idea of being able to have one in her life, but she doesn’t want one, Penny.” His hands came apart as he spoke with them.

  How did he know so much about her when he’d only been with her a few years when they were so young?

  “That’s why I left,” he confessed. “Not just because I felt, in my selfish young head, that she’d rob me of college and the future I dreamed of by tying me down with a baby. Not just because having you to take care of terrified me. She didn’t want me. She wanted the idea of me. Does that make sense?”

  Penny had to nod.

  “I’m not trying to justify my actions. I should not have left your mother with the sole responsibility of raising you. And I damn sure should have contacted you long before now. It should have been me who came to find you. For that, I’m deeply sorry.”

  What was she supposed to say to that? She didn’t feel forgiveness. She felt angry and hurt that he hadn’t. But she did feel capable of forgiveness...someday.

  “Why do you think my mother could never live with a man?” she finally asked. Although she had never really fully analyzed that, she did wonder.

  “She blamed me. She contacted me from time to time up until you were about three, claiming she loved me and that I ruined her life.”

  Deep down, that was what her mother believed. Maybe having a daughter made it harder for her to find another man. Maybe she had feared the rejection. Her mother fearing anything didn’t jibe. Unless she’d gotten good at putting on a face. That notion saddened Penny. Was her mother unhappy? She sometimes mentioned that maybe she should have tried harder to find someone, but then she’d be off on her way to a book club meeting or a lunch with friends or a new volunteer job. Her mother had never spent much time sitting around at home.

  “She isn’t interested in sharing her life,” Penny finally said.

  “Except with you.”

  “Kids are different. She could tell me what to do.”

  He chuckled. “You came out all right. Kadin told me all about you. You’re successful. And you got out of Michigan.”

  “Kadin stuck his nose where it didn’t belong.”

  Her father swatted the air with his hand. “Aw, he meant well. Don’t punish him for something I did wrong.”

  Don’t punish him when it had been her father who’d abandoned her and hadn’t had the courage to confront her.

  “Besides,” her estranged father said, “he did it for you.”

  “What?” What was he talking about?

  Her father glanced over toward the hallway and the closed guest room door. Then, leaning forward over the island counter, he said in a low tone, “Kadin didn’t just email me. He called and we spoke awhile. He said he found me when he did a background check on you and that you weren’t happy he kept that fact from you. You had told him you didn’t want to find me.”

  “Yes, I did.” Funny, how finding out anyway changed how she felt.

  “He cares a great deal for you. I may be a nerdy engineer, but I can tell when someone has feelings for another person. That man does, for you. Is there something going on between the two of you?”

  Penny’s face blanched. Confiding in her father about her pregnancy seemed highly inappropriate at this early stage of their reunion. “Nothing...nothing yet.”

  “I would have come no matter how important it was to him. In fact, I was going to reach out to Kadin when he called.”

  Penny didn’t engage further. Talking to Alias as though he’d been a real father since her birth felt too awkward.

  He must have seen that in her, because he leaned back and studied her thoughtfully. “What would you like to do going forward, Penny?”

  “What would you like to do?”

  “Well, I’d like to do the right thing. My wife isn’t speaking to me and we’ve told the kids they have a half sister. We’re all in a bit of an upheaval at the moment. But I’d like to plan a get-together some time.”

  Penny didn’t think she wanted to pursue a family-type relationship with him or his wife and kids. “I’d be open to a meeting. Beyond that, I’m not sure getting to know each other makes much sense at this point.”

  She could tell from his shocked expression that he hadn’t expected her to respond that way. “All right. We all need time to adjust...”

  “No, I mean, I don’t think we need to be a family. I can be friends but not family.”

  After staring at her for several long moments, he said, “You are your mother’s daughter.”

  “What?” Should she be insulted?

  “Penny, I’d like us to get together as a family someday. I’d like to welcome you into mine. Don’t shut us out the way your mother shuts everyone out.”

  “My mother doesn’t shut everyone out. Only those who betray her.”

  Her father raised his hand to stop her outburst. “I didn’t mean it like that. I only meant that being independent is good up until it costs you loving relationships.”

  That might as well have been a slap to her face. Would her independence cost her a loving relationship with Kadin? Her way of relating became suddenly crystal clear. Her mother carried her independence too far and Penny was on her way to doing exactly the same. The way she was with men proved it. Kadin was the first man who ever made her feel out of control. And she was ready to walk away from him.

  Chapter 14

  Penny woke to her phone ringing. Groaning, she rolled to her side and reached for her cell, lifting it as her stomach lurched with nausea.

  Jax.

  Sitting up, she answered.

  “I need you to meet me,” he said.

  Meet him. Why? “Jax...I’m so sorry about Dane. Do you know who ran him off the road?”

  “Yes. And I’ll tell you if you meet me. But you have to come alone.”

  Alone? Why alone? “I can’t come alone, Jax.”

  “You will or I won’t tell you who killed my brother, and who kidnapped those girls. I also know where Makayla Moore is. Meet me.”

  He knew?

  “Get a pen.”

  She opened her side table drawer and wrote down an address—one off Highway 190.

  “Jax, how do you know who killed your brother. Why was he killed?”

  “Meet me and I’ll tell you. And, Penny...”

  “Yes?”

  “There’s another reason I want to meet.”

  She waited.

  “You. I want to put all this behind us and pick up where we left off. We had a good thing going.”

  She and Jax had had a good thing going before Kadin had come into her life, but she heard insincerity in his tone. He worried how much Kadin had ruined them and now may be looking to do damage control. But little did he know there was nothing he could do about her pregnancy. That changed everything, regardless of Kadin’s reaction to knowing.

  Her stomach put off a wave of nausea she wouldn’t be able to ignore. “When?”

  “Tonight. Eight o’clock. And, Penny?”

  “Yes?”

  “I mean it about you coming alone. If I see you with anyone else, I’ll leave.”

  “Why is it so important that I come alone?” He gave her an uneasy feeling, putting so much emphasis on that.

  “Because the only other per
son who’ll accompany you is Kadin Tandy. He’s not man enough for you, Penny. You need someone like me.”

  She didn’t tell him that she no longer felt anything for him, and that she felt so much more for Kadin—the soon-to-be father of her child. Keeping that to herself, she agreed to meet him. Anything to find out who preyed on girls.

  And save Makayla Moore.

  But if Jax knew the killer...

  The rope fibers tied him to the crimes. He might not have committed them, but he knew of them.

  After hanging up, Penny found herself out in the hall to a more urgent roll in her stomach. She saw Kadin walking toward her from the living room, showered and dressed for a casual, laid-back day. He made casual look sophisticated and for once didn’t wear his hat or guns.

  “I heard you on the phone.”

  Penny glanced at the bathroom as she passed, wondering how long she could hold off vomiting. She swallowed hard, and then again, stopping before him.

  “Jax called.”

  “Jax?”

  She hadn’t sounded as monumental as that revelation warranted. She swallowed again and breathed deeply, blowing out.

  “Are you all right?” He eyed her strangely.

  The nausea rose and there would be no holding back. A projectile of her minimal stomach contents came up and out, splashing Kadin’s chest.

  He looked down in surprise and she in horror, but only for a second. Another rise of nausea would not be kept at bay.

  She covered her mouth and darted into the bathroom, not sparing the time to close the door. She threw up for several minutes.

  At last, when the first wave of sickness passed, she rinsed her mouth out and brushed her teeth. When she finished and put her brush back in the holder, she looked in the mirror at Kadin, who’d dampened a hand towel and wiped his chest.

  “You’ve been getting sick a lot,” he said, tossing the towel down.

  She put her hand to her forehead. “Must be my head.”

  He turned on the faucet and washed his hands. “You’ve been getting sick almost every morning.”

  Penny braced herself with her hand on the counter, feeling the illness abate. “I still get a little dizzy in the morning.”