After coffee. Lots of coffee, he added to himself. Dealing with a woman as quick-witted as she was, it paid to be at the top of his game every minute.
Cade clenched his teeth as he took that conclusion one step further. Facing unidentified danger and coming out on top required the same intense vigilance. He just hoped Paige realized that.
Paige had called Angela’s cell and left a message advising her not to come back to the house unless she or the Rangers okayed it first. Then she’d packed a small overnight bag while Cade was outside collecting possible evidence.
She looked up expectantly when he returned to the kitchen. “Find anything?”
“Nope. Sorry. I guess the guy made a run for it before he dripped on the ground. I checked the street, too.”
“Bummer. I should have hit him harder.”
“Maybe so.”
Enjoying the Ranger’s grin and quiet chuckle at her candid comment, she busied herself gathering Max’s leash and his water and food dishes while Cade finished off another mug of coffee.
The big dog quickly recognized the preparations for travel and got so excited, Paige had to scold him to stop him from racing madly through the house.
“You ready?” Cade rinsed out his mug and set it on the sink. “I think Max is.”
“No kidding.” She took a last, long look, then sighed. “I threw some extra clothes into a suitcase in the event I don’t get to come back here for a few days.”
“That’s smart.”
Paige nodded. “I suppose this kind of upheaval is normal for you but it’s terribly upsetting to me.”
“I do have to be ready to travel anywhere in the state at a moment’s notice,” Cade said. “That doesn’t mean I don’t like going home, though.”
Paige joined him on the porch, set her small suitcase at her feet while she stopped to double lock the door. “Where is your home?”
“I’ve got a few acres outside San Antonio. Run about a hundred head of whiteface and keep a string of good cutting horses.”
“That takes more than a few acres.”
“Okay. Maybe there are more than that. I just didn’t want you to think I was bragging. By Texas standards it’s a mighty small spread.”
“I understand.” She kept her small overnight bag in hand despite Cade’s offer to carry it for her, then descended the porch stairs and headed for the driveway.
“What do you do when you have to be away for extended periods of time?” Paige asked. “Do you have help? Other supervision of the place?”
“Yes.”
Cade began to grin and look at her as if he’d just heard a good joke, making Paige frown. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking. If you want to know if I’m married, why not come right out and ask? I asked you. Remember?”
“What? Don’t be silly. That wasn’t what I meant at all.”
“Okay. Have it your way.” He stowed his evidence kit and the dog’s things in the back of his truck with his other gear, then said, “Let’s get going.”
Eyeing the scraped, dented passenger side of his pickup, she backed away, hands raised, palms out. “Uhuh. I’m not even sure that door opens since your accident, let alone closes properly. Thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather drive myself.”
“Don’t be silly. I can protect you better if we stick to one vehicle.”
“And then what? Suppose I want to go somewhere later? Or suppose you get called away and strand me at work?” She faced him, hands on her hips. “I need my truck. I’m driving. And Max is riding shotgun like he always does. If you want to keep an eye on us, then I suggest you follow. That should be easy enough for a man with your fancy surveillance training.”
The consternation in his expression was so plain it almost made Paige chuckle. She chose to stifle the urge rather than have him think she was laughing at him, which would have been embarrassingly close to the truth.
Their standoff lasted mere seconds. Setting his jaw, Cade circled his pickup and slid behind the wheel.
Paige was almost to her truck when he honked to get her attention. She whirled, saw him lean out the window, grinning, and heard him shout, “No. I’m not married.”
Returning his wide smile she cupped a hand around the side of her mouth and spoke her mind without hesitation. “That does not surprise me one bit.”
For Cade, the early morning trip back to the Austin Ranger headquarters was trying, at best. He hoped Paige’s driving was normally more sensible than what she was currently demonstrating because if it wasn’t, she was an accident waiting to happen. Not only had she slipped through several intersections on a yellow caution light, she’d made at least one turn without signaling first.
By the time she pulled into the lot he was ready to give her the kind of lecture usually reserved for delivery by State Troopers. It hadn’t been that long since he’d worn a Trooper’s uniform and he could certainly remember how to chastise a reckless driver.
When he saw the somber expression on Paige’s face, however, he changed his mind. “You okay? You broke speed records getting here, you know.”
“Just in a hurry to get to work. I’m almost always the first one in the building every morning. Here. Hold onto Max and my overnight bag while I find my card and keys, will you?” She passed him the looped end of the leash while she fished in the bottom of her shoulder bag. “It’s a good thing I don’t work in the actual forensics lab. I’d never get to bring a dog into my office if I did. Not unless I shaved him bald, first, so his hair didn’t contaminate all the evidence.”
Cade huffed. “That would be an interesting sight.”
“Trust me. He’s really ugly under all that fur. I had to have his coat cut off when I first rescued him because he was covered with terrible mats. I’d never do it again unless I absolutely had to. He sulked for weeks.”
“I can understand that,” Cade said, watching her fruitless search. “What’s wrong? Can’t you locate your keys? You just used them to drive, didn’t you?”
Paige scowled at him. “No. I keep the set for the office doors on a separate ring and the magnetic card in the same place. I’m sure I dropped them in here last night. I always use the same inside pocket.”
“Since I was with you when you locked up, you might have done something different.”
“I suppose I could have. I did forget to grab my laptop when you rushed me out last night. I almost always take that home with me.”
She was so engrossed in her efforts to find the keys she didn’t look up when Cade casually reached past her and tried the door. It opened.
He froze, instantly on alert. “Hold it. Something’s wrong. This should be a secure entrance.”
“You’re right. Even if one of the others came in earlier, that door would still be locked. Maybe the mechanism was messed up during the power failure last night.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“No. I suppose I don’t.”
Cade set her things on the ground, handed her Max’s leash, then drew his gun. “It doesn’t look like it was jimmied. You wait out here till I check.”
“But…”
This time he was not going to let her have her way. Not when it might mean compromising her safety. “Listen, lady. You can be as crazy-independent as you want as long as you do it on your own time. While I’m responsible for you, you’ll listen to me. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
If she had saluted to accompany her flippant-sounding reply he might have been angry. Since she didn’t, he wasn’t sure whether or not she was mocking him so he ignored the possibility. There were other far more pressing concerns, such as, were they simply going to Paige’s studio or might they be walking into a trap?
Cade slipped through the exterior door and glanced back to be certain Paige was obeying his orders before he started down the hallway. Thankfully, she was right where he’d left her.
The first thing he noticed was tiny bits of glass glittering
on the polished tile floor, as if they’d been tracked there. Following the trail of scattered glass fragments, he came to the door of Paige’s studio. It was standing half-open but didn’t appear to have been kicked or pried to break the latch.
He flattened against the exterior wall, gun in hand, and prepared his mind before whipping around the corner and taking dead aim at the room’s interior.
Nothing moved. There was no sound except for Cade’s shout of “Rangers. Show yourself.”
There was no hiding place big enough to conceal a grown man in the crowded office, he reasoned, remaining on alert just the same. His training insisted that he check carefully no matter how cut and dried a situation seemed on the surface.
Cade inched his way into the room and poked into every nook and cranny. Whoever had committed this act was obviously long gone. The studio was deserted. What was left of it. He wasn’t sure exactly how bad the damage would prove to be once all the broken equipment and rifled files were sorted out, but at first glance this destruction was far, far worse than he’d feared. The only positive sign was that the enormous evidence vault apparently hadn’t been opened.
He thumbed the safety of the .45 into place and holstered it. The crime-lab boys would want to go over this scene in detail before Paige was allowed back in. He grimaced. He’d sooner face a room full of riled-up rattlers than have to deliver that kind of unwelcome news to her.
As Cade inched his way out through the half-open door, a further disturbing thought crossed his mind. Two doors that definitely should have been locked, were not. And Paige’s office keys were missing. Unless she located them or came up with a different, plausible explanation, it was highly likely that her purse had been searched and robbed sometime last night, perhaps while she’d been fighting off her attacker in the yard.
Therefore, chances were very good that someone had been inside her house. The sooner he got her into official protective custody, the better. That was going to happen whether she liked the idea or not.
He was going to see to it.
SIX
The sight of the stalwart Ranger returning was such a relief Paige had to smile. Instead of mirroring her mood, he was scowling.
“Everything’s fine, right?” she called.
Cade shook his head as he ushered her away from the door. “Far from it, I’m afraid. We’ll need to have a forensics team go over your studio, inch by inch, before you can go back to work. Sorry.”
“What are you talking about?” She tried to sidle past him.
“It’s been ransacked,” Cade explained. He held out his arm to stop her from passing. “And there’s broken glass all over the floor. You can’t take Max in there. His feet will be cut to ribbons.”
“Then you look after him. Here.” She offered the looped end of the leash to the Ranger. “I want to see for myself.”
“You will. Soon. You, of all people, ought to know how important it is to keep from disturbing a crime scene.”
A crime scene? Her lovely studio with all its high-tech equipment as well as her personal items? She shivered, then backed away with Max while she tried to sort out her whirling, darting thoughts.
“Okay. I suppose you’re right,” Paige finally said. “But I am going to go peek in the window.”
“Only if there’s no sign that that area was recently disturbed,” Cade warned. “You know the drill.”
“Yes, except it feels a lot different now that I’m the victim.” She made a face. “Again. I suppose that’s normal. You wouldn’t like it if somebody ransacked your ranch.”
Cade gave her a fleeting half smile and nodded. “You’re right about that. I wasn’t real pleased when they smashed in the side of my truck, either.”
“See?”
Standing aside and stewing, Paige waited while he notified dispatch and explained their situation. Since her office was located in the same sprawling complex as the other Texas Department of Public Services branches, the response time would naturally be very short.
And then what? she asked herself. What could she do if she couldn’t work with her own computers or laser scanner? There were similar systems available elsewhere, yes, but they were needed for other tasks. Plus, as far as she knew, nobody nearby had the latest version of the software she used to identify and reconstruct faces, not to mention the availability of properly stored clay and all her modeling tools.
She was still stewing over the anticipated delay when Cade took her elbow. “Okay. Help’s on the way. Now come on. If you want to look in any windows we’d better do it before the first responders get here.”
“Whoa.” Paige twisted her arm free from his grasp. “You just watch my stuff. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Uh-uh. No way, lady. I can’t guard you if you’re running all over the place without me.” He grinned. “Besides, Max wants to go, too. Don’t you old boy?”
Paige arched her eyebrows for emphasis as she groaned. It was impossible to stay mad at this stubborn man for very long no matter how hard she tried. He was funny and clever and… And she wanted him with her, although she was loathe to admit it, particularly to him.
“I give up.” She passed the leash and her shoulder bag to Cade. He looked so amusing she giggled.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are. You look more like a bellman than a typical, tough Texas Ranger.”
He nodded while scanning the lawns, parking lots and surrounding buildings. “I just thought of that, too. I hope there’s nothing breakable in any of this because if I need to draw my gun, I’m dropping it.”
“Okay. Come on.” Starting around the building, she kept thinking about all that had happened to her recently. “I certainly hope they find enough clues in my office to lead to an arrest. I’m getting tired of feeling like there’s a big, red bull’s-eye painted smack in the middle of my back.”
Hesitating, she looked over her shoulder at the Ranger as he brought up the rear. “We have to figure all this out,” she insisted. “I’m not only worried about my work, I don’t know what I’d do if anything bad happened to Max. He’s my best friend.”
“Yeah. I know. And I understand. I had a favorite ranch dog when I was a kid.”
As Paige turned down the east side of the building toward the only outside window of her studio, she decided to give the Ranger a little additional information. “I was never allowed to have a pet when I was little.”
“Why not? Was someone in your family allergic?”
“No. Nothing like that. I…” She paused to carefully monitor her thoughts. “Mother said I wasn’t responsible enough to care for a puppy.”
“Couldn’t you have offered to prove you were capable by giving it a try?”
“No.” Paige shook her head adamantly. “By that time, my parents were convinced that I was the most unreliable person in the world.” She bit her lip. “And I agreed with them.”
Puzzled by her criticism, Cade hung back, frowning while Paige slowly approached the window. “I don’t see any footprints in the dirt,” she said. “Just the marks from where the groundskeepers have raked. It should be okay to go close enough to look in.”
He couldn’t argue. If it had been his territory that had been violated, he knew he’d be as adamant about surveying the damage as she was.
Watching her tiptoe up to the window, he saw her cup her hands around her face to cut the glare of the morning sun and heard a sharp intake of breath as she peered in.
Paige whirled, her eyes wide. “What a mess! Who’s doing all this?”
“Probably somebody who really wants to stop us from reconstructing the face and solving the old murder—and Greg Pike’s as well, just like we thought.”
“Keep reminding me, okay? Otherwise I might start to think I have a lot of enemies.”
Cade heard the wail of sirens coming from several directions. “Here comes help. Will you be okay if I leave you for a little while?”
“Sure. Why not?” She looked toward the first pa
trol car as it entered the parking lot with its lights flashing. “I’ll be surrounded by Troopers and other Rangers. Just don’t be gone too long. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Dropping everything onto a bench close to the main area of activity and passing her the leash, he said, “Sit right here and wait for me. I’ll make this as fast as I can.”
He could tell by her expression that she was distressed. Who wouldn’t be? “As soon as I’m done, we’ll go somewhere and grab breakfast to give the techs a chance to finish checking your office. Okay?”
“I won’t know where to start to put everything back. Those vandals trashed the place.”
“It may not be as bad as it looks,” Cade offered. “And with two of us working, we’ll have it back in shape in no time.”
“If my computers are wrecked I’ll have to get them replaced and then reload all my programs and data. That might take days.”
“If it does, it does. The important thing is reconstructing the face.”
She inhaled sharply. “They didn’t get the safe open, did they? Tell me they didn’t.”
“No. They didn’t. There were a few scratches around the lock but the door was shut tight so I figure they tried and failed. If you’re worried, I’ll have somebody open it just to be sure.”
“Thank God. Literally.”
Smiling, he gave her a good Southern-sounding “Amen,” before adding, “I’ll do whatever you say to help you get back to work ASAP. I promise.”
“I believe you,” Paige said. “And…Ranger…thanks.”
It sounded to Cade as if she’d almost slipped and called him by his given name instead of his rank. He took that as a favorable sign.
“Tell you what, Paige—if you’ll allow me to be that informal,” he drawled, trying to ease the tension by stressing nonchalance. “I think it would be nice if we both relaxed a little and used each other’s first names. I’m Cade.”
“I know.”
The slight smile that lifted the corners of her mouth gave him hope that she’d agree to lower her guard. He wasn’t asking for a complete absence of formality, just a little more camaraderie. After all, they’d be together until this project was completed and the better they got along, the quicker they’d see results.
Face of Danger Page 5
