“Okay, honey,” Julian said, standing. “You and I are going to head to where the mayor found the car.” He picked up the missing person’s report that the mayor had placed on the desk. “We have the address right here.”
“Do you think that’s where she was abducted from?”
Julian had no clue, but it was a starting off point for him to begin tracking her. “I’m hoping she’s off climbing all over some man in a sweaty romp, and tomorrow, Melissa finds herself embarrassed and nothing more.”
She started laughing. “Way to think positive, Jules. Maybe next time you can go with something other than sex.”
He winked at her. “Yeah, she’s a pretty girl in her twenties. If she’s not off having sex, she should be.”
Tori simply laughed at him. In their business, a great deal revolved around sex. In fact, at least half of the cases that they took on were a spouse cheating, or something along those lines.
Julian was crossing his fingers on that one. He knew that the odds of finding Melissa Lagerfeld alive were going to be low.
As in slim to none.
On the drive to the house, Justin patiently listened to all the man’s stories about his daughter. He told him about Melissa as a child, and when she went off to college and then graduated. It was hard to miss the reverence in his voice for his daughter. It was the same pride that he heard whenever his mother spoke about her five children.
“There’s her house,” he stated, pointing to the decent sized home behind the trees.
“It’s pretty secluded back here,” he stated as he pulled into the driveway. Already, his mind was taking in the surroundings and trying to figure out what the best way to approach it was going to be.
Then, as he pulled around the driveway, he saw that they weren’t alone and any plan that he came up with probably wouldn’t matter. “Well hell! I do believe that the cops are working on finding your daughter after all,” he muttered.
This was the last thing they needed.
Pulling his truck to a stop, they both climbed down from it. Immediately, as they approached, they had their full attention. Justin wasn’t sure if it was the fact that a Native American just rode up in a bad ass truck, or if he was because he was with the father of the missing girl.
“Mr. Mayor, we were looking for you. We checked your house, and then came right here.”
Lewis Lagerfeld didn't look like he was willing to entertain the cops who approached him. After all, they did just give him the run around. Justin really couldn’t blame him.
“I asked for your help yesterday, and you have the audacity to show up now and make it look like I’m the one being uncooperative?”
The older cop stared at Justin and measured him up. “Who is he?”
Conscientiously, Justin tried to not be difficult. He knew how hard a private investigator had to work, and that meant playing nice with the local authorities. They could make or break Julian’s business, and he wasn’t going to help dig the hole. Besides, the female detective was absolutely breathtaking. There was something about the black hair and lavender eyes. She had his total focus as he spoke to the other man.
“I’m Justin Littlemoon. My brother owns Littlemoon Private Investigations. We’re over on Vine in the brick building.”
The female cop offered up her hand. “I’m Detective Vivian Graves and this is my partner, Detective Tom Lester. We’re handling Melissa’s disappearance.”
Justin shook it, and then offered his hand to the man, only to be blown off. Okay, so half the cop duo was going to be willing to play nice. That was far better odds than he first thought.
“What are you doing here, Littlemoon?”
Lewis Lagerfeld jumped in with an answer. “I hired them to find my daughter, since you were too busy sitting around on your asses.”
The woman didn't look offended by the outburst.
The man… well, he was a whole other story. Amazingly, and to Justin’s surprise, he held his tongue. It was probably only because the man beside him was technically his boss.
“You need to get out of here, rent a cop.”
Justin wasn’t going to let the man ruffle his feathers. “Are you now calling this an official crime scene?” he asked.
Detective Lester shook his head. “No, we don’t even know if the woman was abducted or not.”
“Then you can’t stop me from entering, especially since Mr. Lagerfeld owns the property and has given me permission.”
“This case is total malarkey,” stated Lester, as he violently shoved his pen behind his ear.
Mayor Lagerfeld stood his ground. “Go ahead, Mr. Littlemoon. You can go in. I’ll stay out here with the detective. He and I are going to make a little call to his boss.”
Justin grinned as he walked towards the house. As much as he wished he could be a fly on the wall for the attitude adjustment, he had work to do. He could tell right away that he wasn’t alone. He could hear the detective’s footfalls as she walked beside him.
Not only that, but he could smell her. The woman smelled like vanilla and freshly made cookies.
Holy shit, she was making him hungry, and not for baked goods.
“Do you want a pair of gloves?” she asked, holding out a spare set. If this was going to turn into a crime scene, at some point, Vivian didn't want to destroy it.
“Sure thing, Detective Graves,” he replied, amicably. Still, he was treading lightly, unsure of the reception that he was going to get from the woman.
Once inside, Justin moved through the house cautiously, until he found his way to Melissa’s bedroom. “It doesn’t look like anything is out of place.”
Detective Vivian Graves scanned the room, but said nothing in response.
“Are you going to be as big an asshole as your partner?” he asked all the sudden.
It caught her off guard, and she stared over at him. “Tom’s an old school kind of guy. You can’t let anything that he says bother you. He’s always asking me when I’m going to be barefoot and pregnant. So, really, take it with a grain of salt.”
“Technically, we’re on the same team.”
She understood what he was saying, and yet they really weren’t. Vivian carried a badge, and this man just looked really good in a pair of Levi’s.
That was the understatement of the year.
Holy shit!
“Want to saddle up with me and help the good guys out?” he teased, trying to get a read on the woman. This was generally how he gauged a person. Easy humor and light flirting was always a safe way to lay the groundwork. When they arrived at the house, the first thing he made sure to do was check out her hands.
Yep, no wedding ring.
Vivian met his speculative glance. It was completely irrational, but all the sudden, she wanted to help him. Something deep inside her was pushing Vivian towards doing exactly what this stranger had asked. Maybe it was the brown eyes, the really sexy tan skin, or the sharp Native features, but she was leaning towards cutting him a break. Every now and again, everyone needed that little helping hand.
Why the hell not?
“We think Melissa was taken while she got out of her vehicle. We found her purse and keys still inside. Then, when we had the forensics team sweep the car, they didn't find a single fingerprint on the outside of the driver’s door, and that included hers.”
Justin knew what that meant. He may not have been a cop like his brother or a Fed like Tori, but that screamed suspicious, even to him. “So, he wiped them.”
She shrugged. “Someone did. It was either the person who took her or helped her get away.”
He considered what she was saying. “You think that Melissa Lagerfeld wanted to run away from life and chose to fake her own disappearance?”
“Right now, since we don’t have much, it might be a possibility.” Unfortunately, Vivian already knew the truth, but for now, she was keeping it close to the vest.
Yeah, Justin knew that she had a point. Tori always told him to never overloo
k all the possibilities and this was definitely one.
He pulled out his phone and began snapping pictures to upload to his brother. Maybe Julian and Tori would see something that he was obviously missing.
“We’ve already photographed everything in here.”
“That’s good to know, except I’ll never have access to those pictures. You heard your partner. I’m just playing cop.”
Vivian didn't buy that he for a second. There was wisdom deep in his eyes. The man before her had seen a great deal in his life. That was already evident.
Plus, she already knew that she could trust him.
Justin stared out the window into the darkness that was slowly falling. “There are a lot of trees,” he muttered, as he noticed Melissa’s bedroom faced the back of the house. “I need to take a walk and scope it out.”
“Wait for me!”
He wandered from the house, with the woman right behind him. Justin wasn’t sure if she was keeping an eye on him, or picking his brain for information. Sometimes, cops let the private investigators do all the work.
Moving through the trees, along the property, he ducked into the thick underbrush and moved stealthily through the tangle of branches.
“Uh, some of us don’t have your apparent skills,” stated Vivian, as she tried to keep up with him. Yeah, in this case, the Native was working to his advantage.
“Sorry, I was focused on the trail.”
She looked around. “What trail? All that I see is brush, trees, and thick under growth.”
Justin stopped when he heard something. He put out his arm, and she walked into him.
Before Vivian knew what was happening, he had placed his body protectively in front of hers, and with his arm, he held her to his back. If Vivian had any shame, she would move and free herself from being pressed against him.
Yep, there wasn’t a shame filled bone in her body.
When he listened and heard nothing more, he stared over at her. “Sorry, but the military and Indian kicked in there for a second.”
“Yeah, well just so you know, Indians like to be called Native Americans. Calling them that might be insulting.”
At first, Justin just stared at her, and then the grin turned into so much more. “That was pretty funny, Detective, but for the record, Indians can use that term. You just can’t,” he said, crouching down to point at the one spot. When she followed suit, and used his body to brace herself, his blood pressure shot up exponentially. How he managed to think at that point was beyond him. It was very difficult not to think about how the detective had felt against his body.
It was amazing.
Justin tried to continue, “Someone stood here for a long period of time. Look at the impressions in the soil beneath the tangle of brush.” With his gloved fingertips, he gently brushed aside some of the undergrowth to show her exactly what he was seeing.
It didn't take long for her eyes to focus on what he had located. “I can’t believe you found this,” she said, pulling out her cell phone.
“My brother would have found it sooner. This is his kind of thing,” he stated, as he picked up a snapped twig. “I’m more the body guard type.”
Yeah, and he knew whose body he would love to be standing over at that very moment. She had black hair, serene eyes, and smelled like one scrumptious cookie.
“Someone stood here and watched Melissa Lagerfeld in her home.”
Justin agreed. “It wasn’t a onetime deal either. Look at the varying stages of damage to the moss and brush. She may not have been taken from her house, but someone most definitely was stalking her.”
“This just upped the odds that she was abducted,” she added, staring into his brown eyes.
“Yeah, I’m betting on that myself.”
* * *
Driving to the scene, Tori kept glancing over at her husband. Julian was a quiet man when he was getting into tracker mode, but tonight he was even more lost in his thoughts.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked, stroking his leg with her fingers.
Immediately, his eyes were drawn to the wedding ring on his wife’s hand. He lovingly placed his over hers. “I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach.”
“You think we’re going to find her dead?”
Julian hated to be negative, but he was one to live by his gut, and this time, it wasn’t butterflies that he was feeling. It was deep sadness and regret that they wouldn’t be fast enough.
“I don’t like missing person cases.”
She was well aware. If it came down to it, Julian would opt out of each and every one of them if possible. In the few months that they had been opened, he had already turned down two.
“When it comes down to it, the odds aren’t in her favor. In fact, they’re less than half that we find her alive.”
“Yeah, but you’re forgetting something. We’re really good at what we do, Jules. You can find just about anything that’s lost, and this isn’t that big of a town.”
He agreed there. “I hope you’re right, honey. I don’t want to be the one that has to tell her father that we didn't bring his daughter back alive.”
Tori understood his trepidation. “I’ll do it. I’m accustomed to doing notifies. They don’t faze me anymore.”
Julian knew that wasn’t true. His wife didn't like them anymore than he did, but she was simply protecting his heart. Julian’s soldier girl was trying to be his armor.
On this one, he appreciated it.
“I love you, Victoria.”
They pulled off the road near the site.
“I happen to love you too, Jules.”
He closed his eyes and tried to focus his mind on the task at hand. This was the hardest part of his job. Julian needed to block everything out but the facts. They had to have his entire focus, so he could spot and analyze the smallest detail.
Getting out of their car, he walked towards the location. He could hear the slide of metal across leather and knew that Tori had pulled her weapon. It was getting dark, and they didn't know what they were dealing with. His wife was planning on keeping them safe. Mentally, he crossed his fingers. He prayed that she wouldn’t relate this assignment to a night patrol in the desert, and slip back there in her mind.
It was one more thing to weigh on his shoulders.
Once more, he forced his focus onto his surroundings. All sound dropped away, and the telltale tunnel vision formed. He stared at the gravel and dirt, and began to process it all. There were two sets of tracks marked by some orange paint. The cops were nice enough to leave him markers.
Now, he needed to do what he did best.
Simply observe.
Tori stood above her husband as he crouched on the roadside. Her eyes scanned the surroundings as she listened to his breathing, the breeze across the grass, and the sounds of night falling. This was nothing new to her. While on duty in the Middle East, she had run night patrols with the man she had once planned to marry.
Unfortunately, fate had a twist in the plan and her fiancé had lost his life, thanks to an insurgent. Now, that wasn’t going to be happening to Julian. She was going to keep him safe while he was lost in his work. There was no force on this green Earth that was taking her husband.
“We definitely had two cars. You can tell that the first vehicle pulled over rather easily. The markings are deep and erratic. Melissa came to a stop and the second car pulled up behind her.”
“What can you tell me about the vehicles?”
Julian stared at the tire treads. “They aren’t aggressive. I’d venture that they’re either sedans or SUVs. They remind me of the tires on our car, and not the ones on Justin’s monster truck.”
Tori kept scanning to make sure that they were both safe.
“How about the foliage alongside the scene?” she asked, glancing over.
Julian was heading there next. He stared at it and shook his head. “Unfortunately, it looks like a herd of wild buffalo stomped through here.”
“Cops?” she asked.
“Yeah, look at the treads on the heel marks. They were standing here for a while. The aggressive prints look like they’re from cop shoes. I would guess that some of them were standing guard while the forensics team went over the car.”
“Nothing else?”
“I can’t see much more.”
Tori watched him wander through the grass to find anything that might help them. Meanwhile, something caught her attention.
“Jules?”
He glanced over at her. “Yeah, honey?”
“We’ve been here about five minutes, right?” Tori was still looking around.
“Yeah, why?”
“Not a single car has gone past us, and it’s relatively early. There should be some traffic, shouldn’t there be?”
Julian hadn’t noticed until that exact moment. “You’re thinking that he picked this spot intentionally.”
Tori holstered her gun and pointed down the road. “That’s how you get to her residence,” she began, as she turned. “And back that way is town. There can’t be that many houses out here, if no one drove by us on their way home from work.”
He agreed. “So, he stalked her to this location and got her to pull over?”
“Did she break down?” Tori asked.
There was no way he could answer that. Only the police would know that, since they had her car in impound.
Tori’s phone began ringing, and it startled them both. “Yeah, Justin?” she asked.
She listened to what he was saying and stared at her husband. Finally, Tori disconnected the call and spoke, “We have to head to her house. Your brother found something.”
“What?” he asked.
“He didn't say, but I could hear voices in the background, so he’s not alone.”
“Then let’s get going. We need a lead on this one.”
Tori was beginning to believe they needed more.
What they needed was a miracle.
Chapter Three
Arriving at the house, it was alive with activity. There were police cars and a forensic team wandering around. Justin must not have been kidding when he said that he found something.
Blood Red Rage (LIttlemoon Investigations Book 1) Page 5
