“I—”
“Meeting’s down the hall, second door on the right.” He spat the words with such force Ashlyn felt her own cheeks color as she took a step toward the door, then another. She turned to go down the hall and glanced back at Tain. He was locking the desk drawer he’d put the copied reports in.
Ashlyn took a deep breath. Only a few hours into her new assignment and a couple things were already crystal clear: two members of the team were at each other’s throats, and at least one of them wasn’t too happy with her either.
One thing was certain: she’d never imagined this was how her introduction to her new colleagues would go.
CHAPTER NINE
Eighteen months ago
The man called Nolan didn’t even pause when Ashlyn entered the room.
Her own hesitation lasted only a second before she sat in a chair near the door.
Someone entered behind her, and that caused Nolan’s eyes to narrow. Ashlyn turned her head. Whatever was between Nolan and Tain, it wasn’t thinly veiled loathing. It was open contempt.
Tain leaned against the wall, not claiming one of the few remaining chairs. They were pushed in tight, a long table in what would have been an interview room, the usual desk and chairs removed. Nolan stood at the other end, and three men sat at the desk, two on Ashlyn’s left, one on her right.
They all looked older than Nolan, but she knew none had more than fifteen years on her from what she could remember from the newspaper accounts. Two closing in on forty, with the third in his early thirties.
“We lost a lot of time with the fire. Not much further ahead than we were when you left us last night.” Spoken by a man on the far side of the table, to her right. Ashlyn put him as the oldest of the bunch, a rapidly receding hairline with thinning straw hair that probably masked the advancing gray. What had lost its color fell away first, the remaining strands looking tired, defeated, as though seeing the end of their fallen comrades had convinced them of the inevitable.
“Not further ahead at all,” the man across from him said as he tapped a pile of message slips in front of him. “Two dozen new calls came in during our shift. Probably cranks and crazies, just wastin’ our time, but…”
“We have to follow up on all of them, Aiken,” Nolan said. “Hopefully there won’t be a fire, snowstorm or other act of God that interferes with the case today.”
The muttered words came from the back, where Tain stood. “More like act of man where the fire’s concerned.”
“You know what I mean,” Nolan snapped back. He looked around the room. “Questions?”
Ashlyn paused. “Are—”
“Okay, we’ll see you guys tonight, let you know what progress we’ve made,” Nolan said.
After a moment of awkward silence, there were halfhearted mutters of agreement as the three men seated closest to Nolan stood and moved toward the door. Ashlyn wasn’t sure if she should stay seated or stand up and step out into the hallway. She was too busy thinking about the way Nolan had shut her down. There was just enough room to move around her, and in her hesitation she noted Tain stood stone still, leaning against the wall, so she stayed seated at the table.
“Oh, yeah, latest addition to our team,” Nolan said. “Constable, uh…” Nolan snapped his fingers a couple times.
“Ashlyn Hart,” she said as she turned in her chair, toward the three men, who hadn’t reached the end of the table where she sat yet.
“That’s Oliver, Campbell and Aiken,” Nolan said. “They’re pulling second shift right now.”
She nodded and took the opportunity to respond as the second officer on her left side started to walk around her.
“I was going to ask, who are we coordinating with from the tribal police?”
The entire room fell silent.
“Hart, we’ll discuss this later.” Nolan pushed the words out between clenched teeth, looking almost as angry as he had only moments earlier, when he’d been arguing with Tain.
“She’s been on this team all of five minutes and already she’s questioning how things are being run and whether we’ve screwed up this investigation?” The words came from one of the men behind her as he slammed his fist against the table.
She jumped, instantly wishing she hadn’t shown a physical response.
“Calm down, Campbell. I didn’t hear her accuse anyone of incompetence,” Nolan said in a low growl. “Did I, Hart?”
“No. I—” She glanced at the Native officer who still leaned against the wall, his expression a blank slate that didn’t betray any of his thoughts as he stared back at her.
She turned around. The older members of the other team hovered near the door. Campbell was right behind her.
“You don’t understand the first thing about policing out here. Some of us, we’ve got to be able to live in this town after the rest of you are gone. You want to push your way onto the Reserves, really offend the locals? Let me tell you something. Those goddamn Indians only care about using this as another excuse to beat up on white people and throw a pity party for themselves. If you think they actually give a damn about this investigation you can think again.”
“What did you say?” Tain stepped toward them. Ashlyn could see him move from the corner of her eye.
“Stay out of this, Red.” Campbell straightened as he turned his focus on Tain.
“Okay, enough.” The men waiting by the door stepped in, keeping their faces toward Tain as they edged between him and Campbell. One of them—Aiken—turned and grabbed Campbell by the arm. He pulled back, but after a second tug, he murmured something too low for even Ashlyn to hear. Campbell relented.
The three men exited the room and walked off without another word.
Ashlyn wondered if Tain got along with anyone. Wondered why she hadn’t been able to get an answer to her question. Wondered why it had made Nolan so angry. Wondered if there was a third shift. Wondered if and when more manpower would arrive.
Wondered what she’d done to piss off the karmic gods who’d stuck her on a shift with Tain and with Nolan as a partner.
“It’s eight to eight. Long days or nights, but this is all we’ve got to work with.” Nolan looked up past Ashlyn and to her right. “Tain, someone needs to—”
“Yeah, later.”
As he turned and marched out the door, Ashlyn let her gaze settle on the table in front of her. When she glanced at Nolan, his jaw was clenched, cheeks simmering with what she decided could only be called a cool burn. Nolan had a strange way of looking stone cold and enraged at the same time. He stared past her at the empty doorway, rapping the knuckle of his index finger against the table a couple of times before he reached down, grabbed the stack of messages and the notebook in front of him, and started to walk toward the door.
He was behind her and halfway out the door before she realized he intended to keep walking and leave her there. It was possible he was deliberately ignoring her because he was angry about her question, but it was also possible it was an oversight, innocent forgetfulness caused by distraction over his conflict with Tain. To be fair, she didn’t want to jump to any conclusions.
Although she had a hunch she knew which one it was.
Ashlyn got up and followed him down the hall, back to the room with the desks. Nolan went for one in the center. A desk was pushed up against it on the other side, holding nothing but a telephone, notepad, pen, and nameplate that said Winters.
Her desk now.
The three other desks in the main body of the room were grouped together, two pushed up against each other, with the third one pushed up against the two ends to form a rectangle. From where she stood she could make out the names. From where she’d be sitting Oliver was to her left, Campbell to her right and Aiken’s back was to hers.
Tain’s desk isolated on the other side, nearest the door, farthest from the other desks.
Nolan closed the gap between the door and his desk, tossed the stack of slips down and riffled through the loose papers scattered o
ver the surface. As he skimmed them, he added some to the pile, then pulled his desk drawer open and tossed half a dozen or so inside.
Some of the papers were ones she’d skimmed when she’d looked around earlier. Others were new ones that had come in during the short time she’d left the room for the meeting marking the shift change.
Eight to eight, but a quick glance at the clock on the wall said it was 10:57.
Ashlyn walked around to her desk, which faced Nolan’s, but didn’t pull the chair back. He hadn’t, so she doubted they’d be there for long.
Nolan glanced up from the slip in his hand, gaze darting back to take in the last few words before he looked up again. As he folded the paper and stuffed it in his pocket he said, “Something that needs to be followed up on.”
“Okay,” she said, body turning to walk back to the door automatically.
He took a step backward and held up his hand, then stepped forward, picked up the pile of slips he’d just tossed down and held them out to her.
“There are names and numbers on all of these. Follow up, see if there’s any substance to them. I, uh…I just need to check on something. I’ll be out for a bit.”
Ashlyn took the papers from him and watched as he grabbed the jacket off the back of his chair and put it on while he walked to the hallway. She pulled her chair out and sat down across from Nolan’s empty desk and jumped at the sound of the back door slamming shut.
The man leaning back in a chair at the corner table of the bar grinned when he looked up, which emphasized the jagged scar that curved up his right cheek.
His smile also showed off the broken front tooth he sported. Fresh since the last time Tain had seen him.
“I cud smell ya the minute ya walked in the door, man.”
“Someone burned down Blind Creek Inn.”
Kurdy Jeffers’s jaw dropped, but his eyes betrayed the shock as false. “You don’t say. Guess that means I won’t be workin’ tonight.”
He hadn’t eased up on the sarcasm. Kurdy worked odd jobs at the hotel. In a town like Nighthawk Crossing, it was a safe bet everyone but the recluses who lived on the outskirts and only ventured into town once a month had already heard about the fire, but the attitude still pissed Tain off.
Kurdy lifted the shot glass to his lips, but Tain knocked it from his hand just as his mouth opened. Alcohol spilled onto his skin and the table as the glass crashed against the floor.
There was a split-second lull in the hum around what locals considered a town bar. It was the kind of place that served what was supposed to pass for food, but the cook spent more time smoking on the back step than burning anything on the grill. This place paid rent selling booze, with no rule you had to eat to take a table. Tain glared at a couple of the closest patrons, big guys he knew were most likely to cause trouble just for the hell of it. He guessed they figured he was in no mood to screw around with. They turned back to their drinks, and he fixed his gaze on the man still seated in front of him.
Kurdy’s brow was creased, his top lip curled up into a snarl as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
“Places you work at have a bad habit of burning down.”
The man, whom Tain thought of as half weasel, half slimeball, showed off his freshly cracked tooth again as he lifted a hand in a half shrug and then set it back on the table. “Wish I had dem odds playin’ 649.”
“You don’t strike me as the type to buy lottery tickets, Kurdy.”
“Man’s gotta have his dreams.”
Tain leaned down closer. “Yeah? What’s yours? A big boat? Cottage on the coast, someplace without long winters and months of snow? No, wait. You used to be a bit of a hunter, a good tracker, from what I heard. You’d like a cabin in the woods with a fair bit of land? Or are your tastes a bit simpler? Say, some high-priced stimulation? Oh, no, wait. I remember now. You like something younger. Maybe with no price tag at all.”
Kurdy jumped to his feet. “You get the hell outta my face.”
“Strike a nerve, Kurdy?”
The man shoved Tain hard. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was of a slim build, no more than five-seven with pencil-thin arms, Tain might have had to step back to regain his balance.
As it was, he didn’t even flinch.
He grabbed Kurdy by the shirt and pinned him against the wall, the bar again going quiet. Kurdy looked over Tain’s shoulder, then pressed back against the wall. “You got no fuckin’ right.”
“You seem awfully nervous for someone who’s innocent.”
“Maybe ’cos you got me backed in a corner an’ shoved up against a wall.”
Skittish eyes darted to and fro as though he was hoping someone would morph out of the floorboards and come to his rescue.
He tightened his hold and pushed Kurdy harder. “You better watch yourself, ’cos I’m keeping an eye on you. Next girl that goes missing…”
“What? You gonna drag me out back and scalp me, Red?”
Tain pushed Kurdy up until he felt the full weight of him lifted in the air. “I find out you’ve been up to your old tricks, I’ll see to it your cell mate’ll do things to you that’ll make you cry for your mommy.”
“Guess they haff ta pull in losers like you on somethin’ like this. Nobody else gives two shits about your kind.”
“Is that what you count on, Kurdy? Think nobody’ll mind if you snatch a couple Native girls off the streets?”
Kurdy snorted. “Yer only pissed ’cos it’s a coupl’a red niggers. You’d never get this worked up ’bout a white girl.” A sly smile spread across his face. “But den agin, I heard somethin’ about you. Maybe you would.”
“Maybe I should ask your wife about your hobbies.”
The man in his grasp tried to swing with both arms, and Tain struggled to keep his hold.
“You stay the hell away from her,” Kurdy hissed, eyes wide.
“Tain.” The voice came from beside him, not the man pinned against the wall in front of him. “Let him go.”
Slip his hand to the left and he could wrap it around Kurdy’s throat.
“I said let him go!” He knew that voice.
Kurdy’s gaze flickered from Tain’s face to the person to Tain’s right, and he showed off his broken tooth again.
The drop against the floor wasn’t enough to hurt him, but it shook the smirk off his face for a second. Tain stepped back.
Kurdy lifted his hand and looked like he might shake a fist, then pointed at the person beside Tain. “You keep him the hell away from me or I’ll make a complaint.”
Nolan stepped forward and grabbed Kurdy by the shirt. “You want to go running to our boss, say you don’t like the way you’ve been treated? That you think we should be nicer to guys who rape kids?”
Kurdy swallowed. “I didn’t know she was fourteen.”
“So you say.” Nolan let go of the shirt as he gave him a small shove. “Thing is, I don’t believe you, and I don’t think your wife will either.”
Kurdy seemed to have decided arguing was pointless. He marched toward the door, stopping only when the bartender got in his way and demanded he pay his tab.
“So help me, Tain, next time he threatens to make a complaint about you, I should offer to drive him to the station myself.”
“Save it. You chase your leads, and I’ll chase mine.” Tain started to walk away, but Nolan stepped in front of him.
“I’m warning you, Tain, the sergeant will only put up with so much of this.”
“Go run and tell on me if you need to, Nolan. Just get out of my way.”
Tain brushed past him, but Nolan wasn’t about to be left behind. When they’d exited the bar, Nolan continued, “Don’t think the color of your skin and local politics are going to save your ass if you’re harassing people. I’ll go to Sullivan myself if I have to.”
“I expect as much from a sorry excuse of an officer like you,” Tain said as he spun around. “You stay the hell away from me.”
“Don’t you even care about those
missing girls?”
“More than you do.”
“Yeah? Prove it! Stop jeopardizing this investigation. You keep running off, doing your own thing, not checking in with anyone, threatening people for no reason.”
“I have my reasons.”
“Yeah? How about filling the rest of us in? Sharing your alleged leads? If you’ve got something on Kurdy, put it on the table so we can get surveillance, bring him in for questioning. You running off trying to save the day on your own is holding us back.”
“Yeah?” Tain shifted his gaze deliberately to Craig Nolan’s left, then right. “And where’s the little chick the sergeant told you to partner with?” He looked Nolan in the eye. “Waiting in the car? Or did you ditch her at the office first chance you got? Don’t you lecture me about playin’ it solo. Not after what happened to Winters. I’m under no delusions about who isn’t watching my back, Nolan. Not unless you think you can put a knife in it, that is.”
He spun on his heel and walked away. Somehow, Nolan had known where he was going, what he was doing. Tain knew Nolan had been keeping an eye on him, but he also knew he’d left the station well ahead of the ambitious officer. There was no way Nolan could have followed him.
And that left a few possibilities. Nolan’s instincts could have been better than Tain wanted to give him credit for, or he might have gotten lucky.
Or he had a source.
Tain yanked the car door open and slammed the key into the ignition as he formed a mental list of everyone he’d seen in the bar, anyone who’d noticed him when he went in. It had been the usual crowd of underemployed or hired by the job, off-the-books types who practically lined up outside waiting for the doors to open.
Luck wasn’t something he believed in, but the idea that Nolan could read him or had someone tipping him off made his gut twist.
He was going to have to watch his back, more than he already was.
CHAPTER TEN
Eighteen months ago
It was 2:45 p.m. when Ashlyn pushed what was left of her sandwich aside and tossed the latest message on Craig’s desk.
Lullaby for the Nameless (Nolan, Hart & Tain Thrillers) Page 8
