Cold Truth

by Susan Sleeman

  Coop swiveled to look at her in the backseat of Gage’s SUV. “Eryn and Jackson have already cleared the building. Riley’s on overwatch, but still, you should stay near me and head straight inside. Got it?”

  She nodded, and he slipped out of the vehicle. He’d been all business with her since they’d left her apartment, and she couldn’t figure out why. He’d mentioned that they were worlds apart due to her growing up with money, and maybe seeing her apartment reminded him of that. She lived in a nice place and had saved for years to decorate it with quality furnishings. He wouldn’t know that. But all he’d had to do was ask.

  He jerked open the door. “Game time.”

  She got out. Jackson joined Coop and came alongside her, making her feel like a sandwich. At the door, Jackson dropped off to stand at the entrance, and she found Gage and Eryn inside the old building. Gage had raised his rifle toward the second story. Eryn pinned her focus on the door. Kiera honestly considered this behavior overkill, but still, she appreciated their protection.

  “We’ll start with the room where we found Kevin.” Coop marched toward the rear of the building, and she had to hurry to keep up with him. In the back, he opened a door and stepped out of the way. “Kevin was held in this room.”

  Kiera steeled herself for seeing where her brother’s abductor had held him against his will, but still, when Coop shone a light in the room reeking of mildew, and she saw the discarded zip ties, she gasped and her legs felt weak.

  She rested a hand on the wall for support and was surprised when Coop didn’t offer any assistance as he had in the past. Was his mood due to more than her apartment and she’d done something wrong? Figuring it out would have to wait when she was this close to finding another lead. She quickly scanned the room, looking for anything that Henry’s law might apply to.

  “What are you looking for?” Coop asked.

  “A soda can or bottle. Fire extinguisher. An aerosol can maybe.”

  Coop wandered the room turning things over as he went. “Nothing but water bottles.”

  “There has to be something.” She stepped closer to the zip ties. She felt her brother’s pain with each step she took and desperation flooded her body. She had to find something here. She raced to a large sheet of plywood replacing the original floor. She stared at the zip ties.

  “What are you seeing?” Coop asked.

  “This plywood.”

  “Looks like they had a built-in desk or cabinet there at some point. It’s not odd that they didn’t lay flooring under it, but it would be odd to use plywood at the time this building was constructed.”

  “Meaning it’s probably more recent. Is there any other place in the building where the original floor is missing?”

  “Not that I noticed.”

  She moved closer. “Is that red dot in the corner spray paint?”

  “Could be, why?”

  “Spray paint comes in aerosol cans.”

  “You think this is the clue Pointer mentioned?”

  She shrugged. “Can we pry up the wood?”

  “It’s screwed down. Let me loosen the screws.” He dug out a multipurpose tool from his pocket and started unscrewing the corners.

  Kiera counted eight screws in the board. Instead of standing and waiting for Coop to remove all of them, she made her way through the room. Inch by inch, she searched. She looked through trash bags. Under cardboard boxes. Behind the door. In a cupboard.

  “Got it,” Coop announced.

  She turned to see him pulling up the plywood and hurried over to him. He lifted the board free and settled it along the wall. She took out her phone and shone the light into the hole. A red-and-white container sat on a beam deep in the space.

  She looked closer. “Is that a cooler?”

  “Looks like it.” Coop knelt by the hole. “It’s a cooler alright.”

  “Can you reach it?”

  “I can, but I need to make sure it’s not booby trapped first.” He shot to his feet. “Wait here while I grab a few tools.”

  “Hurry,” she said, her heart in her throat now.

  This could be the final clue. The lead that would bring them to Kevin.

  God, please let this be the one. Please.

  Coop soon returned with a backpack. He took out a pair of latex gloves and snapped them on, and handed a pair to her. “Don’t want to ruin any prints that might be on the cooler.”

  “Would this guy be dumb enough to leave prints?” She pocketed her phone to put the gloves on.

  “Honestly, no, but I don’t want to risk it. Shine your light on the cooler again so I can get a good view with this camera.”

  She focused her cell on the cooler. He took a long cable with a camera on the end and lay on his stomach on the floor. With one hand, he directed the cord. With the other, he moved the camera around the cooler.

  “What are you looking for?” she asked.

  “Wires that might lead to a detonating device, which I’m not finding.” He moved the camera around all sides of the cooler, and pulled the cable out. “There could be a pressure-sensitive plate under the cooler. I’ll lower myself in the hole to get a better look.”

  He dropped down next to the cooler, and he disappeared into the space. She kept her phone trained on him and held her breath. Just thinking about him getting hurt tied her stomach in a tight knot.

  He took a closer look before peering up at her. “I don’t see anything that leads me to believe there’s a trap. But I want you to go in the other room while I remove the cooler.”

  “I’m not leaving you here to get hurt.”

  “It’s only a precaution.” He took a flashlight from his back pocket.

  “No.”

  “Do you want me to lift it out of the hole?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then go in the other room.”

  She still hated that he could get hurt because of her, but she wanted to see inside the cooler. “Fine, but don’t open the cooler without me.” She backed away and when she could no longer see him, she stopped.

  “All the way in the other room, Kiera. Take cover behind that big reception desk.”

  She didn’t want to move that far away, but she needed to comply.

  “I’m behind the desk,” she called out the second she dropped down. She held her breath and waited.

  “Clear,” he yelled.

  She rushed back into the room. He’d placed the cooler on a wooden box and stood behind it, the lid open.

  “You opened it,” she complained.

  “The lid could’ve been wired. Didn’t want you in the room for that.”

  She considered snapping at him, but he was only doing his job, and she should appreciate his care, not complain about it. She turned her sights on the cooler’s contents. “What in the world?”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Coop said.

  She inched closer to get a good look at five colored hands made out of ice and sitting on a bed of crushed ice. One a blue color, two reds, and two whites, all translucent.

  “Never expected something like this,” Coop said. “Looks like the hands were made by freezing colored water in latex gloves.”

  She shone her phone light over the two red hands. Slid it over the pair of white hands and landed on the blue one. “There’s something inside the hand.” She leaned closer to the white ones. “In all the hands it looks like.”

  Coop bent closer, their heads nearly touching. “Looks like something metal. If they contain the toxin, we shouldn’t touch them.”

  “I suppose the toxin could have been dissolved in the ice, but it’s only deadly if swallowed.”

  Coop frowned.

  “Trust me. It’s safe, but maybe we should call Blake before we go any further.”

  “Yeah, it’s probably the best thing to do, but it will take time for him to get a forensic tech out here and go through all their rigmarole. Do you want to wait that long to see what’s in these gloves?”

  “No.”

  “I�
�ll snap a few pictures to record what we located.” He dug his phone from his pocket and quickly took multiple pictures. “Okay, let’s get these thawed or break them apart to see what’s inside.”

  Kiera reached for the first hand, lifting it high to smash it on the lid.

  19

  After Kiera mentioned the biotoxin was powder—powder like Coop had found in her apartment—his heart seized. It failed to loosen as he watched her shatter the hands to reveal metal puzzle pieces. He should be questioning what the pieces meant, but his mind lingered on the powder in the canister and the fact that he should have turned it over to Gage right away.

  “There,” Kiera said, standing to her full height and stretching her back. “That’s the last one.”

  Focus on the puzzle. “You’ve gotta admit this guy is clever by embedding these pieces in the hands.”

  “I’m not about to say anything good about Hay, but I do wonder about the hands.” She grabbed the five puzzle pieces and took them to the desk in the corner. She started placing the pieces together in an attempt to solve what Coop suspected was a simple puzzle, but she struggled with finding the solution, proving him wrong. As she worked, she had to keep lifting her fingers, likely because the pieces were icy cold.

  “Since it doesn’t look like this is going be easy, we should head back to the compound where the team can take turns working on the puzzle.” Coop expected an argument.

  Kiera nodded right away. “We should check the cooler before we go in case he buried other items in the ice.”

  Coop slowly sifted through the ice, revealing nothing. He lifted the cooler and searched the bottom and the sides to be sure no one had cut it open to place something in the lining. “Okay, we’ll take it in and let the pros see if they can tell us anything about the ice and if the toxin is in it or not.”

  “Let’s go.” Kiera scooped up the puzzle pieces, put them in her jacket pocket, and headed for the door.

  Coop caught up to her and took her arm. “Don’t rush off. We need to clear the street first to be sure it’s safe.”

  Disappointment flashed on her face, but she slowed. Coop told Gage and Eryn about the hands. “We’ll regroup at the compound to work on it.”

  Gage gave a clipped nod before he and Eryn stepped outside.

  Coop turned back to Kiera. She was jittery and rocking on the balls of her feet, her focus fixed on the door. She pressed, her hand pressing the outside of her coat over where the puzzle pieces lay in the pocket. His first instinct was to take that hand and hold it, but with the contents of the metal canister still pending, he wouldn’t do so.

  “It’ll only be a minute, and then you can get to work on that puzzle,” he said.

  “I’m sorry for pushing things all the time, but you understand, right?”

  Yeah, he did, if she meant pushing things without being part of the theft. Still, if she was involved in the theft and things went wrong, resulting in her brother’s abduction, Coop could understand her mood. “If I’d had a chance to save Jennie, I wouldn’t have let anyone stop me from rescuing her. Honestly, I’m thankful that you’ve been as cooperative as you have been.”

  She winced. “Still, I can be nicer about it.”

  “Actually, I like your feistiness.” He clamped his mouth closed before he said anything else. He had no business considering what he liked about her.

  Thankfully, the door opened, and Eryn poked her head inside. “We’re clear.”

  Coop looked at Kiera. “Straight to the car. No dawdling.”

  She stepped to the door, and he put his hand on her lower back, pushing her faster. Soon he had her seated in the car, and they were on the road.

  “Isn’t Riley coming with us?” she asked.

  “He’s still on overwatch. He’ll remain there until we’re out of rifle range. Someone will go back for him.”

  “You honestly believe I need that kind of protection?”

  “It might be overkill, but we’d rather be cautious than live with regret.” Since Jennie had come up in conversation earlier, his mind went to her. He tried to never think about his role in her death. Because, like it or not, he had a role. He’d known better than to leave her home alone with their mother. Sure, Jennie was fourteen and should have been fine, but she hadn’t been fine now, had she? And he’d abandoned her to go on a date. A date of all things. He’d let his feelings get in the way, and now he had to live with that each and every day.

  And he was letting feelings get in the way now, too. So what if he was drawn to Kiera? So what if his feelings for her were something he’d never known? He was being selfish. Like he’d been when he’d gone on that date.

  He swallowed down his feelings and did his job, searching for danger out the window. The miles rolled under them, and he felt Kiera watching him. She was probably trying to figure out why he was running hot and cold with her. One minute he’s about to kiss her and boom—he turned into a wall of ice.

  He wanted to look her in the eye and ask her point-blank what was in the canister. And most importantly, whatever answer she gave him, he wanted to believe her. But he wouldn’t ask. Not only because he could tip their hand by letting her know they were on to her, but also because he’d seen far too much in his years in the military and in this job to take her answer at face value.

  He locked his focus ahead and held fast all the way through the gate. In the training facility, Jackson and Alex split off to start stowing equipment from the mission while Gage and Eryn joined Kiera and Coop in the conference room.

  “I’ll make a pot of coffee.” Gage dropped his jacket and Kevlar vest on the table.

  Coop slipped out of his jacket and vest, too.

  Eryn tapped the cooler. “I’ll get this to the Veritas Center to work on evaluating the ice.”

  “Veritas Center? I know a little Latin and Veritas means truth, right?”

  Coop nodded. “It’s a fee-based private forensic lab in Portland that police from across the country have memberships with and so do we. When not working for agencies, the staff help clients discover the truth behind life-altering issues.”

  “Sounds like a great organization.” Kiera fished the puzzle pieces from her coat. “They’re still quite cold.”

  “Let me get a pan of hot water to soak them in,” Coop offered.

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to waste the time.”

  He understood her sense of urgency and simply watched her sit down at the table to begin manipulating the pieces, her focus earnest. If she was playacting, he doubted she could pretend such intensity, but maybe he just wanted her to be innocent of any involvement in the theft and was seeing what he wanted to see.

  Her phone dinged, and she glanced at it. “It’s Kevin’s bank. I set up an alert to tell me when the $10,000 check cleared. I’ll log into his account and maybe we’ll have an answer to that question.”

  She tapped her screen.

  Eryn picked up the cooler but instead of leaving the room, she stopped behind Kiera. When the coffee started dripping into the carafe, scenting the air with the fresh perked aroma, Gage stepped over to them, too.

  “There.” Kiera tapped on the check link, and the image opened on the screen. She did a double-take. “It’s from my dad.”

  Coop stared at the check. “Why would your dad give Kevin that much money?”

  “One way to find out.” She switched to her contact screen and put a call to him on speaker. She drummed her fingers as the phone kept ringing. She leaned in when he answered. “Hi Dad, it’s me. I need to know something very important. Why did you give Kev $10,000?”

  “Well, hello to you, too.”

  “Sorry, I’m just trying to clear this up.”

  “What’s to clear? The transaction is between him and me.”

  “The team at Blackwell saw the deposit. They think it’s some kind of payoff for the toxin. I’d like to explain why you gave him the money.”

  A pause followed. “I don’t like breaking his confidence t
his way, but I guess under the circumstances it’s fine.” Her father cleared his throat, and Coop could easily visualize him standing in his fine home, irritated that she was questioning him. “He was wasting his money on PMI for his place. When I found out, I offered to loan him enough money to buy down his mortgage.”

  Coop knew Private Mortgage Insurance could be quite costly and figured this was as good of an explanation as any.

  Kiera asked her dad for updates from his investigator, but he didn’t have anything to share that they hadn’t already discovered.

  She disconnected her call and looked up at Coop. “That explain things for you?”

  He nodded.

  “Then I’ll get back to the puzzle.”

  In that moment, it hit Coop that they’d eliminated one of his two arguments for not believing in Kevin’s innocence. But another one had taken its place. A big one. The canister in Kiera’s apartment. She wouldn’t be in possession of that without Kevin.

  “You all are making me nervous,” she said without looking up.

  “Sorry,” Eryn said. “We’re just trying to help.”

  “I appreciate that, but would you mind if I work on this alone for a while? If I don’t get anywhere, someone else can step in.”

  Was she delaying, or did she really need to work alone and was earnestly trying to find her brother?

  Coop was so tired of wondering. Clearly, it was best for all of them to have the powder in the canister analyzed.

  “We’ll go help unload the equipment,” Gage said.

  Coop didn’t wait for Gage or Eryn to move, but grabbed his vest and jacket on the way to the door. He crossed through the large training space to get to the equipment room in the back. He hung his vest in the ventilated airflow locker that dried the perspiration from their vests and kept them fresh between washings.

  He joined Alex and Jackson. None of them talked but simply retrieved equipment from the car and stowed it in the proper location.

  Once finished, Coop pocketed the canister and headed for Gage standing near the front exit. He passed the conference room and glanced in. Kiera was working hard on the puzzle and didn’t even look up.