Operation Unleashed

by Justine Davis

  “What happened?”

  “He went over the fence at the park.”

  “Over the fence? That’s...suspicious, isn’t it?”

  “The way he ran, yes. Had a car on the other side, so I couldn’t catch him before he was in it and gone. It may not have been Oliver, but he—” he nodded at Cutter “—didn’t like him, that’s for sure.”

  “Did he— Drew, you’re bleeding!”

  He looked at the arm he’d been holding oddly. “Was. It’s stopped now.”

  Luke had heard her exclamation and came running over. The thought of Drew hurt surpassed even Cutter, she was glad to see.

  “What happened, Dad?”

  “Got caught on the top of the chain-link fence.”

  “Do you need to go to the E.R.? Stitches?” she asked.

  “No,” he said quickly. “It’s fine. In fact, it came in handy.”

  She blinked. “What?”

  He held the arm so she could see. And there, on the inside above the wrist, were three numbers and a letter.

  Written in blood.

  She stared at him. “License plate?”

  He nodded. “What I could see of it.”

  “Dad, that is so cool!” Luke said with little boy fascination.

  She supposed she should be thankful for the childlike resiliency. Now that his furry friend was back, and his father was relatively okay—and had assumed major cool status by writing in his own blood—Luke was merely excited, not scared.

  “Let’s go inside, clean that up,” she said. “Luke, would you go in and get the first aid kit from the bathroom?”

  “Sure. Come on, Cutter!”

  “I want to call Foxworth,” he said as the boy raced inside. “It’s probably nothing, but I don’t like it anyway.”

  She nodded. “They should know, I guess.”

  “And I want to thank them for the loan of Mr. Good Ears,” he said.

  “It is reassuring,” she said with a laugh, relief finally pushing back all the horrible thoughts that had been racing through her mind in the last few minutes. She opened the door and held it for him. Ignoring the fact that he was the one bleeding, he gestured her inside first. Ever the gentleman, she thought, then was distracted by the unfamiliar but welcome sound of a dog’s toenails on the wood floor.

  “He certainly went from playmate to protector in a fraction of a second, didn’t he?”

  “He did. And I don’t want to think about how close that guy could have gotten if Cutter hadn’t been here to hear him. Or smell him. Whatever he did.”

  “What about calling the police?” she asked.

  “That, too. Although since I can’t say it was him, or even give a good description, and he wasn’t even close to our property, I’m not sure what they could or would do.”

  He walked over to the kitchen island, where they kept a notepad and pen. He transferred the information from his arm to the pad just as Luke and Cutter arrived with the white plastic box with the red cross on the lid.

  “You call, I’ll clean,” Alyssa said. “And Luke, you be my assistant and hold that steady for me, okay?”

  The boy straightened proudly. “I can do it.”

  And in the midst of it all, knowing someone, even if it hadn’t been Baird, was snooping around, knowing he’d been within even a mile of Luke, knowing Drew had been hurt, however minor, in chasing after him, somehow amid all that chaos Alyssa felt an odd sense of warmth and comfort as the three of them huddled together. A sense of family, sticking together no matter what. That she could even feel like that in the midst of all this amazed her.

  Drew had given her that.

  And of all the many things he had done for them, that was the most important. And yet he had done it without thought, without hesitation. And continued to do it, every day.

  Yes, there was a lot to be said for being the rock of the family.

  Chapter 13

  “Brett!”

  Hayley’s smile and pleased greeting brought a matching smile to the face of the tall, rangy man she’d opened the door for.

  “Hayley,” he acknowledged.

  “Well, Detective Dunbar,” Quinn said as he finished the phone call he’d been on and walked over to shake hands, “didn’t expect to see you in person.”

  “I was in the neighborhood, literally,” Dunbar said. “Just wrapping up a burglary case. I heard your ex-con may have shown up near your client’s house?”

  They’d gotten used to the fact that very little happened that Dunbar didn’t know about. Once it was on his radar, he had an amazing ability to track it all. Hayley had a feeling it was because there was nothing else in his life. They didn’t know that much about him, personally. But they knew what mattered; he was dedicated, honest and caring, and had left the big city. More than once Quinn had said Brett Dunbar was the kind of man Foxworth wanted, and that he’d hire him in an instant if he ever left law enforcement. But being a cop was in Dunbar’s blood, and Quinn didn’t think he’d ever leave it behind.

  Which was, in the end, a benefit to Foxworth anyway. He liked what they did, and had helped them many times since they’d first encountered him last year.

  “Not too close, thankfully, but in the vicinity,” Quinn answered. “Drew took off after him, got a partial plate off the car. Looks like a rental car, probably from Sea-Tac.”

  “That’s what I heard.”

  Quinn knew it was Dunbar who had cleared them for routine checks on such public records, which had sped things up considerably on their end. Not that Tyler Hewitt, their tech genius, or even Liam couldn’t find the information in their own way, but Quinn preferred to go through the front door when it came to the police.

  “We can’t prove it was him, Drew didn’t get a good enough look, but it only makes sense. First the call, then he shows up at the park with a kid’s play area closest to the one location he knows, Drew’s office.”

  Dunbar nodded in agreement. “Typical predator behavior. I’d keep an eye on all the places kids congregate.”

  Quinn nodded in turn. “Luke’s the most vulnerable target in all this.”

  “I talked to my buddy down in L.A.,” Dunbar said. “He talked to the guy who popped Oliver for the two-eleven. And the traffic investigator who worked the crash that killed Kiley.”

  Quinn lifted a brow. “Didn’t expect that so quickly. Thank you.”

  Dunbar shrugged. “Always like to know what there is to know on a non-rehabbed felon on my turf. Especially one trying out extortion.”

  “Did they have anything?”

  “Oliver’s tough. Not smart, but at least shrewd. He turned down the chance at parole, served his entire sentence by choice. Didn’t want to be on a leash when he got out.”

  Hayley shook her head. “That’s quite a price to pay.”

  “Tells you a lot about him,” Dunbar said. “He’s a big-picture kind of guy.”

  “And I get the impression Doug Kiley was the opposite,” Quinn said.

  “Don’t know,” Dunbar said. “He was already dead, so all they had to go on was what Oliver said. At first he tried to pin it all on him, but his ego got the better of him and he couldn’t quite stick to the role of follower. And he was pissed, because the car Kiley crashed was his.”

  Dunbar reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “Buddy sent me this. Given the circs of your case, thought you might want it.”

  Quinn took the page and unfolded it. There was a sticky note at the top in Dunbar’s writing. Quinn scanned it all and quickly realized what it was. “Thanks, Brett. This may help.”

  “Good. I’d better get back and close out this case. Got three more on my desk.”

  “You work too hard,” Hayley said.

  “Taxpaye
rs deserve their money’s worth.”

  “Would that everyone felt that way,” Quinn said with a grin.

  “You’re coming to the wedding, right?” Hayley asked.

  “I don’t do weddings,” Dunbar said.

  Quinn winced, hoping Hayley’s feelings hadn’t been hurt by the flat response. She had told him once that their friend was hurting way down deep over someone, but he’d thought she was just being a romantic. But maybe she was right. As she so very often was.

  “But for you two,” Dunbar went on, now with a smile, “I’ll make an exception.”

  Hayley hugged the man, and Quinn wished he’d had a camera at the ready to capture the startled look on his face.

  “I’m holding you to that,” Hayley said.

  “Don’t cross her,” Quinn said to the clearly bemused detective.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “Someday,” Hayley said after he’d gone, “he’s going to find someone who can lift that cloud he lives under.”

  “Figure that’s the answer to everything, do you?” Quinn teased.

  “It worked for me,” she said simply.

  His heart took that little leap it always did when she said things like that. She told him so often, in words and a million other little ways, how much she loved him, but it never, ever lost its impact.

  “What was it he gave you?”

  Quinn had to shake himself out of thoughts of luring her back to the small bedroom in the back corner, where he’d once spent his nights. “It’s a property inventory. Of the things Doug had on him and in the car when he crashed.”

  He peeled off the sticky and handed it to her, curious to see what might jump out at her on the list.

  “Twenty-three dollars,” she murmured as she read. “Not much for a guy who just knocked off a convenience store for nearly fifteen thousand.” Then, a moment later, “No photos in the wallet. Not even of Alyssa.”

  “And phony ID.”

  “Under a phony name,” she said, still reading. “I wonder if Alyssa even knew he was using another name.”

  “Don’t know. Brett’s note here says they checked that name for addresses, bank accounts and any potential hiding places for the cash, but came up dry.”

  Hayley nodded, but kept reading. He saw the moment when she stopped, when her brow furrowed and her gaze narrowed. She looked up at him.

  “A receipt from a bus company?”

  Quinn smiled. He’d known she’d catch it. “Yes.”

  “Tickets?”

  “Doesn’t say, but what else would you buy from a bus company?”

  “Some of them carry packages, don’t they? He could even have sent the money somewhere that way.”

  Quinn’s smile widened. “Have I ever told you how brilliant you are?”

  She smiled back. “I believe you have, on a fairly regular basis.”

  “Good.”

  She gestured at the note. “We have to find out.”

  “We know he was getting ready to run, one way or another, judging by this. It was almost seven years ago, though, so I don’t know if they’ll be able to track where he was going.”

  “We have to find out what that receipt is for. For the Kileys, it could all hinge on that.”

  He’d been focused on the logistics, the where and when, and had for a moment missed the human significance. But Hayley hadn’t.

  “Yes,” he said slowly. “It could.”

  * * *

  “Eagle feather.”

  Luke laughed. “You got it right!” he exclaimed as he opened the door for Liam Burnett.

  The man stepped into the kitchen and smiled at Alyssa as if to let her know all was well outside the house. Then he grinned at Luke.

  “I’m good with passwords, but you should still look through the peephole. Make sure it’s me.” They’d tried to make it a game for Luke, and thus far it seemed to have worked. He didn’t seem worried, just having fun.

  “But the peephole’s too tall,” he explained to Liam. “And you sounded like you.”

  “Use the chair. And are you saying I talk funny?” The mock outrage was so over the top even Alyssa smiled.

  Alyssa watched as the boy and the man bantered. Liam Burnett had arrived as promised, and already he and Luke had settled into a sibling-style relationship. At times, the two decades between them seemed not to matter at all. Luke had no trouble accepting what they’d told him, that Liam was a friend who’d be visiting for a while. Of course, it probably helped that Liam looked much younger. He had to be almost her age, but he looked not much older than a teenager.

  And with Luke, he acted much younger. Quinn had assured her he and the boy would get along, and he’d been right. Quinn seemed to be right about most things. And if he ever veered wrong, he had Hayley to straighten him out. He freely admitted it, saying it in a tone of love and admiration that made Alyssa more than a little envious.

  “Dinner’s almost ready. Liam, you will join us, won’t you? Luke, you need to go wash up.”

  Luke’s expression changed, but before he could make his usual protest, Liam stepped in. “Smells great! I’ll wash up for a chance at that. Bet I can beat you,” he added to Luke.

  That quickly the boy shifted, and raced off to the bathroom without another word.

  “Well, that was easy,” Alyssa muttered.

  “Little competition always spices things up with us guys,” Liam said with a grin that fit well with the faint Texas drawl. And she noticed he did as promised, and headed for the kitchen sink to wash his hands.

  She thought again of the moment when Liam had faced her so openly, admitting that he had a police record. That he’d been on a very wrong path when, a few years later, Quinn had found him and given him a chance to get straight.

  He’d asked if she was comfortable trusting him with Luke, in view of all that.

  “I’ve got no high ground to stand on when it comes to teenage mistakes,” she’d told him, appreciating his honesty and trying to answer it in kind. “So, I’m all about second chances.”

  That had sealed the deal, and she hadn’t had a second thought about it.

  Drew, who had been outside preparing the steaks for the grill, came in then, and looked at Liam. “You find anything?” he asked.

  Liam shook his head. “All clear. I went down to the park. Found the sign where the guy was yesterday, more where you chased him, but nothing more recent. And it doesn’t look like he was headed this way at all. Doubt he knows you live this close. I think he was just scoping out the park because it’s obviously where kids hang out.”

  Alyssa’s stomach knotted at the thought of Baird even thinking about kids at all. She tried not to let it show as she handed him a towel to dry his hands.

  “Wrist okay?” Liam asked with a nod at Drew’s left arm.

  Drew glanced at the neat bandage Alyssa had applied. “It’s good.”

  Liam nodded.

  “How could you tell the difference?” Alyssa asked. “Where Drew was chasing him, I mean?”

  Liam shrugged. “Clear as can be, when you know what to look for. The guy was careful walking around the park, so there was only a footprint or two, and a couple of ferns he stepped on still buried in mud. Going out, he was running, broke a lot of branches in that direction, and the footprints were deeper.”

  “Some of that was me,” Drew said.

  “Yes,” Liam agreed. “But he had on city shoes, slick soles.”

  “I should have caught him, then,” Drew said drily.

  “He was too close to the fence, so he got over. Otherwise Cutter would have caught him.”

  A soft whuffing sound came from the corner of the kitchen, where Cutter was curled on the blanket Alyssa had put down for him.

  “Yea
h, you,” Liam said with a grin. “You may be a better tracker than I—slightly—but only because you’re lower to the ground and have that nose. You don’t read signs worth a darn.”

  The whuff came again, and this time it sounded oddly dismissive. Liam laughed.

  Luke skidded into the kitchen on Liam’s last words. “You’re a tracker?”

  “I am. I could track an armadillo across the entire state of Texas.”

  “An arma-what?”

  “Armadillo,” Liam said. “They’re sort of the armored tank of the animal world.”

  Luke’s eyes widened. He looked at Drew for verification. The simple gesture set up an odd sort of ache inside her. Luke trusted Drew implicitly, without question. Which was proof she had made the right choice.

  For Luke, anyway.

  “Sounds about right,” Drew said. “They have a shell that’s really hard, and in plates, like old suits of armor that knights wore.”

  “Knights? Like the King Arthur story Mom read me?”

  “Just like.”

  “I’ve never seen one,” Luke said.

  “And you won’t, up here,” Liam said. “They get cold too easy, so they stay where it’s warm for the most part.”

  This inspired Luke to ask a string of questions that had Liam working to keep up. Drew smiled at the exchange as he gathered up the meat to head out to the grill. One of the first things he’d done at this house was to build a cover over a section of the deck; if you liked to barbecue, and lived in the Northwest, it was almost a necessity.

  “You don’t really have to feed me,” Liam said to Alyssa. “I could—”

  Alyssa waved him off with a smile. “I think Luke would be upset if you didn’t eat with us.”

  “I would,” the boy chimed in.

  “And the more he trusts you the better, at the moment,” Alyssa said.

  “Thank you,” Liam said. “I just wanted you to know it wasn’t expected.”

  “So, exactly how,” Drew asked later, when they were well into the meal, each steak done as each person liked them, a knack Drew had that Alyssa hadn’t ever quite mastered, “did a Texas boy end up working for Foxworth?”