“Where did you get the gun?” Bree asked.
“I’ve had it for years, for protection. This is the first time I’ve needed it.” Kelly shook the pistol in her hand. “Put your hands up!”
Bree assumed the classic surrender pose. “Did Lena know about James’s threats?”
Kelly exhaled. “Lena doesn’t know what’s going on.”
“But she does.” Marty stood at the end of the hall. They hadn’t heard him come inside. “Just because she don’t talk don’t mean she don’t understand.”
Bree knew that children comprehended much more than adults realized. Maybe Lena had seen her mother argue with her father. They’d yelled loudly enough to be heard through the walls of the rowhome. Maybe she’d heard the threats they’d uttered—maybe she’d been scared and she’d run away.
Bree empathized all too well. “Where is Lena?”
“I don’t know!” Kelly spit. “When I got back, she was gone.”
Nausea rolled through Bree’s stomach. “You didn’t call the police when you first noticed Lena was gone.”
“And tell them she ran off while I was shooting her father?” Kelly barked out a grating, incredulous laugh.
“You shot James.” Marty’s voice went flat.
“He said he was gonna kill me!” Kelly shouted. “I looked all over for her. I don’t know where she went.” Her mood abruptly shifted from wild anger to despair. “Do you know how hard it is to raise an autistic child?” Kelly waved the gun at the child’s room. “She don’t talk, but she can scream until your eardrums bleed.” Kelly put her other hand to her temple, as if she could hear the screams in her head.
“Put down the gun, Kelly,” Bree said in a firm voice.
“Fuck you.” Kelly sneered.
“Are you going to kill me? What about my partner and Marty?” Bree asked. “You can’t get away. Everyone knows what you did.”
“Where is your partner?” Kelly looked around frantically.
“She’s right here.” Romano said from the doorway. She held her own service weapon, and it was pointed at Kelly. “Put the gun down, Kelly.”
Instead, Kelly spun, whipping the gun around toward Romano.
Bree lunged forward and knocked her arm upward. The gun went off. The bullet struck the ceiling. Bits of plaster rained down. And then Bree had Kelly’s arms behind her back. She snapped on the cuffs. “Kelly Tyson, you are under arrest for the murder of James Tyson.”
Once Kelly was restrained, Bree turned to Romano. “We need a K-9 team over here. If Lena ran away last night, the dog should be able to track her.”
More units arrived. Bree secured Kelly in the back of a patrol car. The K-9 arrived within twenty minutes. The dog led them across the tiny square of cement behind the Tyson’s rowhome, to the gate that led into Mrs. Lawrence’s patio space. A board under Mrs. Lawrence’s back steps was broken.
The K-9 approached the steps and began to bark. Bree moved ahead, putting aside her fear of the big dog to crouch next to the steps. She shone her flashlight into the darkness. A wide-eyed little girl crouched, shivering in the shadows. Bree recognized the trauma in Lena’s eyes. The little girl had seen her parents fight, possibly overheard their shouted threats. Her response had been to run and hide.
Bree knew all this because she’d lived it.
Some children were afraid of the dark, while others sought it out, hoping it could protect them.
Thankfully, Lena had had the sense to put on boots and a coat. Bree’s vision dimmed. She was transported back more than twenty years. She saw darkness, felt the shaking bodies of her siblings as they huddled together under the porch. The cold penetrated their thin pajamas. A gunshot went off. Bree flinched.
“Taggert?” Romano’s concerned voice broke the flashback.
Bree shook it off. “I’m OK.”
Romano gave her a disbelieving stare. “Whatever.”
Bree turned back to the small hole under the neighbor’s back stoop. The little girl hadn’t moved. Bree reached out. “Hey, Lena. I’m Bree. You’re going to be OK.”
Marty ran out of Kelly’s house. “Lena!”
The little girl scurried out of her hiding place and into her grandfather’s arms.
Bree breathed and rocked back on her heels. If she tried to stand up, she’d probably fall flat on her face.
“Are you sure you’re OK?” Romano asked.
Bree didn’t lie and say fine. Being a partner required some actual honesty. So, she said, “I will be. Just give me a minute.”
Romano nodded. “You did OK, Taggert.”
Bree stood, refusing to let her emotions make her weak. “Call me Bree. If we’re going to get guns and knives drawn on us together, I think we should be on a first-name basis.”
She watched Marty scoop Lena up and carry her toward the house.
Romano said, “Then I guess you need to call me Dana. That was the weirdest case ever.”
“We found the kid.” Bree brushed the wrinkles from her slacks.
“That we did.” Romano gestured toward the house. “Let’s clean this mess up, partner, before we get called out again.”
Before there was another death.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2016 Jared Gruenwald Photography
#1 Amazon Charts and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh is a fully recovered banker. Melinda’s debut novel, She Can Run, was nominated for Best First Novel by the International Thriller Writers. She’s garnered numerous writing awards, including two RITA nominations. Her other novels include She Can Tell, She Can Scream, She Can Hide, and She Can Kill in the She Can series; Midnight Exposure, Midnight Sacrifice, Midnight Betrayal, and Midnight Obsession in the Midnight novels; Hour of Need, Minutes to Kill, and Seconds to Live in the Scarlet Falls series; Say You’re Sorry, Her Last Goodbye, Bones Don’t Lie, What I’ve Done, Secrets Never Die, and Save Your Breath in the Morgan Dane series; and the Bree Taggert novels, Cross Her Heart, See Her Die, Drown Her Sorrows, and Right Behind Her. She holds a second-degree black belt in Kenpo karate, has taught women’s self-defense, and lives in a messy house with her family and a small herd of rescue pets. For more information, visit www.melindaleigh.com.
ALSO BY MELINDA LEIGH
Bree Taggert Novels
Cross Her Heart
See Her Die
Drown Her Sorrows
Right Behind Her
Morgan Dane Novels
Say You’re Sorry
Her Last Goodbye
Bones Don’t Lie
What I’ve Done
Secrets Never Die
Save Your Breath
Scarlet Falls Novels
Hour of Need
Minutes to Kill
Seconds to Live
She Can Series
She Can Run
She Can Tell
She Can Scream
She Can Hide
“He Can Fall” (A Short Story)
She Can Kill
Midnight Novels
Midnight Exposure
Midnight Sacrifice
Midnight Betrayal
Midnight Obsession
The Rogue Series Novellas
Gone to Her Grave (Rogue River)
Walking on Her Grave (Rogue River)
Tracks of Her Tears (Rogue Winter)
Burned by Her Devotion (Rogue Vows)
Twisted Truth (Rogue Justice)
The Widow’s Island Novella Series
A Bone to Pick
Whisper of Bones
A Broken Bone
Buried Bones
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Her Second Death: A Short Story (Bree Taggert) Page 4
