“I’ll be right down,” I said.
I got ready in a hurry and raced to the station. Bobby and Laura were in the break room and Carl was coming in with some muffins from the bakery. Mrs. Rook passed out cups of coffee. I avoided Laura’s eyes and took my seat so we could hear Bobby’s briefing.
“My brother-in-law is a cop in Overton, and he gave me a call this morning. They have a missing girl, disappeared around midnight, three days after Becky. When they checked out her car, her purse and phone were still there, and I asked him if he could run a number for me. I gave him the ID from the burner phone in our case, and it showed up on her phone. Lacy Carnes, sixteen, blonde, good kid like the Simms girl.”
“Good work, Bob,” I said, “being able to work with Overton will help us out. They have access to a helicopter, for one thing. And if a third kid goes missing, we can call it a string of disappearances and bring in the feds. They’d take jurisdiction from us, but they have the resources to locate—whatever is left of them.” I cleared my throat.
“So the burner was still active three days after Becky Simms went missing. Usually those phones would be long gone in a dumpster by then. Are we dealing with stupid people? That phone is evidence,” Carl said. I nodded.
“It’s probably been trashed by now, but it shows they’re slipping up. Not cycling through disposable phones as fast as they should to cover their tracks. Maybe not wanting to go buy another one for money reasons or because of getting caught on camera,” I said. “Vance, have we heard from Max about facial recognition on that video.”
“You have to email it to me first, chief,” she said, snark riding the edge of her voice. I took out my phone, sent the video footage to her and nodded my head.
“There,” I said, “see what he can do.”
15
Laura
“No! Don’t heat treat it again! You’re gonna open up the grain. That fuckin’ blade is gonna be like Swiss cheese if you keep it up—” my dad hollered at the screen. I chuckled.
“I’m glad we found a show we could agree on, but watch your blood pressure. It’s not like you’re the one competing for ten grand,” I said, indicating the blacksmith competition show we’d started binging at his dialysis appointment earlier.
I had him kicked back in a recliner watching the second season while my mom went to her book club. I’d been to the gym earlier and gotten a full workout—it felt so good to do more than grabbing a half hour to train when I was already exhausted like most days.
There was a ton of work to do on the Simms case, but Brody had insisted I take the day off. I’d worked ten days of twelve-hour shifts and he didn’t want me to burn out. He didn’t know my stamina yet, and I was nowhere near burnout, but I shrugged and accepted that I wasn’t on the schedule for the day. It was a nice break, especially since my boss had been avoiding me like the plague since the bar incident. It wasn’t like I had initiated it. I knew he had been enjoying himself since I felt a rod against my belly that was unmistakable—the man was hung like a racehorse and wanted me fiercely. His hungry, raw kisses had lit a fire in me, and I had responded with equal passion. I wasn’t ashamed of that at all. Maybe I should’ve shoved him off of me, but we were both adults, and we wanted what we wanted.
We both got carried away. In a public venue which could, if caught, result in termination of our employment and a misdemeanor charge. But that was beside the point. The point was, we had chosen to cross a line, and then he skittered back across to the safe side and proceeded to act like I had pranced around in my underwear and tried to seduce him or something. I knew he had flirted with me, we’d flirted with each other—light and fun at first and then heavy with desire. So whatever his hang up was, it was on my last nerve.
“I’m glad you’re over your Ancient Aliens kick. How’d you find this new show?”
“It’s not new. Brody says it’s been on like six seasons.”
“Brody?” I asked, bewildered.
“Yeah, the other day when Damon was supposed to take me to dialysis but he had cycle training at the station, Brody came and took me. Your mom was going to help out at the church with the craft fair, but she said she’d stay and take me instead. Brody insisted she go on and go. So he took me to the dialysis center and hung out and watched Forged in Fire with me. He thinks David Baker knows everything about weapons, but I like that Jay guy better myself, except he’s always bitching that the handle hurt his knuckles or something. I mean, don’t be a pussy. You’re testing swords.”
My dad chuckled. I managed to recover, but I wanted to blink in confusion for about an hour. Brody? Took my daddy to get kidney dialysis?
“You should’ve called me if Damon couldn’t make it,” I said. “I’m your daughter.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t want you taking time off a new job for me. Besides, that Brody thinks the world of you. He said you were the best cop he ever worked with and you were smarter than the rest of ‘em put together. I always thought that kid had a good head on his shoulders. He could’ve been a fireman if he’d put his mind to it,” my dad said.
Saying someone could’ve been a fireman was like the highest praise my dad bestowed on anyone. I still couldn’t get my head around the idea of my boss spending hours at dialysis watching a blacksmith show and talking to my dad about me. It didn’t compute very well. Especially since he’d been avoiding me. He was Damon’s friend, that had to be it, I told myself. Except he’d been Damon’s friend all along and never stepped in to help with my father’s treatment.
When my mom walked in, she handed me a list.
“Grocery store looks crowded. You do it. It’ll get you out of the house, and I can get dinner started,” she said.
“Don’t you need the groceries to cook dinner with?” my dad asked.
“Who’s been cooking your dinner for three decades, hmmm? I manage just fine. I do that meal planning now, and I have a pasta and vegetable dish we’re having tonight. A light lemon dressing on it, nothing fatty.”
My dad groaned right out loud. I kissed his cheek, “Be nice, you old fart. I’ll be back in an hour.”
I put on my shoes and scanned the list. When I got to the store, I grabbed a cart and set out. My mom wrote the list out in the order you found stuff in the store if you started out by turning left toward the produce section. She was the most organized human I knew, so the trip would be easy. I was humming along with the music, wondering when Radiohead started being easy listening grocery store loudspeaker fare, when I got that prickle up my neck. I heard my own blood pound in my ears, tuned out the music and every sense went on high alert. Someone was watching me. Same as they had at the falls that day with Brody. I wasn’t questioning my instincts this time either. I selected some bell peppers and put them in a bag. Then I looked casually back to my right and saw the same guy from the diner. The one Rachel said had been coming in there and creeped her out. I knew it was him, and that didn’t make me any more comfortable. I continued to shop, studying the list and making sure I looked totally relaxed, humming along a little. I said hi to people I knew, chatted for a minute with Bobby’s wife in the meat section. But all the time I had my eye out for the creeper. He popped up in my peripheral vision a time or five. I made note of any detail about him. He wore work boots that looked new, jeans that didn’t and had worn knees, a t-shirt for a band I didn’t know and a hoodie. It was cold in the store thanks to the air conditioning and I kind of wished I’d grabbed a hoodie, too.
When I was checking out, I glanced up at the mirror on the wall where they put the security camera. I saw him behind me. His eyes met mine in the mirror. I got a chill, and he turned to leave. There on the back of his jacket was the same emblem the person of interest wore on the convenience store footage when he bought the burner phone. I told the checker to hold my groceries and I’d be back for them. I took off after him and got in my car. I lost him somewhere before I even got out of the parking lot. It was crowded, dusk was falling and he could’ve been on foot or in a
car. Frustrated, I dialed Brody’s personal number.
“Hey,” I said. “I think I saw the guy who bought the burner phone. He was tailing me inside Giant Foods but he took off. Same jacket, very creepy.”
“Wait there,” he said and hung up.
16
Brody
I pulled in to the Giant Foods Mart and found Laura waiting in her car. I knocked on the window and she jumped a little. She must have been unnerved by the guy she saw because she wasn’t easy to startle. The woman had nerves of steel at work. When she got out of the car, I was hit by the force of her closeness. Her baggy t-shirt and cropped leggings, her messy ponytail and no makeup—every bit of it seemed private, casual. Like it was how she looked when she stayed at home. I wanted to run my hands up her arms and make sure she was okay, but I couldn’t risk touching her after the other night at the bar.
“You okay?” I asked gruffly.
“You ask Carl that when he finds something on a case?” she quipped. I shrugged.
We went in the store, and I asked the manager for a copy of the surveillance footage for the last forty-five minutes. While we waited, Laura tugged my sleeve.
“It could just be a guy with the same jacket. It may not be the one from Overton. I don’t want to get your hopes up.”
“I realize it could be a coincidence, but I don’t think it is. I think he’s the key to the case. So we find him, we may find Becky and the kid from Overton, too.”
“That’s what I’m hoping,” she said, chewing her lip.
“Hey,” I said, “you watch your back. He was following you.”
“I will. And I’m gonna tell Rachel to keep an eye out because he hangs out at the diner. Right after I got back here, she said he just showed up and nobody knew who he was. Just sits in the back and stares, drinks coffee.”
“That doesn’t sound like a Rockford Falls boy. Anybody who knows their shit orders the pie there first thing before they run out,” I said, wondering if I should head down to the diner for lunch one day and check it out.
The manager got me the footage, and I helped Laura carry her groceries to the car. She swore she could do it, and would’ve died trying if I hadn’t just grabbed some of the bags while she argued.
“Tell your mom I said hello,” I said.
“My dad really likes that show, the one you recommended,” she said. So the cat was out of the bag about me taking Mr. Vance to dialysis, I figured.
“Good. Damon said he had cycle training that day and couldn’t change it.”
“Mmm-hmmm,” Laura said, which meant she believed my reason about as far as she could spit.
“You have a good evening. See you tomorrow.”
“Give me a call if there’s anything on the video you think I need to look at,” she said.
“I’ll just talk to you at the station tomorrow.”
She huffed in frustration. “Why are you acting like I’m a pariah?” she demanded, straight out like that, no beating around the bush with her.
“Because the intimacy between us was a problem. Not just what happened in the bar, but everything that led up to it. The long talks, the dinner together—it crossed a line, and I’ve got to keep us both on the straight and narrow.”
“You think I’m gonna go wild if you don’t make sure I behave myself?” she asked, irritation in her voice.
“No, I think I would,” I admitted, clearing my throat. “So you’re reassigned to Carl after this case. You suggested it before, and I should’ve taken the hint. Besides, I have administrative work to do that doesn’t allow for as much field investigation as I’d like. You two can eat donuts and talk traffic stops.”
“I don’t want to eat donuts with Carl,” she said, and something about that one stupid sentence went straight to my chest and burst like a mortar shell. The rest of the thought was that she wanted to be with me. That I’d pushed her away and hurt her.
“Neither do I,” I told her. “But you deserve better than a boss who paws all over you. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she said flatly. “I’m not.”
“Good. You have nothing to be sorry for, Vance. You’re not the one who blew up his code of ethics to feel up the new officer.”
“And you didn’t even get past second base. That’s just sad, Chief,” she said archly, “better luck next time.”
“There won’t be a next time,” I said balefully, “after the Simms case, you’re with Carl until he retires.”
“So for the next fifteen years?”
“Pretty much.”
“I thought you were worried about employee retention with me. Fifteen years of Carl isn’t exactly enticing.”
“Maybe he isn’t the most entertaining guy, but he won’t act like an animal. Few more days, we wrap this up and find the kid, and then you’re safe from me.”
“What makes you think I wanna be safe from you?” she asked, her eyes sparkling. “What makes you think you’re not a lot of what I like about my job?”
“Don’t say that. You’re young, you’re beautiful. You have your whole life ahead of you. You deserve better than a fling with your widowed boss, which is wrong on a lot of levels besides the fact I’m Damon’s friend.”
“You know, you’re right. You are old and decrepit and probably couldn’t give me what I needed,” she taunted.
“You don’t give a guy a break, do you?” I asked. I wanted to crowd her up against the car and put my tongue in her mouth, bend her back against the door and get my knee between her legs again.
“I don’t know. It depends. Tell me the truth, do you think about me when you get in bed at night? Do you imagine me insisting on a full body search, running my hands and mouth all over you?”
“Jesus, Laura,” I said, backing up. “Go home.”
“I’m off duty, Brody. You can’t tell me what to do,” she challenged.
“Do you want me to lose control?” I warned.
“More than you know, chief,” she said with a rueful half-smile and got in her car and drove away. My blood pounded from the encounter. She wasn’t letting up, and I wasn’t letting go. I could pay lip service to doing the right thing, but all it took was one silly, randy word from her about a full body search and I was rock hard for her. My body pulsed, and I had trouble concentrating.
I called Damon and met him at a bar for a drink. He looked wiped out from a week of double shifts plus training modules.
“Hey, I could use a beer. Glad you’re buying,” he said.
“I don’t even mind,” I said. “You look like you need one. Long week?”
“Yeah. We had to assist on a fire out south of town around two this morning. I’ve been up ever since. It was rough. Just structural, no one was in danger, but it would’ve been a total loss if we hadn’t gotten there when we did.”
“Glad you could save the building.”
“How about you? Any breaks in the Simms thing?”
“Well, your sister may have spotted our person of interest here in town. I’ve got some footage to look at later, but it’s been a high-stress case, and I need to unwind first.”
“You know how glad I am my sister is back in town and working for my best friend? You can’t imagine. I worried about her up in Charleston, tons of crime and only a bunch of strangers to look out for her. Now I know you’ll keep an eye out for her.”
“From what I’ve seen, Laura can look out for herself,” I said, taking a long drink.
“I know. But I still worry about her. So just look after her for me, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed. He had no idea how much I enjoyed watching her and looking out for her. And if I had my way he never would.
We had a couple more beers and talked about his latest dating app disaster that matched him up with his cousin Julie.
“We plan never to speak of it, but it was bad. I’ve officially set my location different now so no more relatives pop up in my potential dating pool,” Damon laughed.
Damon kept me entertain
ed for a while and I got us some hot wings to share. He tried to talk me into going over to a table with some women at it and trying to pick them up, but he wasn’t surprised when I declined. He would’ve been surprised if he’d known that it wasn’t grief and lack of interest in complications this time. It was because of his sister. He’d never know that either.
17
Laura
Detective Morgan of the Overton PD said he’d email the chief a scan of the information. I hung up and hurried to Brody’s office. I had a phone on my desk. I could have used the intercom, but it never occurred to me. Especially when I was that excited.
I knocked and opened the door. “They had a break in the case at Overton. Morgan’s sending you an email now.”
His desktop pinged with the message notification and he clicked through to open it. I rounded his desk, not hesitating. I leaned over to read what was on the screen. A clear image from a gas station security camera of the guy who’d tailed me in Giant Foods Mart loaded onscreen. Underneath was a time and date stamp showing that it was the evening the Overton girl disappeared. So that placed him in town near the location where she vanished giving him opportunity to be involved. He could be linked to both disappearances both through the burner phone and identifiable footage.
As I leaned closer to the screen, I breathed in the woodsy musk of Brody’s cologne, damn him. Why couldn’t he smell terrible and have wiry ear hairs sprouting everyplace? I reined myself in, irritated. I breathed through my mouth. It may have sounded like I had a cold because I refused to inhale anywhere near that sexy cologne. I shoved off the back of his chair, ignoring my raging hormones.
“It’s late,” he said, “head home, we’ll tackle this tomorrow.”
“What if he grabs another kid by then?” I asked, knowing it was irrational but still feeling like I should stay and keep working.
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