by Sharon Dunn
Trevor seemed to be all business now that Murke was caught. Had the kiss meant anything to him? She longed for an opportunity to be alone with him to talk before he left, but she didn’t see how that would happen.
Valerie rode in the back of the patrol car with Titan beside her and Lexi on her lap. She didn’t mind. It felt good to have Lexi close. Holding the dog might even help with her emotional recovery.
Jackson turned onto the street where she lived. Her heart sank. She might be saying good-bye to Trevor for the last time. He turned his head sideways but didn’t look at her from the front seat. He hadn’t said much of anything since catching Murke.
As they pulled up, she was surprised to see Captain McNeal standing on the sidewalk by her house. The expression on his face was grim, and his shoulders bent forward.
What was going on here?
THIRTEEN
Anxiety stabbed at Trevor’s nerves as Jackson pulled up to the curb. McNeal had come over to Valerie’s house instead of meeting him at the station. Something pretty serious must be going down.
Trevor got out of the passenger seat and hurried to open the back door for Valerie. She looked up at him, her round, green eyes filled with trust. Heartache over having to say goodbye to her had made it hard for him to say anything at all to her. It didn’t make sense that their lives should go on in separate directions and yet, he was afraid to tell her how he felt about her. What if the feelings weren’t mutual?
Lexi jumped out of the backseat first. The dog seemed to be perking up a little, though he had yet to see that bobbed tail wag with enthusiasm. He took Valerie’s hand and helped her up to the sidewalk.
Jackson got out of the driver’s seat and rested his forearm on the top of the police car. “I’ve got to get back to work. Take care of Lexi, Valerie.”
She nodded as Jackson got back into the white SUV and drove off.
McNeal strode toward them. “I’ll spare you the small talk. Murke escaped. Once the chopper landed, he overpowered the two officers who were escorting him to processing.”
The news was like a boulder slamming against Trevor’s chest. “Did he have help?”
“I don’t think he had inside help. But someone picked him up on the street once he got away.” McNeal shifted his weight and rested his hands on his hips. “When you didn’t show up at the police station, I figured you were here with Valerie. I wanted you to get the news in person.”
“We stopped to get Lexi,” Valerie explained.
A mixture of frustration and despair wrestled within Trevor as he struggled to find solutions to getting Murke back into custody. How could this have happened? “I assume you have units out looking for him?”
McNeal nodded.
Valerie stepped forward. “It’s going to take more than patrol units to find Murke. We have to be strategic about where we look.”
McNeal turned toward Valerie. “You two have been working this case together, and I’ll take any input you have, Valerie. But I still don’t feel comfortable putting you back out on the street.”
Valerie’s jaw went slack as a veil of disappointment shrouded her eyes, but she lifted her head and squared her shoulders as a show of acceptance like the true professional she was.
“With all due respect, sir, the syndicate is going to get at Valerie no matter where she is,” Trevor said. “They almost got into her home last night. Valerie is the reason we even got Murke into custody in the first place. She risked her life to save mine.” He scrubbed a hand across his face. “Now that Murke has decided taking me out of the equation is the solution to his problems, there is no one I would rather have my back than Officer Salgado.”
Valerie’s face glowed with gratitude.
Raising his eyebrows, McNeal glanced over at Valerie and then rested his gaze back on Trevor.
Trevor feared he had overstepped the boundaries of McNeal’s authority, but he had meant every word he said. Locking Valerie away wasn’t going to make her any safer and being overly protective of her wouldn’t bring back Agent Cory Smith. The syndicate had ways of getting to her no matter what. Valerie was ten times the professional Cory had been. She’d shown herself for the fearless and quick-thinking cop she was out in the Lost Woods.
McNeal cleared his throat. “Well...your point is valid. She’s vulnerable staying at home, too, and she’s an asset in catching Murke. I’d feel better about putting Valerie back out on the street if you were with her. Once you go back to San Antonio, I’ll reassess.”
Valerie grabbed McNeal’s hand and shook it vigorously. “Thank you, sir.”
“For now, the two of you need to focus on finding Murke,” McNeal said. “We’ll figure out the extent to which you can resume your patrol duties later.”
“Yes, sir,” said Trevor.
“I got to get back to the station.” McNeal ambled toward his car where Chief perched faithfully in the backseat.
Valerie turned toward Trevor and mouthed the words “Thank you” as McNeal drove away. The look on her face and the warmth in her eyes were captivating. There was so much more he wanted to say to her, but now was not the time. “So what is your theory about where we’ll find Murke?”
“We backtrack to where we know he has been. We know he has had contact with Leroy Seville, as well as his half sister, and someone had to have sold him those guns.”
The half sister and Leroy seemed like dead ends. Murke had burned his bridges with them. It could take days to track down whoever had sold Murke the guns. His mind went through the catalog of Murke’s known movements. If only they knew what this big score was that Murke was after.
“What about Arianna’s Diner? Maybe he said something to the waitstaff or was meeting someone there,” Valerie said.
Trevor lifted his head. “It’s worth a try.”
“Let me just go inside and give Bethany a hug and then we can get going.” Valerie turned and headed up the sidewalk.
“I’ll come with you...if you want.” He wanted to make sure Bethany had made a full recovery as much as she did.
“That would be nice,” she said softly.
He stepped into line a few paces behind her. “Valerie?”
“Yes.” She looked over her shoulder, offering him a smile that melted his heart.
“It’s good to be working with you again.”
“You, too.”
Valerie pushed open the door. Mrs. Witherspoon and Bethany were sitting on the couch reading a storybook. Bethany burst out in a smile when she saw Trevor. The surge of joy he felt at such a small gesture surprised him.
With Mrs. Witherspoon’s assurances that Bethany’s fever had not returned, Valerie felt comfortable going. At Stella’s request, Bethany opened her mouth and showed everyone where a tooth had poked through her gum.
After getting back into uniform, Valerie drove with Trevor and Lexi to the station to get the patrol car.
Arianna’s Diner was on the main floor of a large brick building in downtown Sagebrush. The decor featured distressed wood floors, soft lighting and a tin ceiling. Though the restaurant was known for its coffee and pastries, it also served sandwiches and light Italian dishes.
At this time of day between the lunch and dinner hours, the diner was virtually abandoned. A waiter stood at the corner of a counter folding silverware into napkins. A fan whirred on the tin ceiling.
Only two customers sat at separate tables, a college-age girl with a cup of coffee and an open journal and an older man enjoying a plate of pasta.
Trevor walked in behind Valerie. “Do you eat here ever?”
“Lots of the officers stop here because it’s on the way to the station, but I think I’ve only been in here once or twice,” Valerie said.
They were really grasping at straws to come back here, but Trevor had vowed not to leave Sagebrush without Murke in custody. Thin leads were enough to keep him hoping. He could sense the clock ticking though. Would the big score Murke had told his half sister about be enough to keep him here now that
the law had managed to catch him once? However clever Murke was at escape, he had to be shaking in his shoes over being taken into custody.
When they walked across the diner floor, the waiter at the counter lifted his head. “Yes, may I help you?”
Trevor waited for Valerie to take the lead.
“We have some questions to ask you about a man who was in here a few days ago.” She pulled Murke’s picture out of her pocket and laid it on the counter.
The man stared down at the picture. Trevor tensed when the waiter shook his head.
“What day would he have been in here?” the waiter asked, looking back at them.
“Tuesday afternoon.”
“I wasn’t on shift that day. Maryanne might have been. Just a minute. I don’t think she has left yet.” He disappeared behind a swinging door.
Trevor studied the restaurant walls, which were decorated with photographs and fifties memorabilia.
A moment later, the waiter returned with a plump, forty-something woman with bouffant blond hair. Dark eyeliner rimmed her eyes. “So y’all are wonderin’ about a feller who came in on Tuesday.” She raised an eyebrow at them. “Honey, do you have any idea how many customers stomp through here in a day?”
Her comment was a bleak reminder of how thin the lead was.
Valerie pushed the photograph across the counter. The woman glanced at it, shook her head and then looked away.
Disappointment fell on Trevor like a lead blanket. The woman stopped as she was turning to go back to the kitchen. She angled back toward the counter and picked up the photo again, nodding slowly.
“Actually...I do remember him. We were really busy that day, but this guy wanted to talk to the boss.”
“The boss?” Valerie stepped closer to the counter.
Maryanne put her hand on her hip. “Arianna Munson—she owns the place.”
“Is Arianna here now?” Trevor shifted his weight, excitement colored his voice.
“She only comes in once in a while to make sure everything is running smoothly.” Maryanne made a face. “Arianna’s good at the business end of things but not so good with the customers.”
“Can we get an address for her?” Valerie asked.
“Sure.” Maryanne pulled a pen from behind her ear and grabbed a paper napkin. She talked as she wrote. “I don’t know what they talked about in her office, but Arianna was white as a ghost when she came out.”
Was it possible that Arianna was the girlfriend that Murke had wanted to get even with?
Trevor stepped toward the counter. “Did she say anything to you about the meeting?”
“Hard to say. She’s not exactly a woman who’s in touch with her feelings.” The waitress shrugged her shoulders. “She was just crabbier than usual with the chef and waitstaff for the rest of the day.” She pushed the napkin with the address on it toward Valerie.
“Thank you for all your help.” Trevor felt a lightness in his step as they headed out the door toward Valerie’s patrol car. If Arianna was the old girlfriend, she might be able to answer a lot of questions for them. She might even know where Murke was.
Valerie checked the address before handing the napkin to Trevor. “It won’t take us but ten minutes to get there.”
Valerie adhered to the speed limit through downtown and turned off on a wide street that featured luxury high-rises and lots of greenery. The Mercedes and BMWs parked on the street indicated that the neighborhood was high income.
Valerie pulled over to the curb and pointed. “She’s in the Merill building. It used to be a fancy hotel, but it’s been converted to high-end apartments.”
“Restaurant business must be doing her pretty good,” Trevor mused.
They entered the lobby, which featured a marble floor and wide, sweeping staircase. Valerie pointed toward the elevators. “Fifth floor.”
They stepped inside, waited for the doors to close and pushed the button for the fifth floor. Trevor could feel his anticipation growing as the number three and then four lit up on the panel. “Maybe we’ll get some answers from this woman.”
Valerie nodded.
The doors swung open. At the end of the hall, a woman in a white coat with her back to them stood holding a suitcase and sticking a key into a doorknob.
When she turned around, Valerie gasped, her eyes going wide with recognition.
“The Serpent,” she whispered.
FOURTEEN
The shock of seeing the Serpent was like being plunged into ice water. Valerie struggled for a deep breath as her hand went for her gun. Arianna and the Serpent were one and the same.
“Stop. FBI.” Trevor ran down the hall with his gun drawn.
The woman dropped her suitcase, dashed inside the apartment and slammed the door. As Valerie ran behind Trevor, she could hear a locking bolt sliding into place.
Trevor pounded on the door. “Ma’am, we need to talk to you.” He waited only a second before lifting his leg to kick the door in. The first kick only shook the door.
“I don’t hear anything. She might have a back exit from the apartment.” Adrenaline coursed through her. “I’ll go down to the ground floor and see if I can catch her.”
Trevor grabbed her arm. “No, I can’t let you. This woman wants you dead. We don’t know if she’s armed or not.”
“But Trevor...”
He kicked the door a second time, splintering it off its hinges. He grabbed her hand. “You’re staying with me.”
They entered a huge living room done mostly in white. While Trevor searched the room, Valerie ran to the window. A large parking garage was across the street.
Trevor shouted from a second room. “This way!”
She ran to a back entryway where Trevor stood by an open door with steps that led down.
When they were halfway down the exterior stairs, Valerie scanned the area below them. Arianna was weaving her way through the cars in the lot toward the parking garage, her white coat easy to spot among the darker cars.
They reached the bottom of the stairs just as Arianna disappeared into the parking garage.
“I’ll grab Lexi.” While Trevor headed toward the parking garage, Valerie ran the short distance to the patrol vehicle and opened the back door. “Lexi, come.”
The dog leapt out of the car and bolted toward Valerie. Valerie grabbed the long canvas leash and commanded, “Get her. Get her.”
The light diminished by half when they entered the dark cave of the parking garage. The dog pulled hard, making her way past the parked cars, her ears back and her nose low to the ground. People who were being chased put out an unusual amount of adrenaline. Lexi’s nose was sensitive to pick up on the scent.
Valerie glanced up ahead, hoping to see Trevor. Toward the entrance of the garage, a car started up and pulled out of its space. Lexi moved in the opposite direction. She’d trust the dog’s nose over any theory she might have. She was confident the car leaving the garage was not Arianna’s.
Approaching footsteps seemed to echo. A moment later, Trevor came around a curve. He held his gun in his hand and spoke between ragged breaths. “No sign of her yet.”
“I’ll call and see if I can get another unit to watch the exit. I don’t think she has left here. She’s got to be hiding in her car or somewhere in this garage. Lexi will find her.”
The dog pulled hard, stopped for a moment, retracing her steps. When she finally picked up the scent, she made yipping sounds that suggested extreme excitement.
Using her shoulder mic, Valerie radioed in for backup to block the exit. Lexi stopped, lifting her head and sniffing the air. She ran ten yards in one direction and then ten in the opposite.
“What’s going on?”
The leash went slack. “She’s lost the scent. She’ll find it again.”
Lexi continued to sniff the ground, but not as frantically. Both of them slowed their pace. Valerie listened for footsteps but didn’t hear any.
“What do we got here?” Trevor turned side to si
de. “Three stories of cars.”
Valerie ran over to the elevator that lead to the higher floors. The elevator wasn’t in operation, and Lexi didn’t alert to anything outside the doors. “She’s still on this floor. She has to be.”
They walked, catching their breath and listening for the sound of a car engine starting up or lights turning on. With Valerie at her heels, Lexi wove through the cars. Arianna must have crouched and used the cars as cover on the way to her own car. She probably ditched the white coat, too.
Trevor lifted his gun and edged toward Valerie. “Stay close to me—she might see this as an opportunity to take you out.”
Valerie tensed. Trevor was right; she could be walking into an ambush. The woman had clearly recognized her. After all her efforts at sending henchmen to do her dirty work, the Serpent probably would have no qualms about finishing the job herself.
Lexi’s yipping and sniffing vocalizations grew more intense. She pulled hard on the leash again. “She’s got it. She’s close.” Valerie let go of the leash. “Get her, get her.”
They ran past several compact cars then turned at a circular angle leading upward. Lexi had separated from them and was running hard. Tires screeched on concrete as a car backed out of its space. Lexi yelped. Valerie couldn’t see her dog behind the car. Had she been hit?
In an instant, the roar of an engine surrounded Valerie. Terror invaded every muscle as headlights blinded her. She froze. Trevor’s arms surrounded her, lifting her off her feet. Her body impacted with the hood of a car, and they rolled over the top and onto the concrete. Arianna’s car screeched, taking a hard turn as it roared through the parking garage.
Arianna had used her one chance to kill Valerie and now she was focused on getting away.
Trevor helped her to her feet. “You all right?”
Lexi. She had to get to Lexi. Half stumbling and half running, she made her way up the ramp. Was her partner lying run over in a pool of blood? She couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t hear anything.
Yelping and barking some distance away reached her ears. Relief spread through her. Lexi was okay. The sound was coming from the exit to the parking garage. That dog never gave up the chase. Valerie and Trevor ran toward the sound of the barking. They found her at the exit to the parking garage, barking and pacing up and down the sidewalk.
