In Too Deep

by Lynn H. Blackburn

  “It’s possible he was, but that’s the other thing that doesn’t make sense. Both attempts were up close and personal.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The first attempt was hands-on. He got in her path and wrestled with her. And after she was knocked out, he could have used a gun to kill her quickly and still gotten away, but he didn’t. It makes me wonder if his first choice was to kill her with his own bare hands.”

  Adam couldn’t stop the shudder that rippled through him. “But he didn’t have any trouble using a gun tonight.”

  “True, but even there, he was going for a close-range shot. And we saw what happened. There’s blood and brain all over the place. You can’t avoid it.”

  Adam got the point. “Someone didn’t mind the mess.”

  “Which makes them either a professional, which is unlikely because they would have done a better job if it, or we’re dealing with someone who wants some vengeance. For something.” Gabe took a sip of his coffee. “Hard to imagine she could make anyone that mad.”

  “I can’t think of any cases she’s worked for us that would generate this kind of response, but she works for departments all over the country. I don’t know the details of those.”

  “Tomorrow you need to get the details, and you need to get more intrusive into her personal life.” Gabe gave Adam a meaningful look. “She’s not going to like it.”

  “Not going to like what?” Anissa entered the kitchen. Hair wet. Face scrubbed.

  Gabe slid a coffee cup toward her. She nodded a thank-you and poured a cup.

  “Someone’s targeting Sabrina,” he said. “We’re going to have to get all up in her business.”

  “Beats the alternative.” Anissa reached for a cupcake. “How many of these did you eat?”

  Gabe was the picture of innocence.

  “Don’t look at me.” Adam lifted one finger. “I’ve had one.”

  She broke off the bottom of her cupcake and crammed it on the top, sandwiching the icing in the middle.

  “You’re weird.” Gabe handed her a napkin.

  “Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “That’s how I meant it.”

  She took a huge bite and Adam gave her a chance to swallow before asking, “How is she?”

  “Shaken. Scared. Afraid for you. For all of us. Confused. Questioning. She’s reacting exactly the way you’d expect anyone to be in her case. Except for the part where she’s smarter than any of us so her mind is spiraling multiple steps out from where we are now. She’s got moves and countermoves in her head, but she can’t get a handle on what triggered these attacks. She says she has no idea who would be doing this or why.”

  They sat with their cupcakes and thoughts. Gabe got up and poured everyone another cup of coffee.

  Still no Sabrina.

  “Should I go check on her?” Adam asked Anissa.

  “Give her a few more minutes. She’s had a hard night.”

  “So have you,” Gabe said.

  Anissa traced the rim of her coffee cup. “I was doing my job. I’m trained for this. She isn’t.”

  “Okay.” Gabe didn’t seem to want to press her any further tonight, but the look he gave Adam told him he didn’t believe her either.

  Anissa was officially on administrative leave pending the outcome of both an internal and external investigation into tonight’s shooting. The outcome wasn’t in question, but it didn’t change the fact that she’d had to leave her badge and her weapon at the office. The weapon she had with her now was her personal one. And given the events of the evening, she was unlikely to be without it for a while.

  She’d probably be able to return to work by Monday, but she’d be on desk duty for at least six weeks. And she was looking at mandatory psych evals and counseling.

  It seemed like a good time to change the subject. “So when did Claire say she’d have something for us?” Adam asked.

  “Possibly tomorrow, but it could be Saturday,” Gabe answered. “It depends on when they get to the autopsy. But do you think the autopsy is going to tell us anything? We already know how he died.”

  Anissa flinched at Gabe’s remark. Adam was pretty sure Gabe noticed, but he was trying not to let on. “Claire will be using everything else—fingerprints, DNA, personal effects, facial recognition, surveillance cameras—to try to figure out who this guy is.”

  “I’d like to think we can trust her to keep us in the loop. Can we?” Adam reached for another cupcake.

  “Yes,” Gabe said. “I worked an undercover case with her—joint task force between the city, county, and state. She’s solid. And she’s not the type that needs recognition. She just wants to stop the bad guys.”

  “So tomorrow we find out who our bad guy was, and then—”

  “We figure out why he tried to kill me.” Sabrina spoke from the edge of the kitchen.

  “That’s the plan,” Gabe said. “Cupcake?”

  “I’m not hungry, but thanks.”

  “Eat a cupcake, Sabrina.” Anissa pulled one off the platter and set it on a small paper plate. “Trust me. You’ll feel better.”

  “I’m not sure about that.” Sabrina slid onto the barstool beside Adam. Gabe poured a cup of coffee and set it beside her. “Thanks.”

  She pulled the paper from the cupcake and set it on the plate. Then she tackled it with one of the forks Leigh had left out for them. For someone who wasn’t hungry, she made awfully short work of it and reached for another. “How’s Pete?” she asked.

  Gabe muttered something under his breath and Anissa elbowed him. “It wasn’t his fault, Gabe.” She turned to Sabrina. “He’s fine. Just mad.”

  “What happened?” Sabrina took another bite of cupcake.

  “He’s having a hard time piecing it together,” Anissa said, “so Claire’s going to get the security footage from the store. The last thing he remembers was a teenage boy running straight at him. Pete was in plain clothes, so the kid didn’t know he was a cop. He said the kid wasn’t that big, so he figured he’d be able to tackle him with no problem. And it wasn’t a problem. Except for the part where we found him propped against the wall asleep—and struggled to wake him up. He was drugged somehow. We just aren’t sure of the specifics.”

  “Poor Pete.” She wiped her mouth with a napkin and looked up. “I know I stink at reading body language, but you three are about as subtle as a Fourth of July fireworks show. What aren’t you telling me?”

  Gabe laughed. Anissa smiled. But both of them looked at Adam for the response. “We aren’t keeping anything specific from you. But tomorrow we’re going to need to dig into your past. Your parents, your college professors, your students, your cases. Somewhere there’s someone who is very unhappy with you.”

  “Great. I’m sure I’ll sleep like the righteous with that to look forward to.”

  “Sorry,” Anissa whispered.

  “Don’t be.” She stood and put her now-empty coffee cup in the dishwasher. “I’m going to bed. You guys can interrogate me in the morning. Good night.” She smiled at all of them and hurried out of the kitchen.

  “Aren’t you going to follow her?” Anissa asked Adam.

  “No. I think she needs some space.”

  “I agree.” Gabe dumped his coffee down the drain. “Let’s reconvene in the morning. Who knows? Maybe our subconsciouses will make some sense out of things as we sleep.”

  “Or not.”

  Two hours later, Adam’s phone rang.

  “Campbell.”

  “Sorry to wake you, Adam.”

  It took Adam’s sleep-fogged brain a few seconds to process the voice, but once it did, he jumped to his feet and grabbed his weapon. “Lane, what’s wrong?” Lane Edwards was on patrol outside the house tonight. The last thing Adam had done before turning in was to make Lane promise to call him if anything suspicious happened.

  “Nothing’s wrong, but I thought you might want to know that you are, or were, the only one asleep in the house.
”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Dr. Fleming is in the dining room with a laptop. She’s been in there for about thirty minutes. And Gabe and Anissa are having a . . . um . . . conversation. On the dock.”

  Conversation? “What exactly are Gabe and Anissa doing?” Were they—no. They didn’t even like each other.

  “I don’t want to get in the middle of it,” Lane said. “Anissa’s my dive team captain.”

  “She’s mine too. And Gabe’s. So what’s going on?”

  “I think she might’ve had a nightmare. She was on the porch, and I think she’d been crying. When I came around on my patrol, she told me she’d be on the dock and to leave her alone. The next time I came around, Gabe was with her. I think he’s trying to help her process everything from tonight, but I’m not going close enough to find out, and I don’t recommend you do either.”

  “Good idea.”

  He hung up the phone and made his way up the stairs, pausing when he caught sight of Sabrina. Her hair was pulled up in its usual messy twist thing. Her glasses were on the end of her nose. She had a bottle of water beside her, but it was unopened. She was sitting at the dining room table and she had three notepads—two on one side of the computer and one on the other.

  “I can see you, Adam.” She didn’t look up. “Go back to sleep.”

  “Not gonna happen.”

  “There’s no sense in none of us sleeping. At the rate we’re going, you may be the only one fit for duty tomorrow.”

  He stepped into the dining room. “What are you working on?”

  She still didn’t look up. “I’m making a list of everyone who would want to kill me.”

  He glanced at the notepads. All but one of them were empty. He couldn’t quite read the one word she’d written.

  “How’s that going?”

  “It’s not a long list.” She shuddered. Was she cold? Or was it the idea of whoever had made it onto the list that frightened her?

  He leaned against a chair. “Care to tell me who you’ve eliminated?”

  “Almost everyone I know.”

  “That’s good.”

  She continued to stare at her monitor with unseeing eyes.

  “Are you willing to tell me who made the list?”

  She blinked several times before turning to focus on him. When she did, the pain and confusion in her eyes pulled him toward her like a black hole. He knelt beside her and put an arm around her. “Bri? What’s wrong?”

  “I can only think of one person.” She tapped the paper.

  He slid the notepad toward him and read the one word she’d written.

  Mom.

  20

  If Adam was shocked, he didn’t show it.

  “Can you tell me why you put her on the list?”

  “A lot of little things. A lot of big things. The main big one is that I suspect that she held a human being as a slave for a decade. That’s not something she would want to be publicly known. And of course there’s the fact that, other than a few charities, she’s the beneficiary of almost everything I have or will have when I turn thirty. If she kills me now, she gets it all.”

  “Those are strong motives.”

  “That’s why she’s on the list and why I’m about to get all up in her business.” How she dreaded it. What else might she find?

  Adam’s forehead wrinkled. “I don’t want you to have to dig into her life. I’ll do it. First thing tomorrow.”

  “I can do it.” She couldn’t shove this off on anyone else.

  “I know.” He reached for her laptop and gently closed the lid. “But that doesn’t mean you should. Anything you find out about her could be considered invalid if we wind up going to trial.”

  “Not when I’m the expert.”

  “Exactly. You’re the expert. And as the expert, we need you to stay on Lisa Palmer’s case. I can’t help as much with that. I can help with this.”

  He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “You need to sleep.”

  “I can’t. I keep hearing the gun—” She would be hearing that pop-pop for the rest of her life. “I can even smell it. Smell him.”

  “Then I’ll stay with you.” He led her into the living room and set a pillow on one end of the sofa.

  She sat on the edge as he walked to a basket by the fireplace. She would humor him for a few minutes and then she would get back to work.

  He returned with a blanket. “Please. At least try.”

  She rested her head on the pillow and he tucked the blanket around her. He planted a light peck on her forehead. “Go to sleep, Bri. I’ll be right here.”

  She thought he might sit at her feet, but instead he grabbed a pillow, tossed it on the floor near her head, and took a seat.

  He must have taken a shower before he went to bed because she could smell his shampoo. Not anything overpowering, but enough that it drove the scent of bullets and death away. She studied the back of his neck, his shoulders. He wasn’t leaning back against the sofa, but instead he had his arms draped around his knees.

  She wondered why until she caught the outline of the bandage through his T-shirt. “Does your back still hurt?”

  “Not too much,” he said. “Leigh’s probably going to take the bandage off tomorrow. I mostly notice it when I lie down. I’m a side sleeper, so it hasn’t been too bad.”

  “Good.” She was losing the battle with consciousness, but she was terrified of what was waiting for her in her sleep.

  “Bri, I’m praying for you. Right now. Go to sleep, babe.”

  And she did.

  When she woke Friday morning, he was asleep on the floor beside her. That didn’t surprise her, but the sight of Anissa in the recliner and Gabe in the oversized chair did. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who’d been having nightmares.

  Except . . . she hadn’t. At least, she didn’t think she had. She checked her watch. Six thirty. The darkness outside was fading.

  Motion on the deck caught her eye. She almost reached for Adam but relaxed when she recognized the figure of Lane pacing back and forth. He seemed like a good guy. Young. Eager. Kind.

  Father, protect him as he protects me. Protect all of them. Show me what to do. Help me see beyond my fears and insecurities to what is the truth of this situation. Help us free the captives. And help me accept whatever I must face in the days ahead. Help me remember you love the fatherless and the orphans. That even when our parents abandon and desert us, you never will. Help me to be able to forgive as you forgave, because there is no way I’ll be able to do that on my own.

  Adam stirred on the floor. His eyes fluttered open and found hers. “Hey,” he whispered. “How did you sleep?”

  “Fine. I think.”

  His sleepy smile was quite possibly the most attractive thing she had ever seen, and she had to force herself to stay on the sofa. “I fell asleep too. I woke up when Gabe and Anissa came in, but then I crashed.”

  “Came in?” Where had they gone?

  “Long story. I’ll explain later.”

  He rolled into a sitting position and rested his chin on the sofa inches from her. “You’re beautiful.”

  She could feel the blush spreading all over her body. If he thought she was beautiful first thing in the morning, then he was delusional. Not that she minded this type of delusion.

  “I’ll make us some coffee,” he said. “It’s going to be a long day.”

  He wasn’t kidding. She’d gotten to her lab by eight thirty, which given the amount of security Adam, Gabe, and Anissa had insisted on, was a small miracle. She still had Dave on the inside, which was quite comforting. But he wasn’t alone. He’d been joined by someone named Evan. Outside the lab were two more officers whose names she’d not heard. And then, as if it wasn’t crazy enough around there, they’d called Tyler from campus security. He was circling the building every three minutes.

  She was not going to be able to live like this. And she had one huge problem.

  She still didn’t h
ave a dress.

  The gala was tonight. Why they held the gala on a Friday night was a mystery to her, although apparently it had been that way forever and no one was willing to change it.

  She’d tried to get out of it. She’d volunteered to stay at Leigh’s, barricaded behind closed doors with a phalanx of officers patrolling the house, but no one had liked her plan.

  “Sabrina, we have tons of security at the gala. You’ll be safer there than anywhere else,” Gabe said.

  “We’ll have your back,” Anissa said.

  Anissa was still going with Gabe. Since they were volunteering their services and weren’t technically there on official police business, the captain had agreed to it.

  “I would never consider having you there if I thought you’d be in danger,” Adam said. “You’ll be with me all night. Gabe and Anissa will stay close. We’ve reviewed the list of officers providing security and they’re all great. Plus we’re going to add a few others of our own that The Porterhouse staff won’t know about.”

  She still didn’t know if it was a good idea.

  Her phone buzzed. Leigh. She held on tight because Leigh was going to be a mess. “Hello.”

  “I have so many things I want to say right now.” Leigh’s voice quavered. “But Anissa told me to stay focused. You need a dress and I can help you.”

  “I wouldn’t be able to wear anything of yours.” Leigh was at least four inches shorter than Sabrina. And probably a size two.

  “I’m not talking about my clothes. Don’t stress about it. Come to my house at two o’clock. We’ll make it happen.”

  This made absolutely no sense, but Leigh was very hard to argue with. “Fine.”

  “Sabrina?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Thanks.”

  She heard Leigh sniff as she disconnected the call, but she couldn’t dwell on it. The last thing she needed was to start crying.

  She poured herself into her methodical search of Lisa Palmer’s hard drive. When she found a file that looked promising, she sent it to Mike. Mostly she found a lot of stuff that had zero relevance to this case.

  She worked through lunch. There had to be more there. Finally, around one o’clock she pulled up a few files that seemed out of place. Lots of receipts from the same restaurant. There had to be something significant about it. She’d gotten so focused that she jumped when her phone rang.