Dead End

by Susan Sleeman

  Sierra ran a hand over her face. “Are we ever going to figure this out?”

  Reed didn’t want her to dwell on these discoveries, so he pointed at the Leatherman. “Did you find any prints on the Leatherman?”

  “I didn’t finish yet. Gonna take a bit longer.”

  Reed nodded. “Wish I could hang around to see what you find, but I have to go.”

  Nick stepped forward. “Before you go, I should mention I was able to go deeper into Caulfield’s computer and found a few heated emails between him and Kuznetsov.”

  “What about?” Reed asked.

  “Caulfield said he was leaving the country. Kuznetsov told him he didn’t want to find another accountant, and he didn’t want Caulfield to leave. Caulfield said he could keep doing the books from long distance. Kuznetsov didn’t like that idea. He said, and I quote, ‘I prefer to have my employees where I can keep an eye on them.’”

  “What did Caulfield say to that?” Sierra asked.

  “He refused to change his mind, and said as soon as his girlfriend sorted out a few things with her husband—yeah, she was married like we suspected—Caulfield would be leaving with her.”

  “Do you think Kuznetsov killed the girlfriend to keep Caulfield here?” Sierra asked.

  Reed recalled their meeting with the thug and his goons. “After talking to him, I wouldn’t put it past him. And if he didn’t personally do it, he could’ve had one of his bodyguards take care of her.”

  Sierra shuddered. “They certainly seemed capable of it.”

  Reed looked at Nick. “Did you find anything else that gives us a lead on her ID?”

  Nick shook his head. “Caulfield was super careful about that, which in itself should tell us something.”

  “Like what?” Sierra asked.

  “Like the husband must have been a seriously jealous guy if Caulfield resorted to burner phones and wouldn’t have any written communication with her.”

  “It’s looking more and more like this husband killed Caulfield,” Maya said. “Especially with the military style execution and stab wounds.”

  “Not to mention him shooting at Sierra,” Grady said.

  Reed nodded his agreement and wished he could stay to talk about this, but Adair was waiting.

  “I need to go.” He made eye contact with Blake, compelling the guy with his gaze to keep his promise and watch out for Sierra.

  Blake gave a crisp nod.

  “I’ll see you out.” Sierra went to the door.

  Reed followed her. At the elevator, he took her hand, stopping her from pressing her fingers against the print reader. “Promise me you won’t leave this building without me.”

  Her gorgeous honey-brown eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure I can promise that. An urgent lead could come in that I need to follow up on.”

  He didn’t like her answer. Not one bit. “Nothing is urgent enough to potentially risk your life over.”

  “You do it every day. Risk your life, I mean.”

  “But I’m trained on how to minimize that risk. You aren’t.”

  She tipped her head, seeming to buy into his explanation, but he still didn’t get that promise he needed.

  “Look,” he said. “I shouldn’t be at the office for long. I just have to fill out a form or two and turn in my gun. Then I can come right back here to make sure you’re safe.”

  “I appreciate that, but…”

  “But nothing.” He cupped the side of her face. “You know I care about you, and I protect those I care about. So please—please say you’ll stay here for the few hours it takes for me to do this.”

  “Okay, fine. But only if you stay available by phone so if something breaks, I can get ahold of you.”

  “I can do that.” He smiled and received a warm smile in response. He wanted to kiss her, but he wouldn’t in the hallway where one of her partners might see. So he dropped his hand and gestured at the fingerprint reader.

  They boarded the elevator and with the future uncertain, he knew he had to kiss her before he left. He crossed the car in three steps, looked deeply into her eyes then pulled her close. He plunged his hands into her hair and tilted her head back. She gave a small gasp before he lowered his head and kissed her. Hungry, needy, he let his kiss transmit every emotion he couldn’t put into words. She returned it. Matching him again.

  When the door dinged and opened, he gently stroked a thumb over her jaw while he got his breathing under control before he had to face their security guard.

  She blinked up at him, her breathing uneven. “What was that for?”

  “I want you to remember that while I’m gone. Remember what we could have together if only you’d be willing to risk it.” He caressed the side of her face with a gentle touch. “I know it’s all I’ll be thinking about.”

  Sierra stood outside, the night cool, the sky overcast as Reed walked to his car. Each step he took felt like a literal punch to her gut. She didn’t know when she would see him again, and the thought troubled her more than she would have thought.

  At his vehicle, he turned to look at her. “Go back inside, honey.”

  She was suddenly catapulted back in time to the shooting. He’d called her “honey” then, too, and she hadn’t really thought about it. But now, here, while she was thinking straight again, she could hardly breathe for thinking of the implications. Honey implied something. Definitely something more than coworkers and more than just two people who were attracted to each other. It implied a future. A relationship.

  “Sierra,” he said firmly. “Go inside or I’m not leaving.”

  “Sorry.” She gave an innocent wave of her hand when her brain was still wrapped up in his intentional use of the endearment.

  She backed to the door and pressed her fingers on the print reader to hurry inside.

  Pete stood by the door watching her. “Heard about the shooting. You okay?”

  She nodded.

  “You don’t look okay. You look shell-shocked.”

  Yeah, but not from the shooting. From the implications of this amazing man falling for her. Or more likely, from the fact that she found herself wanting the man to fall for her. Something she’d never felt before. Never. And oddly, it didn’t panic her in the way she thought it might. Just scared her a tiny bit.

  “It will get better with time,” Pete said.

  She forgot about Reed for a moment to smile at Pete. “Thanks.”

  “And if you want to talk about it, I’ve been through the same thing—and more—and would be glad to help.”

  She squeezed his arm. “You’re the best, Pete, and maybe I’ll take you up on it.”

  He gave a firm nod and walked her to the inner door that he unlocked and held open for her. He considered the partners his children and wanted to protect them. She didn’t want him to worry so she pulled her shoulders back.

  She stepped into the elevator, and the memory of Reed’s intense kiss came rushing back. She touched her lips and remembered how his touch felt. Thought about him just like he told her he would be doing with her. Yeah, she wanted to see where this thing with them might go, but was she ready?

  Can you help me with that, God?

  She gave it more thought as she exited the elevator and headed toward her lab. She knew God could help, but it would still take action on her part to trust in God and let go of her fear of commitment and step out in faith.

  She pushed open her lab door, not at all surprised to find her partners waiting for her. They wouldn’t have left until they were sure she was okay, and they had all worked together to form a game plan to investigate the shooting.

  “We need to call hospitals,” Maya was saying. “If this guy was injured enough to leave a blood trail, he likely needs medical attention.”

  Grady shook his head. “If he’s a former Ranger and the wound hasn’t damaged muscle or bone, he’ll most likely handle it himself.”

  “Either way, I figure he won’t go to a hospital for fear of being arrested,” Blake sai
d. “But we should still make those calls.”

  Sierra tipped her head at the fingerprint station. “I need to finish processing the Leatherman and the slugs before I do any calling.”

  “You do your thing,” Blake said. “I’ll distribute a list of hospitals, and we can each take a facility or two. That way if he has gone in for care, we’ll get a jump on finding him. And if he hasn’t, we can alert the ER staff to be on the lookout for him.”

  Sierra was coming to appreciate Blake’s investigative thinking more and more with each passing day.

  Grady clamped a hand on the back of his neck. “This guy leave any brass behind?”

  Sierra shook her head. “Just blood, the Leatherman, and slugs.”

  He nodded his understanding. “Get those slugs to me the minute you’re finished. I know we don’t have a gun for comparison, but there might be something about them that gives us a lead.”

  “Will do.”

  “And I want to look at the video,” Nick said. “Maybe I can enhance it and see something that could help ID this guy.”

  If she’d been thinking clearly, she would have asked Reed for a copy, but first the shooting and then the kissing left her brain foggy. “I’ll text Reed and ask him to send it to you.”

  Nick gave a firm and very serious nod for the usually easygoing guy. “If I don’t have it within the hour, I’ll be nagging you for it.”

  “Understood,” she said and got her phone out so the minute they left she would remember to text Reed.

  Emory held out her hand. “I’ll take the blood sample with me.”

  Sierra went to her kit sitting on the first table where she’d dropped it when she and Reed had arrived. She pulled out the vial, the sight of the blood raising her anxiety and she had to swallow hard to be able to hand the vial to Emory without tears in her eyes.

  “Okay, people.” Blake clapped his hands. “Let’s move. I’ll email the list within the next five minutes.”

  “Thank you,” Sierra smiled at the men and women who’d become a second family to her.

  Kelsey ran her gaze over Sierra, looking for what Sierra didn’t know.

  “You want someone to stay with you for moral support?” Kelsey asked.

  Tears threatened again, but Sierra shook her head. “I have work to do, and that’ll keep me occupied.” At least she hoped the work was enough to keep her mind off both the shooting and her unexpected feelings for Reed.

  The team trooped out the door, and Sierra suddenly felt very alone and instead of liking being on her own as she usually did, the solitude disturbed her. She fired off a quick text to Reed, but didn’t expect to hear back from him as he would still be driving.

  She crossed the room, noticing the space that was usually comforting felt big and even more empty without Reed. She already missed him, and he’d only been gone for a few minutes.

  How would she feel when the investigation ended if they didn’t pursue a relationship and she never saw him again?

  Reed’s CarPlay app announced a text from Sierra, and his heart nearly stopped beating before he played the message asking him to send the video to Nick.

  Reed took a long breath and let it out, thankful for the rest of the drive to calm down. If he showed up a wreck in front of Adair, the guy would think Reed’s stress was from the shooting when the only stress that Reed felt was from not stopping the Ranger in his tracks.

  He pulled up to the secured parking structure, and while he waited for the security barrier to lower, he sent the video to Nick and replied to Sierra telling her he did.

  Thank you, came her reply.

  He imagined her saying it to him person. Maybe while she was still remembering that kiss. The one that told him in no uncertain terms that he’d fallen in love with her, and that she had feelings for him if only she would admit it and be willing to pursue them. He could only hope that she took his comment to heart and was thinking about a potential future together.

  The barrier lowered to ground level. He parked in the structure and rushed into the building as he was already late for Adair’s deadline. The Portland office was the second FBI location he’d been assigned to, and in addition to Portland being his hometown, he appreciated the newness of the building. The office used to be located in downtown Portland, but after 9/11, the building was deemed no longer secure enough, so this building had been constructed. Now about six years old, it felt nearly new and had state-of-the-art security.

  He went straight to Adair’s office. His boss turned from looking out of his window that had a clear view of Mount Hood. He wore a white shirt, sleeves rolled up, and gray-and-blue striped tie. His hair was short, inky black and laced with silver, and his body was toned from hours at the gym. He looked up, his green eyes piercing Reed who froze on the spot.

  “About time,” he said. “I was about to track you down.”

  Reed didn’t explain his delay. He simply stepped forward and laid his handgun on Adair’s desk.

  “Sit,” Adair commanded.

  Reed perched on a chair and waited.

  Adair opened his laptop and looked over it at Reed. “Let’s get the paperwork started.”

  Reed nearly groaned. This report could take hours, and he mistakenly hoped Adair would just order Reed to complete it, not sit here and fill it out together.

  Reed shoved his hand into his pocket and rested it on his phone. He’d set it to vibrate and didn’t want to risk missing a text or call from Sierra. She was his top priority, and if she needed him, he would gladly bolt from this office.

  25

  Sierra swirled a brush over the back side of the Leatherman. A beautiful latent print developed before her eyes. She grabbed her camera to take a close-up picture and lifted the print to a card. She wanted to share her excitement with Reed and would text him, but he couldn’t do anything about it right now, and she didn’t want to distract him from his meeting.

  She dialed Blake instead. “I found a print on the Leatherman. Do you have anyone who could run an army print this late at night?”

  “I do,” he said eagerly. “Be right up to get it.”

  “I’ll have a digital file ready for you.” She disconnected and at her desk, she transferred the pictures from her camera to her computer and put them on a flash drive.

  The door lock clicked, and Blake barreled into the room with his phone to his ear.

  She held out the flash drive. “How long do you think this will take?”

  He repeated the question into the phone and listened. “He says five minutes or less once he receives the file.”

  She didn’t want to waste even a second. “I can send it from here to save time.”

  Blake nodded and grabbed a pen from her desk to jot down his buddy’s email address. She entered it into her email program, doublechecking to be sure she had it correct. She’d hate for it to get lost in cyberspace and lose valuable time.

  Blake told his friend to expect the file from her.

  She attached the photo files to her email and clicked send. “Done.”

  “Call me back when you have something,” Blake said into the phone. He pocketed the device, but remained standing by her desk, watching her like he might do when interviewing a suspect. She felt the heavy weight of his study.

  “It finally feels like we might be getting somewhere,” she said to break the tension. “Too bad Reed’s not here to see it.”

  Blake continued to watch her, looking like he was waffling over what to say. She got up and took the slugs to the fuming chamber.

  He followed her. “You seem to have gotten close to Reed.”

  She didn’t know Blake all that well. Definitely not well enough for him to bring up a personal topic that she hadn’t even processed yet. She settled the slugs in the chamber and kept quiet.

  “Same thing happened with me and Emory,” he added.

  Wow. Now he was sharing about his private life. Totally unexpected and she didn’t know how to respond. She put the water into the chamber d
oor and closed the machine. She should probably face him, but she still didn’t know what to say.

  “I’ll take your silence to mean you don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “So what are you going to work on now?”

  Yeah, what was she going to work on? They might have the print for Caulfield’s killer—maybe a way to ID the woman in the tub—but that might not lead to finding Eddie. So what would?

  On solid footing now, she turned to look at Blake. “Do you need me to call hospitals?”

  He shook his head.

  “Then I’m going to ask Nick for any articles his algorithm located on the brick and start looking at those pictures.”

  He nodded. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll head back down to make more calls. I’ll let you know the minute I hear anything about the print.”

  He strode to the door, but paused hand on handle to look back at her. “You’re probably thinking all of this with Reed is too fast. Maybe it is. Only you know. But he’s proved time and again that he’s a good guy so trust your gut.”

  He pulled open the door and stepped out, leaving her stunned for a moment. She started to ponder his comments, but what good would that do. Finding Eddie was what she needed to concentrate on.

  She texted Nick and was soon sitting at her desk behind her computer with the list he’d emailed. She read through several stories including one that held a picture of an old brick church with profanity spray-painted on the exterior. The story talked about a recent epidemic of graffiti that hit northeast Portland and about how the congregation had donated extra money to have the brick sandblasted.

  “Of course,” she said, sitting back. “The brick dust mixed with sand. Why didn’t I think of sandblasting?”

  But it wasn’t like Eddie had been held at this church for a month. She moved on to additional articles until she came upon one about an older warehouse covered in similar graffiti. The building was undergoing sandblasting before the owner put it up for sale. He was quoted, and at seeing his name, she fell back into her chair.

  This was Ira Caulfield’s building. Ira’s!