Criminal Behavior--A Thrilling FBI Romance

by Amanda Stevens

  “The proverbial needle in a haystack then.” Addie moved to the glass door to the right of the foyer. “I’ll start in her office. You can search her bedroom, seeing as how she wouldn’t have minded you going through her things.” Her blue eyes glinted as she glanced over her shoulder. “What was the word Ida used? Taken. Naomi was taken with you. Those emails must have really been something.”

  He gave her a warning look. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”

  “Sadly, no. But don’t begrudge me. I’ve waited a long time for this.”

  “I can tell.”

  The banter helped relieve a lingering tension, but Ethan reminded himself that one playful moment meant nothing. A few throwaway lines didn’t erase years of anger and resentment. Still, he hadn’t seen Addie so unguarded since his return, and his mind wandered into places he had no business going. They had always worked well together whether she wanted to admit it or not. It was their personal relationship that had come undone. What would their lives be like now if things had gone differently ten years ago? If he had been honest with her from the start? Would they still be together, married maybe, with a kid or two?

  Funny that he should even have such a thought. Ethan had never considered himself a family man. He was too much of a loner, too intensely focused on his career and in righting the wrongs of the past. Now he felt keenly the loss of something that was never meant to be. He carried too much baggage to ever have a chance with Addie again. He accepted the inevitable, but the thought of missing that smile every morning for the rest his life was a pain that had started to gnaw at his soul.

  “Ethan? Did you hear me?”

  He pulled himself out of his reverie. “I’m sorry?”

  She gave him a curious glance. “I said holler if you find anything.” She handed him a pair of disposable gloves from her bag.

  He snapped them on as she opened the office door. She stopped short, stared into the room for a moment and then said, “Looks like someone beat us to the punch.”

  He followed her into the office, and they both stood gazing around. The room had apparently been tossed and put back together in haste. Desk drawers were only partially closed, and books had been haphazardly returned to the shelves. A corner of the rug had been turned back. A piece of artwork hung askew.

  “There’s no computer,” Ethan said as he walked over to the desk. “Unusual for a writer. Unless someone took her laptop.” He opened drawers, searched through the contents and then checked for false bottoms.

  “Maybe she had it with her the night she was hit. I can check the list of personal effects when I go back to HQ.” Addie moved around the room, peering behind paintings and underneath seat cushions. “Do you know if she told anyone else about her DNA database searches?”

  “I doubt she did. She seemed extremely cautious and secretive about what she’d found. But she also never mentioned that her aunt was the reporter assigned to my father’s case or that her neighbor once wrote love letters to Orson Lee Finch.”

  “Maybe she didn’t tell anyone. Maybe she started asking questions and someone took notice of her interest. Hold that thought.” Addie left the room and came back a few minutes later. “No sign of a forced entry front or back. Both doors have dead bolts, and the windows in the rear have burglar bars. Whoever searched this office likely had a key. Or else Ida let someone else in.”

  Ethan hunkered down and looked underneath the desk, then ran his hand all along the bottom. “Maybe the driver removed Naomi’s key from her body before he fled the scene.”

  “He could have taken her laptop, too.” Addie sifted through the contents of the bookshelves. “The owner of the house would also have a key, wouldn’t she? Maybe we should pay Vivian DuPriest a visit. If she’ll see us, that is.”

  “Oh, I’m pretty sure she’ll see us,” Ethan said. “I’m James Merrick’s son and you’re the daughter of his victim. She won’t be able to resist.”

  “One way to find out.”

  “Agreed.” Ethan walked across the floor, testing for loose boards.

  “I find it curious that Naomi kept all her aunt’s bestsellers on display even though they had a falling-out. Most of them are autographed, too. To Naomi with greatest affection. She even has a picture of the two of them together. They looked pretty chummy when this shot was taken.” Addie studied the photograph. “She was pretty. Naomi. I couldn’t tell much about her appearance that night on the street.”

  Ethan understood the insinuation. A moving vehicle could do a lot of damage to the human body. He came over to check out the photograph. “I see now why Ida said Vivian DuPriest had a larger-than-life personality. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with hair quite that shade of red.”

  “She was always something of a character, the best I remember. A bohemian socialite, if there is such a thing. A local celebrity, for sure. Used to make all the morning talk-show rounds.” Addie returned the frame to the shelf. “You never answered Ida when she asked if you thought there could be a connection between Naomi’s death and Vivian’s attack.”

  “You may not like what I think.”

  Addie shrugged. “Let’s hear it.”

  “Crime-beat reporters cultivate sources in police departments. If someone leaked information about a cover-up to Vivian, she could have become a target.”

  Addie looked annoyed. “Nice theory, but no one has yet explained what this alleged cover-up entailed.”

  “I keep coming back to Naomi’s last email,” Ethan said. “She seemed certain the results of her DNA search could damage reputations.”

  “Like Gwen Holloway’s.”

  He eyed her uneasily. “Gwen Holloway wasn’t the only one who built a career on my father’s case. David Cutler became a local hero after he made the arrest.”

  Addie’s irritation quickened. “But unlike Gwen Holloway, he never cashed in on his notoriety. He stayed on the force as a detective and worked his way up through the ranks. He earned every promotion he got the hard way, and there is no one in the department with more integrity.”

  “People make mistakes. Even David Cutler. I know you consider him family, but no one’s infallible.”

  Her eyes glittered a warning. “David Cutler’s reputation isn’t up for debate or discussion. Let’s just get on with the search.”

  So much for an open mind, Ethan thought. He wasn’t as convinced of the deputy chief’s unimpeachable honor as she was, but for now he let the matter drop. Their alliance was still too tenuous to test the boundaries.

  A car door sounded, and Addie went over to the window to glance out. “We’ve got company.”

  Ethan moved up beside her. A patrol car had pulled up to the curb directly in front of the house. Two uniformed officers got out and converged on the sidewalk outside the gate.

  “What are they doing here?” Addie muttered. “Do you think Ida ratted us out?”

  “I think we shouldn’t stick around to find out.” Ethan cast a glance around the room to make sure they hadn’t left a trace of their visit. “Come on, let’s go.”

  Addie was still at the window watching the officers. “We can’t just run from the police. How do you think it’ll look if Ida mentions my name? Maybe I should go out there and talk to them.”

  “And say what? We don’t have a plausible excuse for being inside Naomi Quinlan’s house unless you tell them about the DNA results. And that would open a can of worms I’d rather you not have to deal with. It’s best if we avoid a confrontation.”

  “You’re forgetting that I have a vested interest in Naomi’s case. I was at the scene the night she died,” Addie said. “I could say I’m here on a follow-up, which I am, in a way.”

  “Is that a story you really want to try to sell to the deputy chief? Why borrow trouble?” He took her arm. “Let’s just get out of here.”

  She turned with a reluctant n
od and followed him through the house to a small sun porch at the back. She went out first and paused on the steps to glance around while Ethan locked the door with Ida’s key. Then she nodded an all clear.

  They hurried through the garden in a half crouch, using the back gate to escape from the premises. A dog barked from one of the enclosed yards as they jogged down the alley away from Naomi’s house. When they came to the end, they slowed to a walk and crossed the street, taking refuge behind the wrought iron gates of one the city’s oldest churchyards. No one was about, but the bells that tolled from the belfry seemed ominous.

  “Do you think we were spotted?” Addie asked.

  “No, we’re good for now.”

  “I don’t know if I would put it that optimistically. We did just run from the police.”

  “We avoided unnecessary contact.”

  She tucked back her hair. “You really are good with semantics, aren’t you? Not to mention justification.”

  “Addie—”

  She lifted her hand to silence his protest. “I know. No one twisted my arm.”

  He watched her for a moment. “We didn’t break any laws.”

  “Not yet. But you’ve only been in town a couple of days. Give it time.” There was no humor in her voice now. Not the slightest hint of her earlier teasing.

  She stepped back into the shade, taking a moment to cool down and catch her breath. The light slanting down through the trees picked up the gold flecks in her blue eyes. Her lips were slightly parted as she stared up at him, and for a moment, Ethan had to fight the urge to weave his fingers through her hair, pull her close and kiss her as he’d wanted to do since their first meeting at the Gainey house.

  Had that only been yesterday? Seemed like a lifetime ago, and yet in some ways, it felt as if they’d never been apart. Same old arguments. Same intense attraction. Memories flooded Ethan’s head. Desire clouded his good sense. Before he could stop himself, he lifted a hand to smooth back her hair.

  She caught her breath at his touch.

  “Addie.” He murmured her name as he wound a soft tendril around his finger.

  Sunlight danced like fire in her eyes. “You keep saying my name as if you expect me to just fall back under your spell. It won’t work, Ethan. You and I are not going to happen. We’ve established a temporary truce, but I still don’t trust you. You’re on a mission and I know how you get when you’re obsessed. Nothing else matters. Not food, not sleep. Not even the law.”

  “At least you didn’t say sex.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh, sex always mattered to you.”

  “And to you.”

  Their glazes clung for a moment, his hot and testing, hers fierce and defiant. He could see her now the way she’d looked at twenty-two. Naked in the moonlight as she ran toward the sea. Proudly uninhibited and breathtakingly beautiful. Come in with me, Ethan. The water feels like silk. Her skin wet, warm to his touch. Her legs wrapped around him as the waves gently rocked them.

  His pulse thudded at the memory. “Is it so inconceivable that I might have changed in ten years?”

  “We’ve both changed, Ethan. And yet here we are, right back where we left off. Running away from the police. Sneaking into places we have no business. Crossing fine lines. Risking everything for a case that was closed twenty-five years ago. I don’t blame you for any of that. You’ve made no pretense about your intentions. This time, it’s all on me. My choices, my consequences.” She moved up to the entrance, surveying the street before she turned back to him. “Did you ever ask yourself why we bring out the worst in each other? That maybe, just maybe, what happened to my mother at the hands of your father is a barrier too high for us to scale? That maybe we shouldn’t even try?”

  “All the time,” he said softly.

  He saw a shiver go through her as she wrapped her arms around her middle. Defensive. Uncertain. And angry with herself for feeling that way.

  “Addie...”

  “Say my name like that one more time and I swear—”

  He held up a hand to cut her off as the rumble of a powerful engine sounded nearby. He took a position on the opposite side of the gates.

  “False alarm,” he said.

  “We should get moving.”

  “Not yet. If anyone comes looking for us, we’ll be harder to spot in here than out on the street.”

  Her eyes glittered with frustration. “Who would come looking for us, Ethan?”

  “I told you earlier, Gwen Holloway is already gunning for us both.”

  “You seriously think she would hunt us down on the street?”

  His voice hardened. “She would do that and more if she considered either of us a threat. You need to at least trust me on that.”

  “Still a tall order,” Addie said bluntly. “Are you sure you’ve told me everything?”

  “You know as much as I do.”

  She paused as another car went by. She tracked the blue sedan until it turned at the next corner. “Now you’ve got me acting all paranoid.”

  “You know what they say. It’s not paranoid if someone is really out to get you.”

  Addie returned her focus to the street. She kept watch in one direction, Ethan the other. “You think Gwen had us followed to Naomi’s and then called the police on us? Why would she do that?”

  “To get us out of the house would be my guess.”

  Addie pondered that scenario for a moment. “For the sake of argument, let’s assume Gwen is behind everything. Let’s say she sent someone to search Naomi’s office to look for the DNA results. If she or her people called the cops to get us out of the house, then that likely means they didn’t find what they were looking for.” She spoke in a low, pensive tone, and Ethan didn’t interrupt her. He kept his gaze peeled while she sifted through her thoughts. “From everything I know about Gwen Holloway, she’s methodical and meticulous and she demands the same of her subordinates. How does that square with the sloppy search of Naomi’s office?”

  “They were in a hurry. They got interrupted.”

  “By us?” That possibility seemed to unnerve her. She glanced around anxiously. “We can’t hide in here forever. Let’s just go back to my car.”

  “You’re right,” he said. “You should go.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’d like another crack at finding that thumb drive.”

  Addie stared at him in alarm. “You don’t even know you’re looking for a thumb drive. Those DNA results could be hidden anywhere. And if Gwen is as dangerous and desperate as you seem to think, she’s bound to have someone watching the house. She won’t risk letting you inside again.”

  “I’ll be fine. Go out the main entrance of the churchyard and keep to the alleys as much as you can. You should be able to make it to your vehicle undetected.”

  Addie’s chin came up. “Don’t worry about me. I know all about the secret backstreets in this city.”

  He nodded. “I’m sure you do, but be careful anyway, okay?”

  The fire seemed to drain out of her then. She held his gaze for the longest moment before glancing away. “You’re the one who needs to be careful. Trouble always follows wherever you go.”

  “This is a dangerous time for both of us,” he said. “We’re shaking things up while we’re still in the dark. We don’t yet know who all the bad actors are.”

  Addie gave him a sidelong glance. “It’s always dangerous when you don’t know who you can trust.”

  “I trust you.”

  She fell silent. “Maybe you shouldn’t. I’m not as committed to this as you are. I have my own responsibilities and my own loyalties.”

  “Even so, you still came looking for me this morning.”

  “Don’t read too much into that,” she warned. “I’m only here because I want to put the past to rest for both of us. But you should know
that if push comes to shove, I intend to protect myself this time.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Still she lingered, her gaze dark and watchful. “Ethan?”

  “What is it, Addie?”

  “You shouldn’t have come back.”

  “Are you sorry I did?”

  She closed her eyes on a deep sigh. “No. And that worries me most of all.”

  He leaned back against the wall and watched her stride away, ponytail swinging, hips subtly swaying. Ethan had always admired her walk. Not cocky, not coy, just straight-up confident.

  He reluctantly turned away, moving through the gates and onto the sidewalk. The morning light hit him in the eyes, and he slipped his sunglasses back on, taking note of his surroundings—delivery trucks, parked cars, nearby businesses. A man crossing the street.

  Other than the one lone pedestrian, the area was quiet. Too quiet. The calm before the storm, Ethan thought as he headed back to Naomi Quinlan’s house.

  Chapter Eight

  Addie berated herself as she made her way across the churchyard, resisting the urge to glance over her shoulder to see if Ethan watched her. She’d felt his gaze on her back when she walked away, but maybe that had only been her imagination. Maybe the dark heat in his eyes and that knowing smile had only been wishful thinking.

  Addie, Addie, what are you doing?

  Was she really going down this road again when her future in the department had never looked brighter? Was she once more willing to risk it all because she couldn’t smother the embers of an old attraction?

  Ten years. Ten years and she still hadn’t gotten Ethan Barrow out of her system. What was it about him that could tie her in knots with nothing more than a fleeting smile or a lingering stare? Addie had convinced herself she was smarter than that. Tougher than that. And yet here you are.

  She shook off her doom and gloom as she left the churchyard and walked two blocks before ducking into another alley. She had other things to focus on at the moment. Like Naomi Quinlan’s hit-and-run. Like a possible match to the third DNA sample found at her mother’s murder scene.