Damsel in Danger (Danger Incorporated Book 1) (13 page)

“How about we go inside and sit down? West will make you some tea,” Jason offered. “Seth said he was releasing the apartment? They searched it for clues?”

“Yes, he called me this morning and said I could come back and get my things. I don’t want to sleep here alone.” Lita shuddered but reached into her purse and pulled out a set of keys. “I’m going to move in with my parents until they catch whoever did this.”

They followed Lita into the apartment and sat down on the couch but Jason’s fingers were flying over his cell phone, texting Seth to find out how serious the injuries were and if they had any suspects. West took off his cowboy hat and set it on the side table while Lita settled on a chair to Jason’s right.

“If you point me in the right direction I’ll fix that tea for you, ma’am,” West offered.

Lita scrubbed at her cheeks and shook her head. “I don’t really need it but I guess I should be offering you something since you’re the guest. I think we have some sodas in the refrigerator.”

Jason shook his head, sympathy welling up inside him for this young woman. She’d been through the wringer and when he told her about Roger it was only going to get worse. He needed to be as gentle in his questioning as possible.

“We don’t need anything. I’d like to hear about what happened to Anita and why you thought it might have something to do with her cases. Can you tell me about that?”

Lita’s fingers plucked at the upholstery on the chair arm. “I think a murderer that she was investigating shot her because she was getting too close to the truth. You see, Anita likes to investigate unsolved cases. You know…murders and missing people. That’s how she met Roger. They were both in some online group and found out they lived pretty close to one another. They’d meet up about once a week and exchange information. Talk about their research. It was pretty much her whole world when she wasn’t working. She was really passionate about it and I guess he is too.” She slapped her head and groaned. “Has anyone told him about Anita? I don’t have his number but I can get it from Anita when she wakes up. He’ll probably want to visit her in the hospital.”

Jason exchanged a glance with his brother. Lita needed to be told the truth.

“Roger Gaines was shot three days ago,” Jason said as gently and calmly as he could. “They found his body in the motor inn in Tremont. Do you know what he was doing there?”

Lita’s face paled and her hands trembled as she scraped her fingers through her short hair. “He’s dead? Are you sure?”

Very sure.

“I mean…are you sure it was Roger?” Lita said softly, more tears spilling over at the news.

“Yes, we’re sure. That’s why we wanted to speak to Anita. We wanted to know who might have wanted to hurt Roger. Did she ever talk to you about him?”

“Now and then. Like I said they worked on cases together. But they weren’t romantic or anything,” Lita added hastily. “It wasn’t like that even if Roger said it was.”

“Roger didn’t tell us that Anita was his girlfriend. Roger’s friend Brad Enright did. Did you ever meet him or hear about him?” West asked, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees.

“No. Never heard of him.” Lita frowned. “You’ll have to ask Anita when she wakes up. She had surgery last night. I stopped by this morning but she’s still asleep.”

Jason’s phone vibrated. A text from Seth.

“Excuse me. I need to take this.”

Jason stepped into the next room which turned out to be the kitchen to see what Seth had to say. His answer was quick and to the point.

Anita Hazlitt had been shot walking home from a study session with friends last night. Serious injuries but doctors were optimistic. No witnesses. Why was Jason asking?

He’d call Seth and give him the whole story when they were done talking to Lita. Punching out a brief reply, Jason rejoined West and the young woman who looked even more frightened than she had when they first met her.

“Lita, do you know what case Anita and Roger were working on?”

This was the best lead they’d had so far. Perhaps Anita and Roger had been onto something. Or someone. Someone willing to kill to keep them silent.

“No, I didn’t really listen that closely.” Lita grabbed a tissue from the box on the end table and blew her nose. “But I think I know how I can find out. Anita was a little strange about the cases she worked on. She didn’t leave anything around the house about them.”

Which meant Seth’s investigators wouldn’t have found anything to help them identify the shooter.

“Where did she keep things?” West asked. “At work? Maybe her parents’ house?”

Lita stood and walked over to a desk in the corner of the living room and rummaged through the middle drawer. “She’d never trust anyone that much. She kept everything hidden in her car.”

As someone who had worked in the DEA for years, Jason knew very well there were several places a person could hide secrets in a vehicle. If Lita didn’t know exactly where, Jason was sure he could find it.

Lita held up a single silver key. “This is to her trunk. She keeps everything under the spare tire.”

Jason had to temper his excitement and stay calm despite wanting to grab the key and race down the stairs. This could be the “what” he and West had been waiting for.

A suspect and a damn motive.

“You lead the way and we’ll follow.” He and West stood, allowing Lita to walk ahead of them toward the door.

They needed to see whatever was hidden in Anita’s car. Then they needed to talk to Seth and see if he had any suspects, plus let him know what they’d found out and how the two murders were probably linked. And last but not least, talk to Anita if and when she woke up and was able to speak and answer questions. That might not be for awhile.

But at least now they had a direction – a lead. Something they could work until they found the killer or another clue. They were in a better position than they’d been driving here.

Finally things were looking up.

*

“So how do
you know Jason?” Brinley asked as she and Logan Wright played blackjack out on Jason’s back deck. It was another gorgeous sunny day and neither one of them had wanted to stay cooped up in the house. The repairmen had come and gone and now she had a shiny new door with a whale of a lock that would take a battering ram to knock it down.

Logan dealt her two cards, one face up and one face down before dealing himself the same.

“Work,” Logan grunted, his eyes on his cards – a two and a ten. “He’s actually pretty close friends with Reed Mitchell but then we all started helping each other about five years ago. He was a damn good agent.”

Brinley had no doubt about that. Jason would excel at everything he did. That’s just who he was.

“Do you all do dangerous things?”

Logan chuckled at her question. “That’s why I joined in partnership with Jason and Jared. I have a wife and kids and wanted to make sure I spent many happy years with them. But if you’re asking if we’ve done dangerous things the answer is yes. But I don’t think that’s your real question. I think you want to know if we miss it.”

She had a lousy poker face apparently. “Do you?”

“Sometimes. There’s an adrenaline rush that you can’t get anywhere else.”

Brinley didn’t think she’d felt an adrenaline rush like that in her entire life. Ever.

“Do you think Jason will go back to the DEA?”

“Doubtful. I think he’s done with government bureaucracies. But maybe that’s a question you should ask him,” Logan replied. Her casual questioning clearly didn’t fool him. He tapped her cards. “Are you holding?”

It appeared Logan was done answering personal queries about Jason. She shook her head. “Hit me.”

Logan scowled and didn’t deal the card. “You’re supposed to stay on anything above sixteen or seventeen. You’re going to go over.”

“You don’t know that for sure unless you’re cheating,” Brinley answered with a teasing smile. “So hit me.”

A slow grin spread across Logan’s face. “I like your style, Brinley Snow. Fearless. I’m not too fond of rules myself. You want a card, you got it.”

Holding her breath, she waited as his hand seemed to move in slow motion. She was far from fearless. Stupid was probably a better word for it.

Three of spades. Logan laughed and shook his head.

“You have the luck with you today. Let’s see if I do.”

Logan dealt himself a king of clubs. Busted. She’d won. It was…unexpected.

“You looked shocked,” Logan observed, gathering the cards up to reshuffle the deck. “If you thought you were going to lose why did you do it?”

That was an excellent question. One she wasn’t sure she could explain but she’d try without going into all the gory details of her personal life.

“I was tired of playing it safe, following the rules,” she said finally after a long pause. “It’s what I’ve done my whole life and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. And a card game with nothing riding on it seemed like a good time to try it out.”

“You kind of remind me of my wife Ava,” Logan said, rubbing his chin. “She got tired of that too. Her family had put her in a neat little box of who they thought she should be.”

That sounded very familiar. “So what did she do?”

Logan flashed a wicked grin that probably melted the panties off of most women. “Took a ride on my motorcycle.”

I just bet she did.
The hotter than firecrackers lawman probably had to beat them off with a broom before he was married.

Brinley cleared her throat and tried to hold in her laughter. “Is that some sort of euphemism?”

Logan gave her a blank look and then realization dawned along with amusement. “Nope, it was a real Harley. She said it felt like flying and she was right. There’s nothing like the feeling of freedom. I highly recommend it if you’re thinking about starting to color outside the lines.”

Brinley liked the way he phrased it. Coloring outside the lines. It wasn’t that she wanted to go on a crime spree and knock over a bank; she just wanted to take a few chances for a change. Stay up late. Eat ice cream for breakfast. Show up late to a movie and miss the previews.

Take a chance with a sexy wounded lawman named Jason Anderson.

“Hmmmm… A Harley riding second grade teacher. I would certainly make an impression on the parents.”

“If you’re going to take chances you have to stop worrying about what other people think about your decisions.” Logan leaned forward, a smile playing on his lips. “I’m going to tell you a secret. Most people are so damn worried about themselves they don’t have time to worry about what you’re doing. And the few that do? They’re not worth worrying about, always with their noses in other people’s business. It’d be a better world if we stopped judging everybody by what they drive or how they’re dressed. That’s just my two cents, of course.”

“I haven’t taken many chances in my life,” Brinley sighed, knowing Logan was right. “I’m a big fraidy-cat.”

“Funny, but you don’t act like one. You’ve taken this entire murder thing in stride. Most people would have started drinking or curled up into a ball and watched twenty hours of television straight. You, on the other hand, stood up and told my stubborn partner that you wanted to help find the killer. That, my new friend, takes guts. No fraidy-cat would do that.”

“You’re a nice man, Logan Wright.”

“Don’t let that get around. I have a reputation to protect.” He began to shuffle the cards. “Are we still playing?”

Brinley grinned and slapped the table. “Absolutely. I’m going to play like there are no rules.”

Words to live by.

‡

“W
e’ve had this
all wrong,” Jason groaned as he, West, and Seth paged through Anita’s notes. They were sitting in the interrogation room at Seth’s station and what they were learning turned everything upside down.

“It’s the house. Roger and Anita were investigating Brinley’s house,” West said, rubbing his temple. “Or at least what happened in that house. How did I not know about this? I’m the damn lead detective in Tremont.”

“I don’t go through our cold cases very often,” Seth shrugged. “I don’t have the manpower, to be honest. Unless something comes up with one of them the chances of getting any resources is slim. It’s sad but it’s the truth. Presley scanned all our files in so if we do have a murder or missing person we can run a query in the database and look for crimes with a similar MO.”

“That would be heaven.” West tossed back the last of his soda. “Can I borrow Presley for a few months? I’d pay her well. If that crazy mayor will let me.”

Seth grinned but shook his head. “She’d love the challenge but she’s been pretty wore out these days being pregnant, having a toddler plus helping out here a couple of days a week. But she’s always happy to train someone on how to do it. A few months ago she worked with Griffin’s admin assistant.”

“I may take you up on that,” West promised, holding up a piece of paper. “But in the meantime I need to pull everything we can about the Barnes murder twenty years ago. This is the best motive we’ve found so far.”

Jason slumped in his chair, his mind whirling with what they’d discovered. “This is not going to go over very well with Brinley. She bought that place as her dream house. I doubt the real estate agent revealed that there had been an unsolved murder there.”