Dancing with Detective Danger (15 page)

“Here, let me help,” she offered, but Tyler pulled away.

“It’s okay, Mom, I can do it.” Tyler’s face screwed up in a determined scowl as he tried to manage the bag and the door alone, despite the cast on his arm.

“Okay, okay. But promise me you’ll be careful and if you need help you’ll ask?”

“Sure, Mom,” he tossed over his shoulder and slammed the car door closed.

Lacey quickly stuck her head out the window. “I’ll pick you up after school, don’t forget.”

“I’ve got soccer practice, so be here about five o’clock.”

“You’re not going to soccer practice, Tyler!” Lacey exclaimed. Leave it to Tyler to push to his limits.

“I’m not going to play, Mom. I’ll sit out, but I have to go. I’m part of the team and I’ve already missed practices.”

Tyler aimed innocent and sweet eyes at her and Lacey caved. “Okay. But I’m calling the coach to make sure you sit out.”

“Sure, Mom.”

Lacey couldn’t help but linger until after Tyler had disappeared inside the school.

“He’ll be fine, Lacey.” It was Nicholas, sitting beside her in the car.

Lacey pulled out into the street, a smile forming on her lips. “I knew you were here.”

“Good morning, sweetheart.”

A luscious delight rose in her heart, like a balloon rising to the clouds on a spring breeze. “Life is so much better when you’re around, handsome. What do you think of our son and his shenanigans with the swing?”

“He’s a character. You’re doing a great job with him, Lacey.” Nicholas’s face glowed, touching Lacey’s soul.

“He reminds me of you,” she whispered. Nicholas fingered the red curls dancing around Lacey’s neck, prompting a flutter in her heart.

“He reminds me of our love.”

“I can’t wait for Sterling to see you,” Lacey bubbled. “This will so blow her mind.”

“Sterling won’t see me.”

Lacey took her eyes away from the moving traffic long enough to gaze at Nicholas’s profile — the wave across his forehead, the nose with a small bump on the bridge, the solid jaw — and her heart clenched. “Why not? She loves you, too. Not like I do, but … ”

“Sterling doesn’t need to see me, Lacey.”

Nicholas leaned over and kissed her cheek. It was such a familiar gesture, one he’d done a million times — before he died. She breathed in deeply the serene comfort of his presence. “Is that why you didn’t let Tyler see you? He doesn’t need to see his father?”

Nicholas stared blankly at the road ahead. “I told you, it’s complicated. But in a way, yes, that’s exactly why. No one but you can see me.”

“So anyone who notices me talking to you right now would see that I’m talking to — thin air?” Lacey glanced around at other drivers, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

“Trust me, few people will notice. Everyone’s too busy with their own thoughts.”

“Okay. But it’s too bad Sterling won’t see you. She’s always so certain that life is logical, that there is no magic, nothing inexplicably mysterious. I would have the last laugh, that’s for certain.”

• • •

The clock on the wall chimed out nine morning bells into the heavy silence.

“I’m fine, Lacey, really.” Sterling glared at her sister as she continued to insist the fuss was unnecessary. “There was no need to call the police.”

“I didn’t actually call the police, plural. Strictly speaking, I called only one.”

“I’m grateful Lacey called me,” Ben said from the couch, but Sterling ignored him, directing all her attention to Lacey.

“Your first day back to work and already you’re sticking your nose into places it doesn’t belong.”

“What do you expect? I’m a PI. Nosing around other people’s business is my job, you know,” Lacey retorted. “Besides, the length of your life-line is something I’m keenly interested in, little sister.”

“If it had been left to you,” Ben said, pointing his finger accusingly at Sterling as she finally turned to face him, “I probably wouldn’t have known anything about the whole incident until after I planted flowers on your grave.”

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a bit?” Sterling shot him an impatient eye roll. “The police were called to the scene last night, I just didn’t stick around. That’s one of the good things about being a PI — you can slip away pretty undetected. It was probably a random thing. I’m fine.”

Ben had all he could do to keep from jumping off the couch. “I know you, Sterling. You went after the shooter, didn’t you?”

“You wouldn’t have done the same thing?” she protested, determination brightening her blue-green eyes.

Slamming his fist against the couch, Ben could hardly handle the cold fear of knowing how badly these things could go. “I’m a cop! You’re not. Not anymore. You need to stop acting like one.”

“What you mean is, let you beat me to the perp, let the ‘real’ professionals take care of things for the ‘fake’ wannabe cop. Me.”

“This isn’t a game, Sterling. And it’s not a competition.” Ben’s heart went out to Sterling, knowing her deep need like he knew his own hand; being the best was a place to hide. It kept her from having to face her pain. But right now he had to make her see the truth of the matter. He drew in a deep breath and regrouped. “So you followed the shooter, then what happened?”

“He’d already gotten a good lead while I waited for the glass to stop falling around me. I went after him, but he got the slip on me when he disappeared down an alley. Then he drove off. I couldn’t catch him and I didn’t get a look at him.” A look of complete regret darkened Sterling’s lovely face.

“He could have turned on you. You got lucky. But what about the next time? These people mean business.”

“These people? You know who shot at me?” Sterling’s eyes instantly glinted again with interest. “What do you know?”

“No, I don’t know, but a few suspects come to mind. They must think you know something. The shooter might have been just delivering a warning. This time. These people don’t miss.” Ben let his head drop against the back cushion and tried to steady his breathing. Sterling had no idea the forces she was up against.

When he’d gotten Lacey’s call at work this morning, Ben’s knees had gone weak as she’d reported Sterling’s brush with death the night before. It was exactly what he’d feared would happen. Sterling’s involvement in the Witt case had put her in the path of a raging tornado: the turbulent cold-hearted path of a criminal.

Ben tried to swallow, but his mouth had gone dry. When the moment had come, he hadn’t been there to protect her. “Tell me again how it went down,” he asked, trying to put the pieces together.

“The shooter followed me for a short distance first, but I didn’t get much of a look,” Sterling said, walking from behind her desk to stand in front of him. “I would guess a medium build man, Caucasian.”

Standing, Ben looked down into her resolute face and felt the familiar quiver in his stomach. She meant so much to him. How could he have let her down so? “I’m putting twenty-four hour close patrol on you until we figure all this out.”

“No way! There’s no justification for wasting that kind of manpower.” Sterling’s eyes flamed and her chin rose defiantly.

“I don’t consider keeping you alive a waste of manpower.”

“I don’t need special attention to keep me safe. And I don’t want any uniformeds getting in the way of my investigation, either.”

“That’s all you care about, isn’t it?” Ben crossed his arms over his chest. Sterling wasn’t winning this one.

“Are you any different, Detective?”

He looked toward Lacey sitting silently at her desk, then back to Sterling. Anger still burned in Sterling’s eyes, but it didn’t matter. Keeping her safe meant more to him than massaging her ego. “We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you, a citizen, and your safety. I’m the cop, so what I say goes. End of discussion. I’m not leaving you uncovered. I’m not making that mistake twice.”

“Ben — ” she started, her eyes softening as she put her hand to his arm.

“Don’t.” He knew her thoughts as she knew his. She knew his remark referred to his partner’s crippling accident. He knew she’d argue the differences. But death was death, no two ways about it.

Walking to the door, Ben opened it to leave. “I’m sending a patrol right over. You stay here until he arrives. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Detective,” she cracked, the softness gone.

“Don’t go out to get air. Don’t go down the hall. Don’t go to the drinking fountain. Stay here,” he said, slamming his palm to the wall.

As he soundly shut the door, Ben paused briefly, pain pounding hard inside his chest. If only Sterling could be trusted to sit tight, maybe he could keep her alive.

• • •

“You know he’s only doing this because he cares about you,” Lacey said. “And you’re acting so defiant because you care about him.”

“Thanks for the analysis, Doctor Lacey.”

Lacey rolled her eyes emphatically. “It’s just that I can see how right you are for each other, sis.”

Sterling felt like she was being painted into a corner, and she didn’t like it. “You of all people should understand. No matter how I may feel about Ben, I can’t be with him.”

“Me of all people?” Lacey’s eyes widened.

“You know what Mom went through after Dad was killed. And I know how you’ve suffered since Nicholas’s death.” Sterling struggled with emotions welling up in her throat.

Lacey came to her, placing a gentle hand to her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Sterling. I know it was hard after Dad died. Something like that doesn’t just go away. And I’ll admit it has been hard with Nick being — gone. But you’ve got it backwards.”

“Backwards?”

“I’m the person who truly understands why you should be with Ben, no matter what.”

“I don’t follow,” said Sterling, running her hands through her hair.

“You haven’t ever heard the saying ‘I’d rather have been in love and lost it than never have been in love at all’?”

“I’ve heard something like that.”

Lacey walked back to her desk and gazed softly at the snapshot of Nicholas sitting on her desk. “I know when Nicholas died you saw my grief. I would never discount the pain I’ve felt. God, not a day has gone by that I haven’t wished he were here with me and Tyler. Still, I have wonderful memories, Sterling. Memories of loving and living and so much happiness. All of it is still alive.” Turning glistening eyes on her sister, Lacey continued, passion giving life to her words. “No, I didn’t get the happy ever after we all want. But I would never trade all the great moments with Nick, even though they were brief, in exchange for mediocre moments with someone else. Someone safe. Trust me, love never dies.”

Sterling worked to swallow back the tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks, and let Lacey continue.

“Nothing in life is a sure thing. You can’t isolate yourself in the hopes that what happened to Mom and me won’t happen to you. Geez, Sterling, you could marry an accountant and he could be strangled by reams of calculator tape or thrown out of a third story window by a disgruntled businessman.”

Sterling grabbed a tissue and dabbed at her eyes. “You and Ben have something in common,” she said quietly.

“Our mutual love for you?”

“Your ways of oversimplifying things.”

“It is simple, sis. Maybe you need to stop thinking so much and just let it happen.” Lacey’s attention drew back inside, a slight smile lighting her lips.

Mulling over Lacey’s words sent cold shivers through Sterling’s body. It was one thing to say you believe the joy is worth the possible pain. It was quite another to live with the fear. Inside Sterling, a young voice spoke up, sounding the warning and reminding her how very large and palpable the pain felt inside her heart, and instinctively she pulled the walls of her cocoon safely around her.

The only sure thing she had going for her was her work. It alone could be trusted to keep her at a distance from any painful emotions. If she just did her job, and did it well, everything else would be fine.

Interrupting her thoughts, Lacey spoke up. “You plan to do what Ben says, right? You’re going to stay here and wait for the officer?”

Sterling leaned her elbows on the desk, resting her chin on her clasped hands. “Who do you think would want to shoot me?”

“So you believe Ben that it wasn’t a random shooting?” Lacey asked, walking across the room.

“Yeah, my instincts tell me it was deliberate. But why?”

Lacey stood in front of her, a stern, older-sisterly look darkening her face. “Ben’s right. This is not something to take lightly.”

“I’m not.” Sterling pulled the key and Jerry’s daily planner from her desk drawer. “These must have the answer to everything.”

“You think somebody wants them?” Lacey picked up first the key and then flipped through the planner before handing them back to Sterling.

“That’s my guess. But I’ve stared at them until I’m nearly blind and still I haven’t figured out what’s important about them.” Sterling stared at the objects, willing them to spill their secrets.

“You’ll get it, sis,” Lacey smiled warmly down at her. “You always do. Your instincts are uncanny.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, Lacey. But it doesn’t change anything. Days are passing and I haven’t gotten any answers for Sara. Something about this case has been gnawing at me since the first step we took inside Pamela Witt’s condo. I just can’t put my finger on what it is.” Sterling pressed her palms against the desk. “But I’m going to figure it out if it means starting at the beginning.”

“You mean Pamela’s condo?”

“No, I mean the very beginning.” She slipped the key and the planner inside her suit coat pocket and grabbed her car keys. “I’ll be at the library.”

“I knew you’d ignore Ben’s instructions.” Lacey turned as Sterling brushed past, but didn’t try to stop her.

“He knew it too, Lacey.”

“You’re probably right. You two always did think alike. Which is exactly why I’m going with you.” Lacey slid her purse strap over her shoulder. “I don’t want to be here when he finds out you’re not.”

• • •

Sterling squirmed and stretched her neck. Her stomach growled noisily, the sounds filling the stillness in the Laurelwood Public Library. The emptiness in her stomach and the stiffness in her muscles told her she’d been sitting in front of the computer screen too long, but her gut instincts told her to stay put.