When the Smoke Clears (Deadly Reunions) (27 page)

“What?”

“It’s someone who knows you,” he said as he narrowed his eyes in thought. “Someone who’s close to you. Someone who knows the details of your past.”

She stared at him. “Someone who still has a key to the house, the same way I do.” Her voice came out in a low whisper. “You think it’s my father or my brother, don’t you?”

He sighed. “From what you’ve told me, I think it’s a good possibility.”

Alexia nodded and bit her lip. “I was afraid of that.” She looked at him. “But which one?”

31

Friday, 4:46 p.m.

The rest of the day passed in a blur as Hunter found two off-duty detectives willing to put in a few hours to cover Alexia.

Knowing she had a competent protection detail made him feel slightly better about leaving her. It didn’t stop him from missing her. From wanting to kiss her again.

He couldn’t believe how much he was looking forward to the dinner tomorrow night. Usually, he dreaded the things but went to support his family. With Alexia by his side, he knew there wouldn’t be a dull moment.

Part of him wondered if he should give his father a heads-up on the fact that Alexia would be accompanying him. Then decided against it. His father told him to bring a date, so he was. End of story. He knew his dad would be on his best behavior at the dinner. He wouldn’t embarrass Alexia or himself by saying or doing anything to make him look bad.

He parked in his usual spot at the office, determined to make headway on this case. Be productive. His phone rang as he pushed open his door. Grabbing it from his pocket, he barked, “Hello?”

“Hey, this is Rick.”

“What’s up?”

“I just got a vehicle over here to finish processing. They think it’s the van used to try and run your girl down. We got a partial plate off the video, put out a BOLO for it, and thirty minutes later, we have a hit.”

“Where’d they find it?”

“A cop spotted it parked in a convenience store parking lot. Called it in. I sent my team over to process it. They did what they could do there in the lot, then had it towed over here.”

“You find anything yet?”

“A set of clothes.”

“Male or female?”

“Hard to tell. Could be either. It’s a guy’s pair of jeans and a muscle T-shirt. So, if I had to guess, I’d say male. But women wear this kind of stuff all the time, so it could fit a tall woman or a shorter man . . .”

“Yeah, I see what you’re saying.”

“We found a few hairs, but we’ll have to test and rule out the owners of the van. Then I can try and see if we have a match in the system, but no guarantees.”

Hunter nodded as he walked up the front steps. “I know. Just keep me posted and I’ll send you any new info as I get it.”

“Deal. See you later.”

Hunter hung up and said a short prayer that Rick and his team would find something in the van that would help lead them to the person responsible for terrorizing Alexia.

Walking into the precinct, he spotted Katie by the coffee machine. She looked tired, worn down. He watched her pop a pill and frowned. What was she taking?

“Hey, partner.”

She started and her coffee sloshed over the side. Swallowing, she lifted her gaze to his and frowned. “Hey.”

He handed her a paper towel. “Sorry about that.”

She sniffed and dabbed her nose. “No problem.”

“Are you okay?”

“Just a cold. I’ll try not to breathe on you.”

He looked at her flushed cheeks, then lifted a hand to her forehead. “More than a cold, I’d say. You’ve got a fever. Go home before you infect us all.”

“I’ve got to solve this case,” she protested. “I promise, I’m not that sick. If I feel worse, I’ll call it a day.”

“Give me access to your files and any information you’ve acquired that you haven’t told me about and I can read through it.”

She paused. Then nodded. The fact that she gave in so easily told him she felt worse than she let on. She said, “All right, I guess I could catch a nap and see how I feel when I wake up. I also want to run something else by you before I leave.”

“What’s that?”

“CSU found a little book in a box of things in Devin’s apartment. It has names and dates and monetary amounts in it. Looks like customers for a lawn care business. The money’s not that much and it doesn’t look like he was doing anything illegal, but you might want to run the names of the people in the book. Maybe one of them knows something.”

She walked over to her desk and opened the drawer. She pulled out a 4 × 6 spiral-bound notebook and handed it to him. “I’ll keep my cell on. Let me know if you come up with anything.”

“Sure. Feel better.”

“I will. I just took some ibuprofen. Hopefully that’ll kick in pretty quick.”

She left and Hunter said a quick prayer that he’d be spared whatever she had. Then he sat down with the book and started going through it.

A lot of names including Hannah Allen, Alexia’s mother. The pastor, Michael Stewart; the girlfriend, Marcie Freeman; Lori’s brother, Avery Tabor. All with a set amount beside each name.

So, Devin was going to branch out and go for his own business. He was working hard, saving his money . . .

Money. How much did he have in his account?

Hunter shuffled the papers on his desk until he found what he wanted. Devin’s last bank statement. “Close to three thousand dollars.”

He blew out a sigh. Not much. Seemed like the man should have more than that, but he’d just lost his apartment. No other debts that Hunter could find.

So everything he earned in the yard business he could sink into an account. Very little went out in the way of expenses. So in about eight weeks’ time, he’d accumulated three thousand dollars. Fifteen hundred a month? Yeah, that was very possible.

Nothing weird there.

He glanced at the clock. Five o’clock. He wondered what Alexia was doing for dinner. His gaze went to his cell phone acting as a paperweight.

Call her? Or not?

His hand reached for the phone. He pressed the button for her number.

“Hello?”

She sounded breathless.

“Hey, this is Hunter. Are you all right?”

“Yep.” A grunt, a muffled utterance.

“Um . . . what are you doing?” he asked.

“Trying on dresses. If I’m going to this dinner thingy with you, then I’m going to do my best not to embarrass you.”

His heart thudded. “You could dress in jeans and I still wouldn’t be embarrassed.”

Stillness on the line. “Thanks, Hunter. I appreciate that.” Then another grunt and a long sigh.

He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing a little dieting won’t take care of.”

Hunter chuckled. “Ah, let me guess. You tried on a dress a size smaller than you normally wear.”

Silence.

He waited.

More silence.

He shifted. “Alexia?”

“That was not a smart thing to say to the woman you’re having dinner with tomorrow.” Her voice was low, her words deadly.

He gulped. “Sorry. It’s just that Christine—”

“I’m
not
your sister.”

Totally uncomfortable with the foot in his mouth, he searched frantically for the right words. “No. No, you’re definitely not my sister. Thank God for that.”

A muffled chuckle?
Please, God, let that be a laugh.

“Hunter?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to go now.”

“Okay. I’m going to go wash out the taste of shoe leather.”

A giggle. That was definitely a giggle.
Thank you, Lord.

Alexia’s phone rang within five minutes of hanging up with Hunter.

With a critical eye, she gave herself the once-over in the mirror and had to admit the one-size-larger dress fit much better than the last one she’d tried on. Rats.

Absently she reached for the phone and brought it to her ear. “Hello?”

“What’s the pretty dress for? Dinner with Hunter?” the voice hissed.

“Excuse me?” She froze.

“I saw you take it off the rack.”

Alexia darted from the dressing room, still in the fancy black dress, looking for the detective who had been her shadow most of the day.

He stood talking to the security guard.

“It’s not like you’re going to be around to wear it to the dinner with your detective boyfriend.”

A frantic wave at the detective brought him rushing to her side. She clicked the phone on speaker. “Who is this and what do you want?”

“Tell that pretty boy detective that I could have grabbed you while he was yakking it up with that old has-been cop wannabe near the cash register.”

Alexia’s gaze shot to Detective Hudson. His lips thinned and his eyes darted around the store, to the big window at the front.

The voice continued. “No need to look for me, Detective. I’m long gone now. But I’m never very far away.”

Click.

Her heart stuttered, fear engulfed her. And anger bubbled closer than ever at the surface.

Already Detective Hudson was on the phone requesting a search of the street and surrounding stores.

But who would they be looking for?

Her hand shook as she curled her fingers around the cell phone.

“The voice on the phone,” Hudson said, “did it sound weird to you?”

She frowned, focused on his words, shoved the fear down. “Weird how?”

He shook his head. “Weird, as in I couldn’t tell if it was male or female.”

Alexia thought. “I . . . no. I couldn’t tell.”

“The person disguised his—or her—voice,” he muttered. “The caller used a voice changer device. You can attach them to your cell phone. That one was high end—good quality.”

She shuddered. “All I know is that it sounded the same as the one who called and threatened me last time.” She looked around. “Whoever it was is watching me. Following me, knew I was trying on dresses.” She shivered and crossed her arms to grip her elbows. “I don’t like this.”

Alexia began to pace, her gut churning, while Detective Hudson spoke into his phone. The door opened and she turned to see Chad enter the boutique. As her heart deflated, she realized she’d been hoping to see Hunter. Still, getting such immediate protection helped calm her nerves.

She could see Chad was looking for her. Lifting a hand, she waved him over, studying him as he walked toward her. He looked good. She could see the family resemblance now that he was sober and . . . not pitiful. But she felt nothing for him, not one little zing of attraction. Not like she felt for Hunter.

“Guess you heard all of the excitement on the radio?” she asked.

“I heard.” Concern for her drew his brows together as he settled his hands on her shoulders. “I had to come make sure you were okay.”

His touch made her uneasy. She gave a subtle twist, using the pretense of ducking back into the dressing room to tuck her phone into her purse.

When she resurfaced, she said, “I’m fine. Nothing happened other than another creepy phone call.”

Chad began questioning the customers. The front door dinged and she turned to find Hunter making his way toward her. He reached her and placed his hands on her shoulders. She had no desire to move away from
him
. “Are you all right? What happened?”

Alexia forced a smile. “I’m fine. It was just a phone call.”

“Right. Like the last one?”

She nodded.

“Okay,” his hands gave her shoulders a light squeeze, “we’ll pull your phone records. Maybe we’ll see where the call originated from. I feel sure it’s the same prepaid cell that called your home, but it’s worth a shot.”

She bit her lip and nodded. “Okay.”

The officers who’d scanned the area came up empty.

Chad walked over. “No one saw anyone unusual in the store or lurking outside. One lady said she saw a woman and two children peering in the window. Another saw an older man sitting on the bench talking on a cell phone.”

“Could be him,” Hunter said. “Are there any cameras along the street?”

“I’ll check.” A young officer hurried off.

Hunter finally looked at his brother. “Are you working this case now?”

Chad had the grace to flush. “Hey, it’s my day off.”

“You’ve had a lot of those lately, haven’t you?” Hunter muttered.

Chad’s flush deepened into a dark red as he narrowed his eyes at his brother. He pulled in a breath. Then let it out and ignored Hunter’s comment. Chad turned to the nearest officer and asked him a question that Alexia didn’t hear.

In other circumstances, the look on Hunter’s face would have made her laugh. Instead, she felt a pang. Was she the reason the two of them butted heads so often?

No, the tension between the brothers had been there long before she entered the picture. At least Chad looked like he’d sobered up and was staying that way. If that was because of her, then fine. But it was Hunter she was attracted to. It was Hunter’s arms she wanted around her, comforting her.

She blinked. What was she thinking? She was tough, she could handle whatever was thrown her way. She’d never leaned on a man who hadn’t let her down.

And yet . . .

“Okay, I need to change.” She whirled and went back into the dressing room. She needed to get away from the circus the store had become.