“Do you want me to lose control?” I warned.
“More than you know, chief,” she said with a rueful half-smile and got in her car and drove away. My blood pounded from the encounter. She wasn’t letting up, and I wasn’t letting go. I could pay lip service to doing the right thing, but all it took was one silly, randy word from her about a full body search and I was rock hard for her. My body pulsed, and I had trouble concentrating.
I called Damon and met him at a bar for a drink. He looked wiped out from a week of double shifts plus training modules.
“Hey, I could use a beer. Glad you’re buying,” he said.
“I don’t even mind,” I said. “You look like you need one. Long week?”
“Yeah. We had to assist on a fire out south of town around two this morning. I’ve been up ever since. It was rough. Just structural, no one was in danger, but it would’ve been a total loss if we hadn’t gotten there when we did.”
“Glad you could save the building.”
“How about you? Any breaks in the Simms thing?”
“Well, your sister may have spotted our person of interest here in town. I’ve got some footage to look at later, but it’s been a high-stress case, and I need to unwind first.”
“You know how glad I am my sister is back in town and working for my best friend? You can’t imagine. I worried about her up in Charleston, tons of crime and only a bunch of strangers to look out for her. Now I know you’ll keep an eye out for her.”
“From what I’ve seen, Laura can look out for herself,” I said, taking a long drink.
“I know. But I still worry about her. So just look after her for me, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed. He had no idea how much I enjoyed watching her and looking out for her. And if I had my way he never would.
We had a couple more beers and talked about his latest dating app disaster that matched him up with his cousin Julie.
“We plan never to speak of it, but it was bad. I’ve officially set my location different now so no more relatives pop up in my potential dating pool,” Damon laughed.
Damon kept me entertained for a while and I got us some hot wings to share. He tried to talk me into going over to a table with some women at it and trying to pick them up, but he wasn’t surprised when I declined. He would’ve been surprised if he’d known that it wasn’t grief and lack of interest in complications this time. It was because of his sister. He’d never know that either.
17
Laura
Detective Morgan of the Overton PD said he’d email the chief a scan of the information. I hung up and hurried to Brody’s office. I had a phone on my desk. I could have used the intercom, but it never occurred to me. Especially when I was that excited.
I knocked and opened the door. “They had a break in the case at Overton. Morgan’s sending you an email now.”
His desktop pinged with the message notification and he clicked through to open it. I rounded his desk, not hesitating. I leaned over to read what was on the screen. A clear image from a gas station security camera of the guy who’d tailed me in Giant Foods Mart loaded onscreen. Underneath was a time and date stamp showing that it was the evening the Overton girl disappeared. So that placed him in town near the location where she vanished giving him opportunity to be involved. He could be linked to both disappearances both through the burner phone and identifiable footage.
As I leaned closer to the screen, I breathed in the woodsy musk of Brody’s cologne, damn him. Why couldn’t he smell terrible and have wiry ear hairs sprouting everyplace? I reined myself in, irritated. I breathed through my mouth. It may have sounded like I had a cold because I refused to inhale anywhere near that sexy cologne. I shoved off the back of his chair, ignoring my raging hormones.
“It’s late,” he said, “head home, we’ll tackle this tomorrow.”
“What if he grabs another kid by then?” I asked, knowing it was irrational but still feeling like I should stay and keep working.
“Then we’ll find her, too. You know we’re none of us any good if we’re running on fumes. Eat, get some rest, we’ll crack this case wide open. First thing tomorrow.”
I nodded, “Whatever you say, chief,” I said.
I finished up some emails and grabbed my stuff. I crashed without even taking a shower. A few hours later, I woke up to a sound. It was something out of the ordinary, not a dog barking or wind in the trees. I sat bolt upright and scanned the dark room. I was alone. I got my gun, put in the clip and stepped into my shoes. I checked out the house, silent and alert. I didn’t want to wake my folks. My mom was asleep in bed and my dad was snoozing with his CPAP mask on in the recliner. I explored the kitchen, the hall, the living room. Nothing seemed amiss, but I knew I’d heard something.