Shielded In The Shadows

Maybe someday she’d know what he did for fun—or even do it with him sometimes.

“I’ve been thinking about that teenager Suzie told you about,” he said. “I agree with you that there’s got to be something in it. When you were relaying what she told you, in such detail...she had to have been talking about something real. Or she’s a consummate liar. If she’s lying, she’s covering for someone else. If not, we need to find the kid. He’d be twenty-one or -two by now. He might be able to tell us something about her that we don’t know.”

Or about Bill. More likely about Bill.

“Okay.”

“I just wanted you to know that I’m heading back to talk to the neighbors again. Just to see if there’s anything at all they can tell us...”

He couldn’t do so as a parole officer. But there was no law against a guy talking to someone

who was willing to talk. Private detectives did it all the time.

But the real news was not that he was working outside his normal boundaries. She suspected Jayden did stuff like that all the time. It was the risk-taker in him. The guy who didn’t just fly by what was expected of him. But rather by what he expected of himself.

The real news was that he’d called to let her know he was going back.

There’d been no professional reason for him to have done so.

And she wasn’t sure if she should allow herself to make something of that. She wanted to so badly believe there was something more than physical fire between them, even if it was highly unconventional.

But in the past anytime she’d trusted her “wants,” listened to the Ms. Shadow side of her, others had been hurt. And she had been, too.

Still, she couldn’t close the door to the possibility. She and Jayden were special. No matter which side of her she asked.

Chapter 23

Jayden got nothing. Neither of the guys who lived in Bill’s old neighborhood and used him as their mechanic knew anything about a teenager who’d maybe mowed Bill’s grass four years ago or been friendly with the family in any way. Neither of them had ever seen any man at Suzie’s house other than Bill.

He knew what Emma would say. They were Bill’s clients. They could be lying for him, if he was giving them a good deal on their classic auto work—or just because they were friends and maybe thought what happened between a husband and wife was their business. Not Jayden’s.

Jayden didn’t think Bill was the man who’d abused Suzie. He just didn’t.

But then he never would have thought Ms. White would invite him to please come see her again—but she had as she’d hugged him goodbye. As often as he’d like. He’d never ever foreseen that his presence could bring her a piece of her son back. Or bring her peace of any kind.

He wasn’t off his personal hook. If he’d had half an awareness about himself back then, he should have figured that Emory couldn’t swim across that lake. He was the one who’d suggested the kid be a kicker because he knew he’d be made into meat out on the football field otherwise—because he was small. Emory could kick like no one Jayden had ever seen, but that hadn’t meant he had stamina or upper body strength.

Figuring he’d head back to his place and change and then tackle the ocean for a while, he was headed in that direction when his car dash signaled a call from Chantel.

“Powell,” he answered immediately.

“It’s Bill Heber.” Chantel didn’t explain. Didn’t need to. “We finally got the warrant for any surveillance cameras outside stores that sell lipstick between Santa Raquel and Bill’s place. It was a long shot, but we’ve spent the week following every long shot we had. They were all we had.”

“You’ve got him on tape? Buying lipstick?” Jayden found that hard to believe. Wanted the culprit found and punished, but he wanted it done right.

He wanted the right man.

Arresting someone would make everyone feel better, the department, the courts, could relax. But only if the guy they arrested was the one who’d made the threats. Bill had been in group Tuesday night when Emma had been forced off the road. His thoughts flew...

“We’ve got him on camera leaving a drugstore not far from his work,” Chantel reported. “A clerk there made a positive ID. She remembered him because the one tube of lipstick was all he bought. She told us what kind and it was a match to what the lab had come up with. He paid cash. Officers are on their way to pick him up now.”

A lot of work for a tube of lipstick, he thought. And a battery charge. But Suzie—a woman who refused to help law enforcement and the justice system keep her safe—wasn’t the only reason why everyone in the system was working overtime on this one. When Bill had threatened a prosecutor, he’d upped his ante considerably.

Pulling over, he called up the location app on his phone. “He’s at work,” he told her, feeling sick. To his stomach—and at heart. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t fail again, not in a big way. And he’d failed Emma. A woman who...

“Yeah, I already called to verify that,” Chantel, continuing their conversation, interrupted his thoughts. But not the weight, settling heavier and heavier on him.

“Let me know when you have him in custody.”