Line of Fire Read online

  “Okay, follow us.” Greeley turned to a short detective whose name I hadn’t learned. “I want a report the minute you know if the place tests positive for drugs. Test the spare bedroom first.”

  “Will do, sergeant,” came the reply.

  Less enthusiastically, Greeley added, “Please forward everything to the FBI, and let them examine anything they want.” He nodded at Cross and hurried to his squad car.

  Less than ten minutes later we pulled up at the gas station attendant’s place, a small, new house in a block of new houses. The place was utterly dark inside, but the street lamps illuminated the road and front lawns. Somewhere a dog barked.

  “This used to be older housing,” Levine informed us as Cross and Morley went with Greeley to talk to the detective who’d brought the warrant. “They razed them all and built new. It has really revitalized the place.” His voice lowered. “Did, uh, anything happen at the precinct while I was gone? Greeley’s acting irritable. Well, a little more irritable than usual, I mean. I know he’s taking the heat for not finding Jenny, but he’s done everything anyone could do.”

  “You think he’s acting strange?” I asked.

  “Just a little. That’s why I wondered if something happened.”

  “Nothing I’m sure you haven’t heard about,” Shannon said.

  “Must be that whole boot thing.” Levine shook his head. “Poor Jenny. If this Kirt character turns out to be involved, I’m never going to forgive myself. I can’t believe I let him go this morning. Of all the stupid things. We should have searched deeper.” Even in the relatively dim light of the street lamps, I could see he was becoming flushed.

  “It’s the biological father I’m upset with,” I said. “He’s not telling us everything.”

  Levine opened his mouth to speak, but Greeley motioned us over, and we hurried to join the others.

  “You two wait here,” Greeley told me and Shannon. “We need to clear the house first. Agent Cross, will you and your partner take the back? My detectives and I will go in the front. We’ll knock first, of course, so give us a minute.”

  “Sure.” Cross and Morley headed around the back, pulling out their guns. They wore FBI bulletproof vests they’d taken from the trunk of their car.

  “We’ll come get you when it’s all clear,” Levine told us.

  The detectives went up the three cement steps to the door. As predicted, no one answered, so they forced open the door and went inside, guns drawn. Shannon and I entertained ourselves by freezing in the snow on the front lawn.

  “Clear,” someone shouted.

  “Clear,” echoed another.

  I imagined them going room to room. I hoped they didn’t find Kirt lying dead. The more I thought about that, the more I worried that the men who’d tried to kill Millard at the hospital had beaten us here. After all, someone had switched the boot, and that same someone could have reported our interest in Kirt. I felt a moment of sorrow for him and his too-friendly fiancée.

  The sound of splintering glass broke the silence. Shannon and I looked at each other for a second before sprinting around to the side of the house, only to see a dark, masked figure hurl itself over the neighbor’s wooden fence.

  Feet pounded through the house on chase, and Agent Morley emerged through the window, but the suspect had too much of a head start. They’d never catch him. Running to the six-foot fence, I pulled myself over, aware of Shannon doing the same. We were halfway across the neighbor’s yard when the dark figure jumped the next fence. The suspect was larger than I’d first thought—a man by the way he moved—and he ran with a slight limp. We were gaining on him.

  I hurtled over the second fence and landed with a crunch in a snowy bush. I was on my feet in the next instant, running after the man. I could hear Shannon behind me. The intruder didn’t seem to have a gun, or maybe he simply didn’t want to risk stopping to use it.

  He was heading to the back fence, slowing now as though running out of breath. He heaved himself over. I pushed faster, hitting the fence and swinging myself up with comparative ease. Either the man I was chasing was out of shape or he’d hurt himself going out the window. Even so, I’d only gone partway across the next yard when I heard a car engine roar to life.

  No! I ran faster, my heart pounding and my lungs on fire. I reached the street to see a car speed away from the curb, its lights out.

  “No,” I moaned.

  Shannon, reaching me, echoed my dismay. “Great,” he panted.

  Morley arrived over the fence next, followed by Greeley. “You get a plate?”

  “Naw.” I shook my head. “No lights.”

  “Color? Make?”

  I shook my head. “Light colored. Tan, or white, or yellow. Not dark. Car. Not a truck or Jeep or anything like that. Hatchback.” Like a million other cars on the road.

  “You sure it wasn’t a gold Honda?” Greeley asked. “Like the one Cody Beckett drives. He’s in on this somehow.”

  “I couldn’t tell.” Yet now that he’d mentioned it, I wondered if I’d seen the car before and if the masked figure could have been the old man. He’d seemed to be in good enough shape.

  We trudged back to Kirt’s house, the fences seeming much higher this time around. One neighbor challenged us from his back door, and Morley went to show him an ID.

  At the house, Cross and Levine were waiting inside. “You think it was the clerk?” Levine asked.

  Greeley shook his head. “Not with that bullet hole in his shoulder.”

  “Oh, right.” Levine grimaced. “I hope whoever it was didn’t have time to remove evidence.”

  “He wasn’t carrying anything that I could see,” I said.

  “Let’s get this done.” Cross looked at me. “He was wearing gloves, so we won’t find any prints. Touch anything you want.”

  Greeley opened his mouth to protest but shut it again. “Fine. Let us know if you find anything important. I’ll be in the kitchen.”

  I began in the bedroom where the man had burst through the broken window. I went there first, examining the splintered glass. “Window’s probably stuck,” Shannon said from behind me. While he tested his theory, I let my fingers run over the frame. No imprints. He really had been wearing gloves.

  “If it hadn’t been stuck,” Shannon added, “he might have slipped out without us knowing. We weren’t expecting anyone to be here.”

  “Fat lot of good it did us.” I kept thinking of how the car sped away. “If that car had been half a block farther away, I would have had him.”

  Shannon faced me. “Yeah, you would have. Despite the fact that you went over that second fence like an anchor. I’ve never quite seen that technique.”

  I gave him a smile bordering a sneer. “Beats yours.”

  He laughed. “I guess so.” Then he was reaching for me, kissing me. I could smell the cold on him, feel the warmth rushing through my body. My heart jumped into a faster rhythm. Everything around me vanished, my concern for Jenny, my hunger, my worry over Cody Beckett. Jake’s kiss had never had such an effect, or at least I didn’t remember a time when it did. I still felt guilty for walking away.

  “Okay,” I said, coming up for air. “I need to work.”

  Shannon grinned. “If you insist.”

  Imprints abounded here, though everything was fairly new. Kirt was excited about his life, about his upcoming marriage into a wealthy family, concerned about making ends meet at his job. He’d dropped out of college two years earlier to save money. He seemed to be everything he represented, but the lack of knickknacks and personal items in his nightstand and walk-in closet bothered me. The living room and the bathroom showed more of the same. Kirt’s possessions could have belonged to anyone, and none of it inspired deep emotion. I wondered if he’d left more personal items at his girlfriend’s. Was she planning to move here after the wedding, or would he be moving to her place? I couldn’t say.

  Leaving the bedroom, we found Morley at the kitchen table looking through Kirt’s laptop.
“Nothing incriminating here,” he said. “Doesn’t even have a password.”

  Levine turned from the cupboard he was searching. “What do you bet he comes home tomorrow from visiting an old friend and tries to sue us for doing the right thing?” He laughed, but no one else found the comment amusing. He was like a little boy standing outside the circle of older kids who endured his company only because their parents forced them to.

  I felt bad for his awkwardness, so I smiled politely before resuming my search. Levine lit up like a child given a cookie. Shannon hid a smile.

  I was standing close enough to Morley that it was natural to hold my hand over the laptop to feel the buzz of imprints. Both he and Levine went quiet when I let my hand touch the keys.

  All the money I/Kirt needed. The good life. He no longer needed to endure Diana’s parents’ condescension. His own business.

  I blinked as the imprint faded. Odd that this imprint contrasted so with the others I’d found. The imprint on his laptop was six months old but more recent than the worried ones in his bedroom.

  “How many hours does Kirt work at the gas station?” I asked. “Didn’t someone say part time?”

  Levine shook his head.

  “I think Detective Greeley said part time when we were discussing the warrant,” Morley said.

  “Then how can he afford this house?”

  “Maybe his fiancée’s parents helped.” Levine said. “We haven’t looked into his finances yet. Hasn’t been time.”

  I shook my head. “I get the feeling her parents don’t like him. Can’t imagine they’d encourage the relationship by helping.”

  “Something’s fishy,” Shannon agreed.

  Agent Cross came into the room, jingling a set of keys in her gloved hands. “The man’s gone and so is his car, but I found a set of keys inside a vase in the living room. Who leaves home without their keys? Maybe they’re not his, though. They don’t open the door to the house.”

  “The girlfriend’s?” Morley said.

  Shannon nodded. “Or work.”

  “Or a friend’s, his last apartment, his parents’ house, wherever that might be.” Levine sighed. “Not much we can tell from those.”

  I reached for them.

  Opening a door in the middle of the night. Flashlights swinging. Unloading a truck. Thrill of possible discovery. Confidence.

  Just brief flashes of emotion, not solid imprints. I held onto them, hoping for more.

  Another imprint. A hotel. No, passing that. Hurrying along the walk. Payoff coming. A house, U-shaped with an odd circular drive leading though the carport at one end of the U.

  Going up to the double front doors, framed by thick columns, entering an empty foyer. Turning into a room where several men lounged on brown leather couches. “Be ready tonight,” I told them. It felt good telling them what to do. They were my men now.

  I became aware of Shannon’s hand on my back. I set the keys slowly on the table. “They seem to be from the gas station. They were unloading supplies.” I shook my head. “Before that he went to a house with a weird circular driveway. The house was odd, too. Kind of U-shaped. Does that sound familiar?”

  I watched as each agent or detective replied in the negative.

  “He was giving orders to some men.”

  “You recognize anyone?” Levine asked, his face hopeful.

  “Not sure I would even if I’d seen them before. It’s all really vague.”

  “Probably something related to a job,” Greeley said. “Maybe he’s exactly what he seems.”

  I had to admit that was sounding more and more likely. Kirt had started a business, but I had no proof it was anything illegal. We’d reached another dead end. No Kirt, no evidence, no confession from Bremer, Millard was still unconscious at the hospital, and we’d found no sign of Jenny.

  “We’ll have to assume he’s missing against his will,” Greeley said, “and is in danger—probably from whoever Bremer is mixed up with. Maybe they thought Bremer’s visit to the gas station meant the clerk knew something.”

  I said a silent apology to Kirt for my suspicions of him, though after the odd imprint with the men on the leather couches, it was only a half apology. Jake would laugh and say I simply didn’t want to be wrong.

  Feeling eyes on my face, I became aware of Shannon watching me with his incredible eyes that did something to my pulse every time I saw them. He didn’t know I was thinking about Jake, but I felt guilty, though there was nothing wrong with my thoughts. Jake and I had been friends a lot longer than I’d known Shannon Martin. I’d had to choose between them, and romance-wise it had been easy. I was far more reluctant to give up the friendship.

  When we left the house a half hour later in Agent Cross’s sedan, my clothes had mostly dried from my tumble into the snow, but I was irritable and famished. I wanted nothing more than to rip the uncomfortable contact from my eye, eat three steaks, and collapse on the nearest bed possible.

  Instead, we followed the others into the commander’s office for more updates. Special Agents Cross and Morley had already checked in with their agency, and they had nothing new to offer us. It was looking more and more as though we should all grab some sleep.

  Huish jumped up from his seat. “Good. You’re back,” he said. “I have news, but let’s get you all something hot to drink first.” He urged us into the main room filled with the deputies’ desks.

  I suspected he cared less for our welfare and more for the need to keep his secrets from me and my strange ability. I didn’t blame him.

  Yet the boot had gone missing under his watch, so maybe someone should be watching him.

  I declined the coffee and slumped into a chair, wishing he’d offered me a good cup of herbal tea instead, but I was too exhausted to remove my coat, much less to find energy to go on a tea-seeking mission. I put my arm on a desk and used it to pillow my head.

  “Bremer wants a deal,” Huish announced when everyone was settled. “His attorney has been with him this past hour and a half, and she’s asked to talk to us. Maybe this time we’ll get a handle on what happened to Jenny.”

  Chapter 15

  Feeling hot, I wriggled from my coat and hung it up near the desk. I noticed a new tear near the pocket from when I’d fallen over the fence, but the scarf inside was safe. I rubbed my left eye, wondering if eye drops would help the irritation.

  “We’ll have to get someone from legal here,” Cross said.

  Huish shook his head. “Let’s wait and see what he has to offer. Enough time to get them involved if we agree.”

  I sank back into my seat that numerous perps had shared over many years. This time I’d kept my gloves on, and the rest of my skin was well covered. I’d had it with imprints for the time being. I felt drained and wrung out and hung up to dry. In fact, I was having trouble focusing on what Huish was saying.

  “The Vandykes say the boot is definitely not their daughter’s.” Huish stifled a yawn like the one I didn’t bother to hide. “Not the same one we found on Beckett’s land. It’s the same size, same style, but the scuff mark is different. Gail tried to get it clean, so she knows. Jenny’s was more horseshoe shaped.”

  “It was locked up in evidence,” Levine said. “Doesn’t make sense.”

  “Could they just be saying that now because they know Ms. Rain said it wasn’t their daughter’s?” Greeley asked.

  “I’d say the same thing, except I didn’t mention Ms. Rain or my reason for asking them to reexamine the boot.”

  That shut them all up. I would have enjoyed the win more if I hadn’t been so exhausted. I let my eyes shut as Greeley and Huish briefly discussed internal affairs and a lockdown of evidence.

  The next thing I knew, someone grabbed my hands and cupped them around something so warm I could feel it through my knit gloves. I opened my eyes and saw Shannon grinning at me.

  “Lemon,” he said. “I raided their fridge for the rind. Had to use the microwave to heat it up. Sorry. Probably not very good.”
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  It wasn’t, but the thought went as far as the hot water to warm me. The cashews he’d also raided, full of fat and protein, helped further. Even my eye was feeling better by the time Bremer’s state-appointed attorney entered the big room.

  “This is Gretta Hansen,” Huish said, standing from a chair behind one of the desks. “What do you have for us, Gretta?”

  “First, I want you all to understand that I represent Mr. Bremer.” She was a small woman with short brown hair and a heart-shaped face. A bit on the stocky side. Nondescript, except for her shortness. Though her expression was bland, her fists clenched and unclenched at her side as though expecting a fight. “I came in to talk to him tonight instead of in the morning because the commander believes he is withholding important information regarding Jenny Vandyke. I’ve counseled him to seek a deal, not to help you with the case but because it’s in his best interest.”

  “We understand that,” Greeley said with a flat tone. “You always put your client first, even if they’re first-rate scumbags.”

  Gretta Hansen shot him a withering look before continuing. “If my client tells you what he knows about Jenny, he wants immunity.”

  Cross snorted. “Immunity from robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder? That’s a little much, don’t you think?”

  “He’s willing to stand trial for those things, if they even make it to trial. What he wants is immunity from anything else that may be uncovered in the course of the kidnapping investigation.”

  “What are we talking here?” Huish said, shaking his head. “If he’s done something to the girl, we can’t give him immunity for telling us where he hid the body.”

  Hansen pursed her lips. “Okay, I can tell you this. He didn’t have anything to do with Jenny’s kidnapping, but he knows who did take her—and he has proof. But his dealings with these men aren’t legal, and that’s what he wants immunity from.”

  “Let me guess,” Shannon said. “Drugs.”

  The attorney showed no expression. “I can’t say unless we have a deal, but I’m telling you I think you should consider it.”

  Cross looked at Huish, who nodded slowly. “Okay, immunity from that,” Cross said, “but only if we recover Jenny.”