by Dana Mentink
They delivered the boxes. As much as he enjoyed staying with Penny, it was time to start another round of phone calls to follow every last clue he could that would lead him to Randall’s whereabouts. “See you later.”
“For sure.” She waved the bunny ears at him. “What should I do with these?”
“Bring them over next time you come to play.” He was out of the room before he wondered what she thought of his casual invitation. Would she think he was using her as a source of free babysitting for Rain? Flirting?
Was he flirting? He wasn’t sure he even knew how.
He was a complete mess, he thought as he rubbed a hand over his forehead. Dusty greeted him with a tail wag from her cushion near his desk, but she didn’t get up. “Maybe you and I need some exercise time to clear our brains, huh?”
Something niggled at his gut as he grabbed her leash. Dusty was up, alive with excitement. He laughed at her exuberance, but there was still a nagging detail deep down in his gut that refused to surface.
What was it?
He paused in the doorway, sifting through the details of the morning.
Bunny ears.
Packages.
Black marker.
His nerves fired. Black marker. It was probably nothing. Check it out, anyway. “Come on, girl,” he said to Dusty.
He headed toward the conference room and as they got closer, Dusty’s nose quivered. Two more steps and she pulled on the leash, eager to get to the scent—an old scent she’d remembered from before.
The scent left by Randall Gage and his black marker.
“Penny,” Tyler shouted as he ran. “Don’t open that box!”
ELEVEN
Penny tore open the cardboard flap at the same moment she heard Tyler’s shouted warning. She screamed as a puppet exploded from the box. The crude felt figure reached the end of its spring and recoiled. Torn paper shreds flew out and fluttered to the carpet. Reeling, she fell onto the floor.
Scrappy shoved his concerned nose in her face. She clung to him, trying to understand what had just happened. Dusty raced in and sat, posture stiff to show she’d found a target. Tyler was next, blue eyes absorbing the scene before he sank to a knee at her side. Taking her elbow, he scooted her away from the settling debris until she was sitting with her back against the wall. The solid surface behind her kept her grounded.
Tyler looked over his shoulder and moved slightly, blocking her view of what had sprung from the box.
She gulped in a breath. “I want to see it,” she said, craning her neck.
“I don’t think...”
She gritted her teeth, the fear whipping her pulse into a frenzy. “Tyler, don’t try and protect me from the truth. This is my place of work, it’s my life, and I want to see what he’s done.” Her forceful tone sounded as if it was coming from someone else’s mouth.
He studied her for a minute and then nodded. “All right.” As he moved aside, she could properly make out the hideous contents of the package. Her senses reeled as she took it in. The puppet was still waving slightly from side to side on the spring. Where the facial features should have been was a cut-out photocopied picture of Penny’s face. It must have been taken at a happy time in her life, she thought. She was smiling, the collar of her desk clerk uniform shirt showing. Perhaps she’d just gotten her job with the police department. Her eyes roamed the grotesque toy’s body, which was covered with splotches of brilliant red paint. It took her a moment to realize the symbolism. The red was meant to resemble blood...her blood.
Randall’s promise made visual.
In case she didn’t get that message clearly, he’d made one more addition. She swallowed as she examined the rope noose strung around the puppet’s neck. Scrappy poked at her leg with his wet nose, whining softly. She absently caressed his ears and held him close to keep him away from the macabre delivery.
Gavin arrived at a run, eyes wide, and from somewhere far away she heard Tyler explaining what had happened.
“I should have noticed earlier,” Tyler said. “The black marker was similar to what we found in Randall’s apartment. Dusty picked up his scent on the package as we got closer to the conference room.”
Their words faded away as she looked down at the torn papers on the floor. What she’d mistaken for newspaper scraps were actually photocopied pictures of her, but the eyes were poked out and the papers were torn into pieces.
It should have been fear, she felt then, but instead it was a fountain of anger that bordered on rage, unlike anything she’d felt before. Randall’s evil had invaded her place of work, her lone sanctuary, the hub of her cop family. She turned on Tyler. “What did you find at his apartment?”
He looked as though he was about to try to put her off the topic. Then he reconsidered. “Pictures of you, defaced, like this. Newspaper clippings of your parents’ murders.” He paused. “A photocopy of the interview when you called him a monster.”
She got to her feet with a hand from Tyler. “He’s been planning his revenge carefully, hasn’t he? He’s invaded every area of my life, even here.”
Gavin cleared his throat. “Penny, I am going to ask something of you now that you’re not going to like.”
She braced herself. “You’re sending me home, aren’t you?”
He held up a placating hand. “Just for today, until we run down how this package was delivered here and set some things in place.”
Her rage flared, high and bright. “So now he gets to take my job from me, too? He’s stripped me of my home, my security and now this?”
“It’s the safest choice,” Tyler said.
Gavin patted her arm. “Just for today, okay? Let us do our jobs here and make sure our security is shored up so we can keep you and everybody here safe. Do you understand?”
And everybody here. It occurred to her just then that if Randall had sent a bomb or a chemical poison, everyone in the building might have been affected. It wasn’t just about her anymore. She swallowed and willed herself to speak.
“Yes, sir,” she said, hardly able to say the words. “I understand.”
“All right. Tyler, take her back to the secure room at the hotel, and I’ll alert Vivienne to meet you there. Staff meeting in one hour. I’ll get people in here to photograph this mess before we clean it up.” He looked at Penny again. “I promise. I’ll have you back at work before you know it.”
Penny didn’t reply. She could not be certain the anger wouldn’t burst from her just as the puppet had exploded from the box. Silently, she followed Tyler and Dusty to the squad car. Scrappy seemed to pick up on her emotional morass. His ears were down as he climbed into the vehicle. She felt Tyler sneaking glances at her, but he did not try to make small talk as they made their way back to the safe house.
“Vivienne will be here in twenty. I’ll take you up and stay until she arrives, okay?”
Penny managed a nod. Back in her dreary hotel room, she could not force herself to sit. Instead she paced laps around the dingy carpet while Scrappy whined from his lookout post on the couch.
Tyler rubbed his palms on his pants. “Can I, uh, make you some tea or coffee or something? I know how to prepare beverages, at least.”
She didn’t even have the energy to force a smile. “No thank you.”
“Penny...”
“This isn’t fair.” The words catapulted from her mouth. He jerked, startled.
His reply was gentle. “That’s true. Not one single thing about this is fair.”
“Why does Randall have the right to take so much from me?” Her voice was loud, echoing in the bare room. “My parents, my home, my job. What makes him so special that he can turn me into a victim for my entire life? How does he have that right?” She was almost shouting now, her fingernails biting into the palms of her clenched fists.
“He doesn’t.”
“
But he’s doing it, Tyler.” Her eyes filled. “One day at a time, he’s stripping it all away and he’s going to keep going until I’ve lost everything.” She gulped. “He’s going to kill me and then he’s going to kill my brother.” Her voice broke on the last word.
“No, he’s not.”
“How can you say that? He’s still running around loose.” Tears splashed hot down her cheeks. “And I’m the one locked up in a hotel room. It’s not fair.” Now the sobs came out of her along with the tears that she no longer attempted to staunch. “Is God punishing me?” The horrible question rose again from the darkest place in her soul. Am I unlovable? Do I deserve this?
He took hold of her shoulders and drew her to him. Her sobs shook her, but his arms were steady, stroking her back, pressing his cheek to the top of her head, repeating over and over.
“This is going to end.”
How? When? The questions remained locked inside and all she could do was cry.
He held her until her sobs died away and she was left sniffling. “I shouldn’t be yelling at you,” she whispered, taking the tissues he handed her.
“Yell all you want. I’m glad you can share your feelings with me.” His embrace was tender and strong, comforting and encouraging. She breathed in the scent of his aftershave, felt the strong beat of his heart next to her cheek. She had the oddest sense that she belonged there, pressed close to him, allowing herself to let go of a burden that had been building since she was a little girl.
When the storm of emotion eased, she was left with both a reservoir of fear and an odd feeling of comfort. How was it possible to have both? She wasn’t sure, but she knew that Tyler’s arms around her had brought her closer to hope, and farther away from despair.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He tipped up her chin to meet his eyes. “You don’t have to be sorry. You can rage and cry and vent all you need to with me.”
“You don’t want to hear all that.”
His finger caressed her chin. “I am privileged to hear all that.”
Tiny flickers of light danced through her bloodstream at his touch. “I... Thank you.” She felt her face flush. “You don’t have to...”
And then he was pressing a kiss on her lips and everything flew away in the tender rush of comfort. She felt his hand skim the back of her hair as he let the kiss linger for a moment before he pulled away.
“You just remember what I told you, Penny. You are lovable because God made you that way. You just hang onto that and we’ll do the rest. Randall will not rob you of the things you love. I won’t allow it.”
Oh, how she desperately wanted to believe it, to believe him. His kiss had been so precious, just like his words.
Vivienne’s knock on the door made her jump. Tyler cleared his throat, and let her in. After a brief conversation, he called for his dog, and then he was gone, leaving her to wonder at what had just passed between them.
* * *
Tyler grabbed a cup of coffee before heading to the meeting, hoping the strong brew would clear the buzzing from his senses. Every nerve in his body was at full alert. What had he done, kissing her like that?
You were comforting her, that’s all.
But he knew it was a lie. Yes, he could not bear to see her distressed, but he’d also found himself comforted by that kiss. The oddest feeling percolated through him—the radical thought that Penny McGregor was meant to be his. The feeling was deeper and more profound than he’d ever experienced before, even with Diane.
Use your head, he warned himself. He began ticking off the reasons that anything more than a friendly relationship was a very bad idea indeed.
First of all, it was his job to protect her. He was a cop, and she was his duty. Period. Emotional attachments would only impede that. That was exactly why interoffice romances were discouraged.
Second, he was seven years older than Penny and the weary father of a child who’d already lost one mother. Dive deeply into another relationship now that Rain was old enough to form strong attachments? The thought of inviting a woman into their lives and then having her walk away was too much to consider. It would shatter his heart, but what would it do to a toddler to have a second mommy desert her?
Third...
Bradley’s poke on his arm brought him from his reverie. “I just talked to Penny. She said you calmed her down. Thanks, man.”
Tyler smiled weakly. Reason number three screamed across his brain: Penny was his buddy Bradley’s sister. Bradley was fiercely protective, as he should be. Cops should not date other cop’s baby sisters.
Bradley frowned. “What’s going on? You’re off in space somewhere.”
“Sorry.” He gulped some coffee, which burned his tongue.
Gavin stood at the whiteboard as the officers took their seats. “All right. We know Randall mailed the package using a fictitious return address. I’ve gone over procedure with the mail room and all packages will be screened there before they’re delivered to the office.”
Henry gestured to his beagle. “They’ll call me if any odd packages arrive and Cody will do an explosives check.”
Explosives. Would that be Randall’s next attempt? Tyler noticed Bradley’s jaw was tight.
“What leads to we have?” Gavin asked.
Caleb spoke up. “Got a possible tip putting Randall at a homeless shelter in Dyker Heights, but it looks like he cleared out, if that was him.”
“Nothing further from the Emery crime scene?” Sarge asked.
Caleb shook his head. “Nothing conclusive until we get Darcy’s DNA results.”
“Nothing substantial on the Andy clue,” Tyler said. “I’m half convinced Lucy’s friend might be an imaginary one.”
“So we still don’t know if we’re looking at one killer or two.” The room went quiet at Gavin’s words.
Tyler drummed his fingers on the table. “If Randall killed the Emerys also, why didn’t we find many newspaper clippings about it at his apartment? There was only one. He’d practically built a shrine about the McGregor murders, particularly about Penny.”
Bradley glowered. “He’s obsessed with her.”
“Or he hasn’t had time to collect much on the Emery killings,” Caleb added.
“In any case, time’s ticking away. We need to bust Randall Gage before he makes good on his threats.” Gavin looked at Bradley. “Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to go to a safe house also. This isn’t just about your sister.”
A vein in Bradley’s jaw jumped. “No.”
Tyler tried a cajoling tone. “Hey, man. Couple of days off with pizza and football to watch. Doesn’t sound bad to me.”
“I said no.” Bradley’s tone was clipped and hard. “I hope Randall comes after me. Better me than Penny because King and I are ready. He won’t get a second chance.”
Tyler wasn’t surprised at Bradley’s reaction. He’d have said something similar if it was his sibling on the line.
“Right, well the other item on the table is the fall open house on Saturday.” Gavin leaned against the podium. “Makes most sense to cancel.”
Cancel. That would be the final broken straw in Penny’s life.
Gavin continued. “But that may not be necessary if we move all activities inside. We’re getting some pressure from higher up to go forward with it so there will be photos and video clips to put on the web of our new command unit.” He paused and cleared his throat. “They made the suggestion that we could go forward with the event while Penny is secured at the safe house.”
There was an angry buzz around the table, but Tyler’s voice rose the loudest.
“No way. Penny put her heart and soul into that open house. It’s her event. If she isn’t allowed to be here, we should cancel.”
There were murmurs of agreement.
Gavin nodded. “That was my thought, as well.
We can postpone the public-access segment for later in the year and continue on with the part which was intended for cops and cop families only. We’ll know everyone on the guest list. No one gets past the front desk unless they’re buzzed in. We can pull in some personnel on overtime and button this place down tight. Any objections?”
Tyler wanted to speak, but he knew it had to be a unanimous decision.
“Penny’s worked so hard on it. I say we go forward,” Henry said.
Gavin scanned the reactions from his officers. “All right. Let’s vote on it. All in favor?”
Every person in the room raised their hands.
Tyler felt a swell of pride. All the cops in the unit respected Penny and wanted the best for her. She was one of their own. Her cop family would not allow Randall to strip this important day from her.
It was one small victory, but to her, it would be enormous.
He felt again the softness of her lips on his, the strange buzz of bliss at being close to her.
Straightening in his chair, he reminded himself of his excellent reasons for avoiding a relationship with Penny.
Falling in love with her was out of the question right now.
If only his heart would fall into line.
TWELVE
Penny was nearly beside herself with excitement when Saturday morning finally rolled around. The days of her pseudo incarceration had crawled by in painful slow motion. She’d been awake for several hours already by the time Tyler arrived. Her hair was neatly secured in a twist and she wore her fall-hued sweater. Vivienne told her the burnt orange and golds complemented her coloring. She thought about that remark while she added a bit of pink to her lips and the tiny glass acorn earrings her adoptive mother had given her years before.
Tyler’s weary eyebrows lifted in appreciation when he saw her. “You look great,” he said.
“Oh, thank you,” she said. He rubbed his eyes and she felt a small pang of guilt that she’d required such an early pickup when he’d been keeping long hours working on the hunt for Randall. “Still waking up?”