Code of Valor

by Lynette Eason

  Brady pulled his phone from his pocket.

  “Who are you calling?” Emily asked.

  “Nicholas Raimes. I just thought of something.”

  “Speakerphone?” Linc insisted.

  Brady pressed the button as Raimes answered. “Hello?”

  “This is Detective St. John. I thought of one more question I’d like to ask.”

  “Of course.”

  He paused. “Have you ever heard of a guy by the name of Paul Bailey?”

  “Sure. We run in the same real estate circles. Why do you ask?”

  “Just curious as to what kind of person he is?”

  “I only know him on a professional basis, but he’s always personable when I see him, well-liked by others in the industry.” He paused. “What else can I tell you? Uh . . . he’s a shrewd businessman, that’s for sure. A lot of people envy him and others just want to suck up to him.”

  “Because of his wealth?”

  “Of course.”

  “And that business with Jenkins?”

  “Jenkins? Oh.” Raimes blew out a sigh. “I don’t know. That was kind of freaky, but I don’t think Paul had anything to do with that.”

  “So, as wealthy as Mr. Bailey is, he’s chosen to live with his cousin Claire in a small two-bedroom apartment while his home is being renovated. You don’t find that odd?”

  “Definitely odd. And did you say his cousin?”

  “Yes.”

  “He doesn’t have any relatives in town that I recall. Although it seems like he did mention doing some renos on one of his houses when I ran into him last week, but I couldn’t tell you any more than that.”

  Emily raised a brow. One of his houses?

  “Huh. I must have misunderstood about the cousin,” Brady said.

  “Must have.”

  “Thanks again.”

  “Anytime.”

  Brady hung up and raised a brow. “Well, that’s interesting. I think we need to have another chat with Mr. Bailey.”

  Izzy grabbed her phone. “He’s already left, of course. I’ll see if I can round him up again.”

  Brady ran a hand over his lips and sighed. “All right,” he said with a glance at Emily, “I guess it’s time to get you back to the safe house.”

  “I guess.”

  He smiled. “What? You don’t like it there?”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I guess I’m just ready for all of this to be over with.”

  Preferably with her still breathing.

  Tuesday, October 29

  21

  For the next two days, Brady and Emily had continued the investigation from the safe house, sending everything she found to Linc, who in turn had brought in the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery section of the Bureau. They would work closely with Linc and keep him informed of any updated information.

  Each day they worked in the morning and dove in the afternoon.

  Today was unseasonably warm, so they switched it up with a shorter dive, first thing in the morning. The afternoon would be busy. Brady and Emily sat on the dock in their dry suits, feet dangling over the edge. “You’re a natural,” he told her. “I’ve never seen anyone take to diving like you.”

  “I love it. I’d stay down there 24/7 if I could.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”

  “How’s your knee?”

  “Better. Keeping it elevated and the ice pack on it has helped a lot. I don’t think I damaged it nearly as bad as I did last time.”

  “Good.” She sighed. “I can’t do this anymore, Brady.”

  His smile faded and his eyes clouded. “Do what?”

  “Hide out. Wait. Live in limbo.”

  “I know it’s hard, but—”

  “No buts. It is hard. What’s even harder is that I’ve called Heather’s mother four times over the past two days and she hasn’t called me back. And it’s not because whoever has Heather snatched them, because you said officers rode by and saw them working in the yard this morning.” She’d been concerned when Heather’s mother never called her back after Mr. Gilstrap had assured her that they would do so as soon as they had a moment. Brady had sent officers out to check. “And where is the evidence report from the Cadillac? And why hasn’t anyone connected Martin Burnett to someone who can be arrested? And why can’t anyone find out where those pictures were taken? And why hasn’t David been able to find Heather’s car? It’s not like this is the seventies. We should know something by now!”

  He let her vent. She’d been winding tighter and tighter over the last twenty-four hours, and he’d hoped the dive would help. And it had. Just not for long.

  When she finally snapped her lips shut, he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Look, I get it. I do. Unfortunately, everything takes time.”

  “Time Heather might not have.”

  Brady winced. He knew she wanted to believe Heather was alive somewhere. He just didn’t hold out that same hope.

  Emily took a deep breath to calm down and rubbed a hand over her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m probably not even making any sense. I know you don’t think she’s still alive.”

  “You’re making sense.” He scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “And you don’t know how much I hope I’m wrong.”

  For a moment she was tempted to lay her head on his chest and do her best to forget her problems. Instead she pulled away from him. His closeness just made her long for more and that wasn’t going to happen. “I’m going inside to try Heather’s mom one more time, and if she doesn’t answer, I’m going over there.” She stood and grabbed the flippers she’d taken off to climb up on the dock. Only now her feet were freezing and she stumbled on her first step.

  Brady hopped up to grab her arm. “Are you okay?”

  “Cold feet.” She smirked. “Literally.”

  He laughed and leaned over to cover her mouth with his.

  For a moment, she froze, her pulse picked up speed, blood pounding through her veins. Indecision warred with surprise and disbelief. And then it was over.

  His hand cupped the back of her head and his eyes smiled down at her. “I wish you could see your eyes.”

  She blinked. And frowned. “Why?”

  “Because they’re—”

  “No. Why did you do that? Why did you kiss me?”

  “Because I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now, and it seemed like the right time.” He looked away. “I guess I should apologize for not asking if it was okay.”

  “No, don’t apologize. It just surprised me.”

  “In a bad way? I couldn’t tell. I didn’t set off any bad memories or anything, did I?” He dropped his head and peered at her through his lashes.

  Her heart flipped. “No. No bad memories. I don’t have PTSD or anything like that when it comes to Jeremy. I’m not scared or upset that you kissed me.” She smiled. “I actually enjoyed it once the surprise started to fade.” And then it was over. Much too fast.

  He let out a slow breath. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought I’d pushed you away for good.”

  “No . . .”

  His eyes snapped to hers. “No, but?”

  “But I don’t understand what you see in me.”

  Brady pursed his lips and studied. “Okay, I can see we’ve got some work to do.”

  “Work?”

  “On getting you to see yourself like I do.” Her jaw dropped. He tapped it. “Come on, let’s go see if we can get Heather’s mother to answer.”

  Joy fled as they walked back up the hill to the house. Kissing Brady had been spectacular. Well, him kissing her had been. She hadn’t been much of a participant, thanks to her utter shock. And she’d admit feeling safe had been amazing and restorative, but Heather was still missing. Whether alive or dead, her friend still needed to be found.

  Emily noted that Brady altered his gait to match hers, just like he always did when they walked side by side. Soon, she’d have to ask him exactly how he saw he
r, but she didn’t think she could handle the answer right now.

  But soon. Because she needed to know exactly how he saw her if she was going to work on seeing herself the same way.

  Whatever that wound up being.

  However, two people had said essentially the same thing in a short span of time, so apparently she was missing something.

  She desperately wanted to know what that was.

  The man on the hill lowered the binoculars and pondered his next move. They had to be diving. All of the equipment that was hauled down ahead of them indicated it. They were playing it safe in case of a sniper. Smart. But if Emily could dive, he could use that to his advantage and lose the albatross around his neck. And the fact that she and the detective seemed to be developing feelings for one another was good information to have.

  The albatross approached and the man on the hill was almost surprised he’d shown up.

  Jeremy Hightower shoved his hands into his pockets. “How’d you find them?”

  “Been tracking Heather’s parents’ phones. There was one number that I couldn’t identify as belonging to family or relatives. I took a chance it might be Emily’s. It was.”

  “Good for you.” Jeremy cleared his throat. “You said he’d pay.”

  “I thought he would. I still think he will, but you didn’t have to sink the boat.” He kept his tone mild. In truth, he didn’t care about the boat, he cared about the inconvenience of all the extra work it was causing him by being on the bottom of a lake somewhere. A location that the man on his left refused to divulge. “You hired Martin Burnett to kill Heather Gilstrap, didn’t you?”

  Jeremy shrugged. “Martin was one of your boss’s lackeys who was always eager to pad his bank account. It didn’t take too much convincing for him to kill her. She’s been a pain in my side ever since high school. Good riddance.” He paused. “You seem to want to know the location of the boat almost as much as your boss.”

  “I do.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s in my best interest to know the location. Which you could give me.”

  “You don’t have enough money to convince me to give it up.”

  The man kept his emotions out of the conversation. “If you would give it up, I would have the money.”

  “Tell me the combination to the safe.”

  “Tell me the location of the boat.”

  “And so it goes.” A pause. “I could just dive down there and haul the safe up, you know.”

  The broker’s friend chuckled at Jeremy’s delusion. “You and I both know you can’t make a move without someone watching you.”

  “And yet, here I am.”

  “You were followed.”

  The albatross scowled. “By whom?”

  “The guy who just rolled up on the motorcycle.” He pointed.

  Jeremy cursed. “Who’s he?”

  “Just one of my faithful employees.”

  “I’m done. Don’t contact me again until you have the money transferred to the account number I gave you.”

  He stomped off, climbed into his little red sports car, and raced away. The man on the hill saluted the motorcycle rider, who nodded and roared away.

  With the binoculars back against his eyes, the man continued to watch his targets—or at least their vicinity. Brady St. John and Emily Chastain. Brady would be the obvious choice to make the dive once he found the boat, but it looked like Emily could do the job just as well and she would be easier to control. He snapped a few pictures with the long-range lens and tucked away what he’d learned with his little spying mission.

  He climbed into his car. It was time to take care of Jeremy Hightower once and for all.

  Brady couldn’t help shaking a mental finger at himself. While he’d enjoyed kissing Emily, she hadn’t been ready for it. Then again, she hadn’t pushed him away either. She’d just been surprised. He couldn’t help glancing at her as they rode down the highway toward the exit that would take them to the Gilstraps’ home. He wanted to protect her, to wrap her in a combination of bubble wrap and Kevlar to make sure no one ever hurt her again.

  But since that wasn’t possible, the best thing he could do was hover. And keep his gun close by. His phone rang. “Excuse me.”

  “Sure.”

  He activated the truck’s Bluetooth. “Luis? What’s up, man?”

  “I need you out at Lake Murray,” the dive team leader said. “We’ve got a body.”

  “Already recovered?”

  “Part of it.”

  “Ah. The others on the way?”

  “Yep.”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He hung up. “I’ve got to head to the lake.”

  “You go there. I’ll catch a cab to Heather’s parents’ house.”

  He laughed, a short sound that ended in a snort. “I don’t think so.”

  “Well, I’m not too keen about diving and looking for body parts, so do you have a better suggestion?”

  “Wait in the car?”

  “Too unproductive.”

  He nodded. “I’ll get Linc to go with you.”

  “Linc doesn’t have time to babysit me.”

  “Someone’s going with you. It’s nonnegotiable.”

  She huffed a sigh. He was right and she just needed to accept her limitations for now. “Fine.”

  Thirty minutes later, after Linc agreed to come get Emily, Brady pulled to a stop in front of the yellow crime scene tape and climbed out. He leaned back into the open door. “I’m going to get geared up. Linc will be here shortly.”

  The wind blew hard enough to cause the tape to snap, then relax. Snap, relax. He hated that sound. It was like someone snapping their fingers, rushing him, telling him to hurry up and find the killer. A body had been dumped in Lake Murray. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the head. Other team members were already waiting and ready to go. Mary Beth, Danny, Vic, Gavin, and Luis. Brady shot Mary Beth a questioning look. “How’d you beat me here?”

  She shrugged. “I knew a shortcut.”

  “You’ll have to let me in on that one. Hey, Francisco, thought you would still be at the shooting.”

  Francisco Zamora, the medical examiner, looked up. The man could have been a model with his dark good looks, compliments of his Spanish ancestors, but he’d chosen to use the brains that came with his good looks. “Brady, how considerate of you to finally join your teammates.”

  “Thanks. Good to see you too. Again.”

  “Herrera took over the other case. I wanted this one.” One of the deputy coroners. Francisco didn’t have to go out to the scenes. In fact, in their city, it wasn’t even protocol, but everyone indulged Francisco’s uniqueness since he claimed it made him a better examiner. Brady didn’t care, he just wanted answers.

  “What do you have?”

  “A dead guy.”

  Brady did his best to refrain from rolling his eyes. “No kidding. And you went to med school for that?”

  Francisco smirked at him, then returned to his study of the bloated, headless man. “Our poor victim here washed up a short while ago. The unfortunate witnesses were removed from the area.”

  Brady nodded. “How long has he been in the water?”

  “You know I can’t answer that with any guarantee of accuracy yet.”

  “I know, but I’ll take your best educated guess.” Because Francisco was rarely wrong even with his educated guesses.

  “Probably about a week, give or take a couple of days on either side of that.”

  “Any ID on him?”

  “Actually, yes. Had his wallet still in his pocket. It’s kinda messed up, but I could make out the name on the license.” He handed it to Brady, who took it in his gloved hand. “Reuben Kingman?”

  A gasp sounded behind him and he spun. Emily stood watching, her hand over her mouth. “Reuben?” she said.

  Brady shoved the wallet back in Francisco’s hand and strode over to Emily, noting that his knee only gave a light protest at the sudden movemen
t. “Don’t look.” But it was too late. Her pale face and constant swallowing said she’d always have to live with the image of the corpse. “You know him?”

  “He worked at my bank.” She ran a shaky hand over her hair. “Why would someone kill Reuben? Why would someone do that to him?”

  “What’d he do at the bank?” Brady asked.

  “He was our Information Security Operations Center Manager. Which is a fancy title for making sure all of the bank’s operations were secure and running smoothly. He was a genius. Especially when it came to computers. IT even sometimes called him for help.” Emily shook her head. “I don’t believe this. First Heather and now Reuben.” Tears hovered on her lashes, but didn’t fall. She blinked. “He was supposed to be on a two-week vacation-slash-leave, visiting family. His father had just had bypass surgery and his mom needed his help. I’m sorry, I don’t know all the details.”

  “We’ll see if there’s a missing person report filed on him. If he didn’t show up at his parents’, surely they would have called someone.”

  “I’m sure.” She raked a hand through her hair.

  “Were you especially close to him?” Brady asked. He wasn’t sure if he was asking for the investigation or for himself.

  “No, not really. I mean, we were friends. We talked on a daily basis, had lunch together occasionally, commiserated about our failed efforts to reach our goal weight, but we weren’t especially close. Like we didn’t socialize outside of work.”

  “Any other relatives or close friends?”

  “He has a sister in Columbia who’s married with four children. He was crazy about his nieces and nephews. His parents live in Raleigh, North Carolina.”

  Linc walked up and Brady filled him in.

  “Hey, St. John, you coming?” Mary Beth stood, hands on her hips, brow raised.

  Brady’s eyes connected with Luis, who was getting the gear ready, but had looked up at Mary Beth’s call. “Stay here a sec,” he told Emily.

  “What’s up?” Linc asked.

  “I’ll be right back.” Brady jogged over to the dive team leader. “Could I sit this one out?”

  “Why?”

  “Emily knows the victim.”

  Luis sighed and looked around. “Yeah. I think we can handle it. I can always call in one of the others if I find we need more help.”