Night Watch

by Susan Sleeman

  Were they? He sure wanted them to. “The verdict’s still out.”

  “Looks like you might be running out of time.” Drake’s gaze burned into Erik.

  Clay leaned between the seats. “If Gordon gives us the answers we need to close this investigation, she’ll be heading back to the East Coast or staying in WITSEC, and you’ll be missing out on a terrific woman.”

  Erik knew his brothers spoke the truth, but that didn’t mean he was ready for a relationship again, and as Drake pointed out, Kennedy lived across the country from Erik or could be staying in witness protection. Problem. Big one. He would never ask her to trade her dream job for him any more than she would ask him to leave his family.

  “Driveway half a mile ahead on the right,” Drake announced.

  Erik slowed to a crawl, cut the headlights, and made the turn onto the long treelined drive. The wheels crunched over gravel, each turn emitting tiny pops of sound in the quiet. Erik spotted the house sitting a couple of football fields from the road and killed the engine.

  He reached for the binoculars, but Drake already had them lifted to his eyes. “One light on, no sign of movement. Red Jeep Renegade in the drive.”

  “Give me the plate, and I’ll run it.” Erik pulled up on his phone one of the PI databases they subscribed to and entered the digits as Drake rattled them off. The result populated Erik’s screen. “Belongs to Gordon. It’s his only registered vehicle.”

  “So he’s likely home,” Clay said over the seat.

  “Could’ve gone out with someone,” Erik said. “But yeah. It’s likely.”

  “I say we send out a scouting party before approaching,” Drake said.

  “You and I can go.” Erik made sure the internal lights wouldn’t turn on when they opened their doors and slid out.

  He felt for his weapon and tucked his shirt behind it for easy access. Drake did the same.

  The moon and stars illuminated the long drive. They needed to be careful not to be seen. He pointed at the trees along the drive and headed into them. He paused near a large flowering shrub scenting the air with a sweetness he found overpowering. He grabbed the binoculars from Drake to take a good look at the house.

  “Still no movement,” Erik said. “We need to get closer to the front porch to take a look.”

  “Risk being exposed.”

  “If you were hunting a fugitive, would you risk it?”

  “Heck, yeah.” Drake grinned.

  “Then I’m going in. You stay here.” Erik jetted across the drive and ducked low to make his way to the porch. He popped up, binoculars in hand, but couldn’t get a good look through the big picture window.

  The door was ajar.

  Had something bad happened here?

  He had to get a look through that window.

  He started up the stairs to the porch. Reached the top and froze.

  Man, oh, man.

  He clamped a hand over his nose and mouth.

  No point in going any further. The stench coming from the house told him everything he needed to know right now, and he backed away to call in a deputy.

  Someone was dead in this house and had been for some time. Likely Dash Gordon.

  Hopes ruined, Erik waited on the tailgate of the SUV for a local detective to arrive. Thankfully they’d parked far away from the house and couldn’t catch the smell of death that was oozing out of the open door. His brothers hung with him, the tone oddly somber for the group. Erik had hoped Gordon would give them answers. Nope. Didn’t happen. The guy created more questions.

  The first responding deputy had gone inside the house to confirm what they’d suspected. Gordon had died. He’d taken two bullets to the chest at close range, and the house had been ransacked.

  The deputy said Gordon appeared to have been tortured, his fingers mutilated. Teeth pulled. This investigation had suddenly gotten ugly. Very ugly. Erik couldn’t be happier that Kennedy was safely settled in his condo with Aiden.

  The deputy was young, and this was his first dead body. He was alone, freaked out, and needed to talk. So Erik told him that, as a former officer, he understood, and the kid unloaded every detail of the scene. Erik doubted he’d get any additional details from the responding detective when he arrived.

  On the bright side, with Gordon obviously having been murdered, Erik finally had strong reason to believe Wanda had been murdered too. Different MO for sure, and maybe different killers, but this death cast a suspicious cloud over hers.

  Erik’s phone rang, and he answered the call from Sierra. “I’m putting you on speaker. Everyone’s here except Aiden and Kennedy.”

  “I just got off the phone with Detective Johnson,” she said. “He gave me permission to share the results for the evidence we turned in to him. Grady’s done running ballistics on the gun we recovered, and I processed the prints for that and the bullets in the clip. Plus prints from the casings at the ambush. They all match, and they also match the unknown print I lifted at Wanda’s place.”

  Erik let the information sink in. “So he’s our guy, whoever he is.”

  “Yes, and Johnson now has all of the evidence, and he’ll be running the prints through AFIS.”

  As a police officer, Erik had used the Automated Fingerprint Identification System—a database holding fingerprints from most law enforcement agencies and was managed by the FBI. “Anything else?”

  “Two things. First, I’m still waiting on the footprints at the river to fully cure so I can make a positive determination. And second, the hair I recovered at Wanda’s house was dyed. Less than a centimeter between root and color change suggests that the hair was dyed less than a month ago. I’m trying to determine the color and brand of the dye, but that could take some time. Also the sample had a flat-cut end, telling me he’d recently had a haircut.”

  “So our guy dyed and cut his hair.” Erik came to his feet when he spotted an unmarked car pull up the drive. “Maybe as a disguise.”

  “He’s a natural blond. Isn’t it amazing what a single hair can tell you about a suspect?” Sierra’s enthusiasm for her job shone through her tone.

  Erik appreciated the information, but he couldn’t get as excited about it. “Thanks for the update, but I gotta go.” He stowed his phone and looked at his brothers. “Looks like it’s showtime.”

  He started for the detective, but his phone rang again. Perfect. Detective Johnson.

  “Please tell me Smitty got ahold of you,” Erik said the minute Johnson came on the line.

  “He did.”

  “Do you have a name for the suspect Smitty arrested?” Erik held his breath, hoping Johnson would cooperate, considering Erik and the Veritas team had been so forthcoming with him.

  “You didn’t hear this from me, but the guy didn’t have ID on him. Still, his prints came back to a Jeremy Miller. Also matched the prints for the evidence your sister submitted.”

  “He’s our guy then,” Erik said.

  “I’m sure liking him for it. He was arrested for drug possession and distribution about five years ago. I suspect we’ll find a link between him and the counterfeit drug distributors. Not that he’s admitted it. He’s not saying a word. Not a single word. Not even ‘I want my attorney.’”

  “Drugs.” Erik let the word hang out there for a moment as he processed the implications as related to the illegal pharmaceutical project Wanda was working on. “Why take Wanda’s denture and nothing else?”

  “Good question,” Johnson said, in his low rumbly voice. “One I don’t have an answer for. You recognize the name?”

  Erik mentally ran through names on the Responsible Officials list and Wanda’s contact list. “Nope. We need to get him talking to figure out his relationship to Wanda Walker.”

  “I’d like to get you and your client down here to see if either of you recognize him from the break-in.”

  Erik didn’t mind looking at a sixpack of photos to try to ID the guy he saw in the parking lot, but he hated to put Kennedy through the stress. Ev
en if she worked in law enforcement, this was personal and would be painful. Still, he knew she would want to go. “I can arrange that.”

  “Sooner rather than later.”

  “Roger that.” Erik shared Gordon’s death with Johnson.

  “Well, isn’t that something,” Johnson said. “Who’s the detective out there?”

  Erik shrugged. Even if Johnson couldn’t see it, it was an automatic reflex. “Just going to meet with him now.”

  “Since you don’t know his name, give him my number and have him call me right away.” Johnson’s demanding tone held a determination Erik hadn’t witnessed from the guy before. Likely the pressure from being on the task force. “You hear me?”

  “I hear you.” Erik hung up and strode toward the slim detective deep in conversation with the deputy.

  Erik didn’t know how this was going to go down, but one thing he did know that he hadn’t been clear on before. He had to tell Kennedy about Gordon before the trip to the police station and Johnson mentioned it. Or this detective called her to ask questions.

  Having the matter settled should have lifted a weight from Erik’s shoulders, but it did just the opposite. He didn’t have any right to keep the news of her mother’s boyfriend from her anyway, and he wouldn’t want to be left in the dark on one of his parents. Plus, she might recognize the guy’s name, which could move the investigation forward.

  More than anything, he didn’t want to hurt the woman who was taking over his heart again. He wanted to commit to her and give her only the best and most joyous life, a thought that shocked him as much as finding Gordon’s body.

  23

  Kennedy glanced across the sofa at Erik. He looked worried. Uncomfortable in a way she’d never seen before. And asking her to sit down so he could talk to her? He’d never done that before either. Her stomach coiled around the salad she’d eaten earlier and the spicy taco salad smell lingered in the air, making the nausea worse.

  She tried to clutch her hands in her lap, but the bite was still painful, so she settled on clasping the wrist of her injured hand. She wished she could stop her mind from conjuring up all kinds of crazy ideas about where Erik had been for the past six hours, but she’d always had a vivid imagination.

  He planted his hand on his knees. “I got a call from Nora. Someone broke into her place, and she asked me to come alone.”

  “Nora? Really?” Kennedy’s heart fluttered as she tried to figure out why Nora might want to see Erik alone.

  “Her first concern was the intruder, of course,” Erik said. “The police were there when I got there and had him in custody.”

  “But why didn’t she want me there?” Kennedy asked.

  “She had some things to tell me about your mom that she didn’t want you or Finley to know.” His eyes were tight with a deep pain. “But I think you deserve to hear them.”

  She took his hand, feeling the rougher skin of a man who didn’t sit behind a desk all day. “It’s okay. Just tell me.”

  “Nora was the one who erased your mother’s phone.”

  Phew. Not as bad as Kennedy feared. “Why would she do that?”

  He swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Your mother was seeing someone. His name was Dash Gordon.”

  Her mouth fell open. No. Not her mom. She said she never wanted to date. Kennedy snapped her mouth shut. “My mom. Seeing someone. That’s crazy. But who is this Dash guy?”

  Erik pulled back and stood to pace. She went after him and joined him by the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking rolling hills of dried grasses from a summer of little rain. Portland city lights twinkled in the distance.

  She rested a hand on his shoulder. “What is it?”

  He turned to look at her, the anguish doubled in his eyes. “Your mom had an overnight bag at the lab. Nora took it to her place.”

  Kennedy’s stomach threatened to explode. “Ah. She was more than seeing him. They were sleeping together.”

  Erik nodded. “Nora didn’t want you or Finley to know. He was much younger, and your mom thought you might judge her for having a fling with a younger man.”

  Kennedy ran her hand through her hair. The thought of her mother being someone Kennedy really didn’t know was upsetting. But… “She deserved to be happy. I would’ve protested at first, but if this Dash person made her happy I would’ve come to accept it.”

  “There’s more. Let’s sit down again.” He took her hand and started to lead her across the room.

  She jerked him to a stop. “Just tell me.”

  He closed his eyes for a moment before meeting her gaze. “Your mom had a rare form of lymphoma.”

  Blood rushed to Kennedy’s head, and she wished she’d listened to Erik. She dropped onto the nearest dining chair to wait for the feeling to pass. “She never said a word.”

  “She didn’t think she would have enough money to pay for her treatments, and she didn’t want to be a financial burden for you or Finley.” He pulled out a chair next to her. “Or tell you that your dad lost all of their savings in a scam.”

  Kennedy’s heart ached for all her mother had endured, and Kennedy hadn’t been there for her. Not at all. She looked at her hands and worked hard not to cry. And her dad losing their savings? She had no words for that. Except he’d helped scam people out of their life savings, so it was fitting the same should happen to him. Unfortunately, her mom got stuck in the middle. Again.

  “Also, you should know that the guy who broke into Nora’s place was stealing a denture plate from your mother’s bag. It was in a box labeled inDents.”

  She raised her head. “The company who was paying her the twenty grand every month? Was it for this denture plate? To wear it? Test it, maybe?”

  “We don’t know.” Erik frowned. “The guy’s not talking. His name is Jeremy Miller. He’s not in any of the information we’ve reviewed. Do you know him?”

  “I wish I did.”

  “He has a record for drug possession and distribution. Could mean he has a relationship with the counterfeit drug manufacturers. I’ll do a deep dive on him to see what we can find.”

  “But why the denture? How would that be related to counterfeit drugs?”

  “No clue. I’m going to ask Johnson if the Veritas team can look at it.”

  “That would be good.”

  Erik shifted on his chair, looking even more ill at ease, and she braced herself.

  He rested an arm on the table. “You should also know that we went to Dash Gordon’s place to talk to him. He was tied to a dining room chair where he’d died of gunshot wounds to the chest.”

  She gasped and blinked a few times to process the news. “And you think his death has to do with my mom?”

  “It would be a huge coincidence if it’s not. Grady’s over there now recovering bullets and slugs. Maybe they’ll match bullets to the gun you brought up on your dive. The prints on both of those match the shell casings recovered at the shootout.”

  “Good news.” Finally. “We’re making some progress.” She stared over his shoulder, trying to think about what was coming next, but thoughts of her mom suffering with cancer wouldn’t stop, and she couldn’t hold back her tears. She got up again, not sure of her destination, but she couldn’t sit still with all the guilt piling on her shoulders.

  “What is it, honey?” Erik stepped near her.

  She wanted to walk into his arms as she’d done back in the day when something bad had happened. He would hold her tight and make it all go away. For that moment anyway. Even after he released her, she always felt stronger for the comfort he offered.

  God was the same way. Once she gave up on what she could do herself and stepped out of her own way and into His loving arms, she was much stronger. So easy, yet so hard. She’d been fighting that embrace since her mother died. Maybe she was mad at God. Probably was and she wasn’t sure if she even knew how to find Him again. What to do? How to look for Him?

  “Kennedy?” Erik asked.

  Her tears pour
ed from her eyes. She wasn’t ready to share her struggle with God. “I hate to think of my mom being alone with the cancer. If only she’d told me.”

  He took her uninjured hand, his big fingers enveloping hers, and she stared at them twined together. He drew her close. Closer.

  “I wish I didn’t have to tell you,” he whispered.

  “Thank you for not keeping it from me.” She looked up and met his gaze. “No more secrets in my life.”

  Right. Like that was possible. A sob escaped, and she looked away.

  “What is it?” He tipped her chin up.

  “One more big secret,” she said. “Probably for the rest of my life. Finley decided to stay in WITSEC, and we’ll be relocated again.”

  “Why?” His voice rose.

  She pulled back.

  “Sorry. Why?” he asked again, his tone softer that time.

  She told him about the danger first as that was the biggest reason, but then had to tell him about the money too.

  He shook his head. “I’ll pay off her debts.”

  “She’s too proud to take money from me, so she’d never take it from you.”

  “But doesn’t she know what she’s doing to you? You’ll have to give up a career you love. And I know you can’t keep your former careers in the program or even do them as a hobby, so you won’t likely dive again.”

  “She knows the rules.” Kennedy’s throat closed, and she could barely get the words out. “She’s just looking out for our safety, and I have to go with her. I’m all she’s got.”

  His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t speak.

  She raised her chin in solidarity with her sister. “You’d do the same thing for your family.”

  He gritted his teeth. “My family wouldn’t ask for such a huge sacrifice.”

  “You made one for Aiden,” she pointed out.

  “That’s different. He didn’t ask us to quit our jobs. It was our decision.” Erik shook his head. “And here I thought I was going to give you the bad news. I don’t want you to disappear from my life again. I want to…”

  He shook his head and ran a hand over his face.