Expired Refuge

by Lisa Phillips

  “Dad? Can you hear me?”

  The line went dead. Mia lowered the phone.

  Conroy’s hands slid to her elbows. “Tell me.”

  “All I heard was a gurgle. Nothing more.”

  “Your dad?”

  “Lieutenant!” An older man turned the corner, breathing heavy.

  Mia blinked. The guy had no hair, a bright red beard, green tattoos on his old-man arms below shirt sleeves that had been rolled back. “Shots fired.” He glanced at her. “I’m Bill, the dispatcher.”

  She nodded. “Mia Tathers.”

  “Nice to meet you, Special Agent.”

  “Shots fired?”

  He swallowed. Glanced at Conroy. “Rich’s house.”

  Mia ran for the door. Kaylee moved a hand to the door controls. Mia just ran to the counter, planted her hands on top and swung her legs over. She landed, overbalanced, wobbled to gain it back, then hit the bar on the door and ran outside.

  Car.

  Home.

  Conroy pulled open the door on the passenger side and got in. Mia didn’t have time to figure out why or say anything, so she just drove.

  Conroy put his phone to his ear. “Tell me.” He listened while she drove. He said, “Stay there. Walk through but don’t touch anything.” Pause. “Five minutes.”

  He hung up.

  “Responding officers?” Mia could barely choke the words out.

  If Anthony Stiles had done something to her father, she was going to lose it even more than she already had.

  “They’re going to sit on the house until we get there.”

  “And?”

  “They need to walk through first, confirm whether your dad is there or not.” He sounded like he was barely containing himself. Kind of like the way she was barely containing herself. He said, “But the front door is open, and they said first glance that the place is a mess.”

  She prayed he was there. Right then, driving to her dad’s house, Mia pleaded with God that if He’d ever loved her…

  No, that wasn’t fair. God wasn’t some overlord to be bargained with. Regardless of what could happen, she would trust Him.

  God loved her. He also loved her dad, and her dad had apparently found Him. That meant Rich Tathers was likely praying right now as well.

  That realization of the solidarity between her and her father gave her a warm feeling. Not exactly hope. More like community. Fellowship that came with shared faith, even if he might be hurt, and she didn’t know where he was.

  He could be dead.

  She didn’t even want to think about that. Just get to the house first and find out for sure.

  Shots fired.

  She wanted to pull over and pray long enough that composure would come. Instead, she drove. Her brain filtered through with random pieces of information as it processed what had happened.

  Tate had been with Ed. Had he gone over to the dark side as well? Now her father was gone.

  “I didn’t say bye to him.”

  Conroy looked up from his phone. “What?”

  “I walked out, mad at you. I didn’t say bye.”

  “When you called me?”

  “Right after. He told me to trust you. Said to let you explain, and all I told him was to keep his gun close.”

  “I guess he could’ve used it. There were shots fired.”

  “Your officers would have reported in if they’d found him. If he had fought back, then he would be there now, hunkered down.”

  Conroy said, “You don’t know that. He might have done damage but been overpowered.”

  “Or Anthony Stiles already killed him, and my dad is dead as Garrett.”

  He reached over, hesitant. Squeezed her knee. “You don’t know that.”

  “I didn’t tell Meena. She’s back there, finishing her coffee, with absolutely no idea why we ran out.”

  “If she even saw. I’ll ask Kaylee to brief her, since they’ll need to cut her loose anyway.”

  Mia tapped the wheel with one finger. “I don’t like keeping her in the dark.”

  “Looping her in might help. She’ll be with you, supporting you.”

  He really thought that? “Or she’ll split, round up all her ‘boys’ and go out hunting Stiles like she’s the leader of some Wild West posse.”

  She took the road for the lake too fast and prayed no person or animal stepped out into the road while she raced to her dad’s house.

  The black and white patrol car sat at the curb. Right in the spot where Conroy’s car had exploded.

  It almost seemed like weeks ago she’d leaned over him, trying to get him to wake up.

  An officer rounded the house. One she’d seen at the park, handling the murder scene of Tyler Lane. His dead body flashed in her mind. He saw Conroy, and shook his head, mouthing the words, Not here.

  Her dad was gone.

  Conroy stalled her before she could get out of the car. “We’re going to find him.”

  Probably he didn’t want the officers here to see him showing affection to someone he hoped they would respect for her position, and because she’d grown up here. She appreciated that.

  “Thank you for being here with me.” Mia squeezed his hand over her knee. “But let’s go.”

  He nodded. They climbed out and met the officer. Since Conroy wanted this to be professional, she stood so the cop wouldn’t miss the badge on her belt.

  She’d run out of the police department before either of them could grab their coats. It was freezing outside.

  The officer spoke as they rounded the house to the front door.

  She saw the neighbors on their porch. Mom and the two kids, anyway. She wondered how Daisy was doing, and if they were the ones who’d called in the shots fired. “Anyone talk to the neighbors?”

  “My next stop,” the officer said.

  She remembered his name. “Officer Basuto, right?”

  He straightened his shoulders. “That’s right.” They rounded the front corner, and she saw the door was open. “Nothing’s been moved or touched, and we completed the walkthrough. Checked everywhere. He isn’t here.”

  Basuto stopped outside the door, his dark brows pulling together.

  She said, “What?”

  “Blood on the living room carpet.”

  “What about a weapon? He has a twenty-two and a shotgun.”

  “My guess? It was the twenty-two. He fired.” Basuto stepped in, but faced the wall by the front door. “Hunkered down in the living room where the blood is. I think he hit the frame over here. See the slug?”

  It was embedded in the wood.

  She nodded. “So he returned fire. Where’s the blood from Stiles....or whoever?” There wasn’t any right here, in the hall. Whoever he fired at by the front door wasn’t hit.

  “Only over there.” Basuto waved to the living room.

  Her dad had been hit. He was the only one who’d been hit. Mia nearly tripped over the coffee table trying to get there.

  “Easy.” Conroy didn’t come over. He started up a low conversation with the officer while she looked.

  Mia gasped. She took a half step back and had to throw her hand out to steady herself.

  That was a lot of blood. “Wherever he is,” she told Conroy, interrupting his conversation but not caring one bit about that, “my dad needs medical attention.”

  “Can Stiles keep him from bleeding out?”

  Basuto said, “Stiles is the guy that did this?”

  “It’s our theory.”

  “This guy is running rampage all over town.” Basuto shook his head. “My partner and I should get back out on the street. See if we can find him.”

  “Find out from the neighbor if they saw a car after they heard the shots fired.”

  “Yes, Lieutenant.”

  The two officers headed out the front door.

  “We should go, too.” She didn’t want to stay here. There was nothing worse in the world than standing around doing nothing while someone she cared about was in
danger.

  Probably why it hurt so much when her teammates had done nothing to help her when she’d needed them. Essentially. Sure, after the one walked off, another had hauled Thompson Stiles’s body off her. Asked if she was okay. But no one helped her up.

  Her shoulder had been screaming, but she’d neglected to tell any of them that. They didn’t get the satisfaction of knowing he’d hurt her. Of understanding that she had feared for her life right before she took the life of Stiles’s brother. Anthony understood what it was like to grieve a sibling.

  So did she.

  He knew what it was like to want the responsible party to pay.

  But if she still held the grudge she’d always held against Conroy over his head, even now, it didn’t make her any better than Anthony Stiles. And here she was supposed to be the good guy.

  So why didn’t she feel like it?

  At least she should believe it. Try to live like one.

  Conroy touched her cheeks with his warm hands. “You holding on?”

  She grasped his wrists, needing to feel the strength there when she didn’t feel strong at all. God. She barely even knew what to say. “He’s bleeding. He could be dead already.”

  Conroy pressed a kiss to her forehead. “So let’s go.”

  He stepped back. She’d figured he would head for the front door, but he didn’t. “Walk through the house. I want the perspective of someone who lives here. You might see something the officers missed.”

  She nodded. Walking through the house was a good way to get out from under the feeling of being so powerless. The warm press of Conroy’s lips against the skin of her forehead filled her mind instead.

  She’d never been a source of attraction to anyone before, at least not that she knew of. Mia was too tall, too stocky. Men didn’t see her as anything other than “one of the boys.” Especially her coworkers. She figured this was, for the most part, because of Mara. Conroy cared for her because she was Mara’s sister.

  Yes, he’d kissed her for real before. But he hadn’t done it since.

  Probably, he’d changed his mind. Realized it was a mistake.

  Now he was just a nice guy, so he was here. He cared about her father and was willing to help when someone in his town was shot and kidnapped.

  Fear rolled through her. She bent double and nearly threw up.

  Conroy touched her back, his warm palm between her shoulder blades. She stood. “I’m fine.”

  “It’s okay to not be.”

  She pulled open the door to the hall closet. “He’s not wearing his coat. It’s still here.”

  It was forty-five degrees outside. Her dad was used to cooler temps, but with the loss of blood, he’d be feeling that right now, and she didn’t think Stiles was the kind of kidnapper who would crank the heat in his car.

  She pulled out the coat and slipped it on herself, over her jacket, smelling her dad even as his coat warmed her. “We need the car make and model.”

  “Soon as we know anything, I’ll put it out. Get everyone looking.” Conroy said, “Your dad is well liked in this town, and there are some people who live here now who have special skills. I’ll burn a favor, but that’s one thing I’m happy to do to get your dad back.”

  “Because he’s your friend?”

  “That’s part of it.”

  She went back to the living room but ignored the blood. “Where is his phone?”

  “I figure he dropped it before Stiles took him.” He pointed at the blood on the door frame to the hall. A smear she hadn’t seen before.

  She looked away from it, crouched, and searched under the coffee table for her dad’s phone. Conroy lifted the couch and she looked under it. “No.”

  He felt between all the cushions. “It’s not here.”

  “Does he have it with him?” That one question sparked a rush of hope that made her press her hand to her stomach. Her injured arm throbbed, but she mostly ignored it.

  Her dad was bleeding.

  Conroy shot a look of hope in her direction and held his phone to his ear. “Kaylee, get someone to my house. I want a GPS location for Rich Tathers’s phone, ASAP.”

  His command center.

  “That’s right,” Conroy said. “It’s on my computer.” Pause. “Copy that.” He ended the call. “We’re the closest available personnel.”

  “Then let’s go.” She hit the front door, nearly colliding with that little girl from next door. Whatever the kid’s name was. “Sorry.” She ran. “Gotta go.”

  Twenty-Five

  “This is it?”

  Conroy slammed his car door. “This is where my computer says your dad’s phone is.”

  Mia looked around. Conroy knew what she saw—nothing. They were three miles from her dad’s house in a secluded area nearly at the outskirts of town. “If he went this way and just tossed the phone out of the window, then he was going north. But what’s out there?”

  “Has to be a place he’s holed up. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. He has your dad, not you. Unless he contacts you and arranges a trade, then he didn’t get what he wanted.”

  “And he threw away the phone. So this is likely all misdirection.”

  He looked around. Saw blood in a matted spot of grass. “He didn’t toss the phone out the window.”

  She came over, touched his shoulder, and leaned against him for support while she looked closer.

  The whole move made him wonder if she realized what she was doing. Probably not. He’d been trying to encourage her to lean on him. All the while, Mia was busy proving she was an independent woman who didn’t need anyone. Least of all a man who had played a part in killing her sister.

  Conroy walked around the area. The grass was long. Logs covered with snow that had collected in the shady spots.

  “You did well with Ed.” He tossed it out like a random comment, instead of something he desperately wanted to talk to her about. “When you saw him.”

  “Because I didn’t pull out my weapon and shoot him?”

  “Did that cross your mind?” He glanced at her and saw her face. “Because I’ve thought about it a time or two.”

  “He was your friend.”

  “Yeah,” Conroy said. “Emphasis on the ‘was’ part of that.”

  She nodded. They searched the area, the two of them falling naturally into a spiral pattern as they scanned the area around them. “Please tell me we’re going to get Stiles and Ed Summers. I’d dearly love to get enough to bring them both down over this.”

  “Especially if Summers’s guys are working for Stiles.”

  “You think he…what? Loaned them out? Like Meena said. Stiles showed up, gave Ed a little respect, and got something in the bargain.”

  “Maybe.” He kept walking, eyes on the grass.

  “I think if he did that, then it’s not money Ed is after.” She paused. “I think it’s something else. Like a way to get at you.”

  “Through you?” Conroy straightened. If she thought that, then she was finally willing to acknowledge there was something between them. And it had weight to it. Not inconsequential.

  Something he wanted to explore.

  “We’ll have to figure it out later.” She bent. “I found my dad’s phone.”

  Mia straightened, using a winter glove from her dad’s pocket to hold his cell out so Conroy could see it.

  Conroy pulled an evidence bag from his pocket, and she slipped the thing in. Bloody fingers had left smudges over the glass front. “Let’s get this back to the office.”

  It seemed like they’d been driving back and forth all over town. As he got back in the driver’s seat yet again, Mia said, “You think Meena is still there?”

  Conroy shrugged his shoulder that was closest to her in the passenger seat. “Probably not. I figure she got bored and Kaylee let her walk out.”

  “Would Kaylee have told her what happened to my dad?”

  “We’ll find out.” He squeezed her hand, as he’d done a few times today. Both of them knew he m
eant more to the squeeze than just concern over what Meena knew.

  He meant they were going to find her father, and he was determined to do that. Conroy didn’t want to think about the fact Rich could die. Or even that he could already be dead. He figured he’d covered it well enough that Mia didn’t know, but he was seriously scared they wouldn’t get her dad back.

  Fear was like a sour feeling in his gut. Like the worst food poisoning.

  If Rich was dead, then he would never get to see Mia forgive Conroy, as he himself had done. Conroy knew seeing that miracle happen with his daughter was his friend’s greatest wish.

  “What?”

  He glanced over.

  “You had a look on your face.”

  “I think your dad purposely went hunting right before you got here.”

  “To kill a deer?”

  “No.” Conroy shook his head. “I think he was hoping you and I would run into each other.”

  “We did.”

  “Because you took down my suspect outside the grocery store?”

  “I was trying to avoid you. You’re the one whose life collided with mine.”

  Conroy smiled to the road, holding the wheel as he meandered through town. “That it did. I think Rich had hoped that you would…come around.” See that it wasn’t worth holding onto bitterness over Mara’s death.

  “You’d rather I blamed Ed Summers instead?”

  “He was the one who was driving drunk. But that’s not what I mean.”

  “I didn’t know she’d broken up with you,” Mia said quietly. “And you still got in the car to try to convince him to pull over.”

  “Yes.” Among other things, like how he’d begged for an actual reason from Mara—why she’d dumped him for Ed. His fragile self-esteem hadn’t been able to handle that blow. He’d even pleaded with her. And then vowed never to allow himself to be that vulnerable again.

  Until he met Jesus, who saw to the heart of who he was and still loved him anyway. Something he and Rich had talked about many times.

  Conroy said, “When I realized he was going to just keep driving, and she was truly done with me, I asked them to let me out.”

  He pulled into his space outside the police department and shut the car off but didn’t get out. “Told them to pull over. That I would be gone from them. Ed said, ‘good’ and angled to the side of the road. He didn’t see the vehicle that came out of the sidestreet opposite until it was too late. He didn’t stop before the intersection as he should have, and they plowed right into us. Right into the passenger door.”