Battle Tested

by Janie Crouch

  Brandon had asked for Rosalyn’s notebook when she’d mentioned it, and it had been brought to them. The three of them were now poring over it.

  Obviously Jon and Brandon believed Rosalyn, and were trying to help her make sense of it all. To discover the pattern in the Watcher’s actions concerning her.

  Exactly what Steve should’ve been doing rather than worrying about whether she was in on her own terrorizing.

  Derek Waterman entered the room. “Some more info for you, boss, about the Ammonses in Georgia. Seems like they don’t have a phone in their house, but they do have one at their café, for orders and such.”

  Of course they did.

  “We checked, and there was a record of a call from Dalhart, Texas, made to them this morning at ten o’clock Eastern time. I think that would line up with the call Rosalyn was making.”

  “Yep, it definitely would. Thanks, Derek.”

  And just like that, Rosalyn was cleared. Although he’d already cleared her in his mind anyway.

  Derek turned toward the mirror. “She looks a lot better than she did when I brought her in there.”

  “That’s because the idiot quota surrounding her has dropped significantly.” Steve grimaced.

  Derek chuckled. “Hey, only my wife is allowed to call me an idiot.”

  “Your wife is a certified genius. She’s at liberty to call everyone an idiot.” Derek’s wife, Molly, was the head of the Omega forensic lab. “But in this case, I was referring to myself.”

  Derek slapped him on the shoulder and Steve winced from the blow he’d taken there but didn’t say anything. “We all can be idiots when it comes to the women we care about.”

  Steve heard a muttered “Amen” out of Andrea.

  “Andrea, will you take some food and water in to them? Make sure Rosalyn is okay? I don’t want to disrupt their progress by going in there myself.”

  “Sure. That’s a good idea. I’m sure she’ll appreciate your thoughtfulness, Steve.”

  He shook his head. “No, don’t say it’s from me. Just make sure she has what she needs.”

  Steve wasn’t sure Rosalyn was ever going to want to talk to him again after how he’d treated her. All he could do now was catch the psycho trying to harm them both.

  Steve would do whatever it took to keep Rosalyn and their baby safe. And would pray she would give him another chance.

  Chapter Sixteen

  They believed her. She wasn’t exactly sure when it happened, but Rosalyn knew Agents Hatton and Han believed her.

  The gorgeous blonde who’d first approached her in the offices before Steve stopped her came into the room. She had a tray of food—some soup and crackers—and water and coffee.

  “We thought you might want something to eat. And Steve mentioned you like coffee.”

  “Steve sent you in here with food and drink? I thought he wanted me thrown under the jail.”

  The woman set the tray down in front of Rosalyn, then went to stand beside Brandon’s chair. He hooked a casual arm around her hips. What a striking couple those two made.

  She smiled gently at Rosalyn. “Sometimes it’s difficult to see things that are right in front of you when there are feelings involved. I’m sure that’s true for Steve.”

  “I think Steve made it quite obvious he has no feelings for me when he arrested me a few hours ago.”

  The woman smiled. “Sometimes men are a little bit slower in recognizing their own feelings.” The woman looked over at Brandon and a moment of tenderness passed between them. Obviously at some point Brandon had been a little slow in recognizing his feelings for the woman. Although obviously not anymore.

  “I’m Andrea Gordon, by the way.” Andrea looked back up at Rosalyn. “And just for the record, you are not under arrest. You’re free to leave at any time, although we would very much like you to stay so we can continue working on the case with you.”

  “Does Steve Drackett know I’m free to go?”

  Andrea nodded. “He’s the one who gave the word.”

  Rosalyn didn’t know what to make of that, so she just started eating her food.

  The other three agents began looking at the papers on the table.

  “Steve found two transmitters on Rosalyn’s personal effects. One was on a sweater, one on her bag,” Jon said and turned his attention to her. “He found those after the fire at the hotel, right?”

  Rosalyn nodded. “While we were at the hospital, I think.”

  “And you went immediately to the superstore and changed out of everything?”

  “Yes, the only thing I took with me out of that store that I had brought in was this notebook.” She pointed at the one on the table.

  Jon looked through it. “It’s highly unlikely that there’s any sort of transmitter in here, but let’s get it scanned just in case.” He walked out of the room with it.

  Brandon sat back in his chair, taking a cracker Rosalyn offered him from her tray. “Let’s say he got the transmitters on you at the very beginning. That he broke into your house and put one on every piece of clothing you had. That would be excessive and expensive, but this is obviously no garden-variety stalker we’re dealing with here.”

  “That’s how he followed you for the first six months. He knew where you were and could show up there,” Andrea continued.

  Jon walked back into the room. “Derek’s going to take the notebook over to Molly in the lab.”

  “We’re trying to figure out the transmitter pattern,” Brandon told him. “I’m running with the possibility that he put trackers on everything she owned at the beginning.”

  “Okay,” Jon said. “Possible. And scary.”

  Rosalyn had to agree.

  Brandon continued. “When we get your notebook back, we’ll double-check for patterns to see if there’s any consistency, but maybe he was working around his own schedule. He has a job that requires him to be in an office at least part of the time. That’s why some weeks you had notes multiple days in a row, and sometimes you didn’t hear from him for a while.”

  Jon nodded. “That would suggest someone with a career. We can see if weekends were more active with the notes—that might help confirm.”

  Rosalyn looked at them. “I don’t understand. You’re saying the Watcher is just a normal guy? Like a businessman or a lawyer or something?” The thought made her feel a little ill.

  Andrea reached over and touched her hand. “A lot of times minds of pure evil can be dressed in very professional packages.”

  Brandon shrugged. “Times you thought he was toying with you by leaving you alone, making you think you’d gotten away? Maybe he just had something in his schedule that required his attention and he couldn’t get to you that day.”

  “And it is highly likely that the Watcher is from your hometown of Mobile, since that’s where it all started. Not only that, but that you know him or met him briefly.” Jon grimaced.

  Rosalyn shuddered, glad she was almost done with her food. She wouldn’t have been able to eat another bite after thinking about this. “I was an accountant. I met with clients all the time.”

  “We’ll check into that right away,” Jon said. “Clients you’ve met with, coworkers.”

  “But really, it could be anyone. Someone I met at the grocery store or while waiting for the elevator.”

  Rosalyn saw the compassion in Andrea’s eyes. “Yes, unfortunately.”

  The thought that she might recognize the Watcher’s face when they caught him made her want to be physically ill. Every person she’d known was suspect.

  But for the first time, Rosalyn actually had hope that they—this Omega Sector team—might really catch him. Before today her only hope had been she might be able to outrun him at some point. Get somewhere he couldn’t find her. But there hadn’t
been much chance of that with the baby coming.

  Jon, Brandon and Andrea were discussing particular aspects of the Watcher when the door to the room opened and Steve walked in.

  They just stared at each other for a long time. Apology was clear all over his face.

  But even with his arm in the sling and the stiffness in his frame—pain from being hit with that telescopic baton thing—Rosalyn found she wasn’t quite ready to let this go just yet.

  Steve eventually stepped away from the door.

  “All right, I’ve cleared conference room 1 for us to use. I think we’ll all be more comfortable there.”

  Everybody stood and began packing up their notes, still talking about the Watcher they were trying to profile.

  “Rosalyn and I will meet you up there in a few minutes.”

  They all shuffled out quickly after that. Rosalyn remained in her chair. Steve came and sat across from her.

  “I overreacted. Made a mistake.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “You thought I tried to have you killed.”

  “You made a suspicious phone call and a few hours later someone took a swing at my head with a metal rod. That seemed pretty dubious at the time.”

  “I told you I called the Ammonses.” Her volume began to rise.

  His did too. “You also told me the day before that the Ammonses didn’t have a phone. It seemed like an inconsistency in your story. You know who tends to have inconsistencies in their stories? Liars and criminals.”

  Rosalyn rolled her eyes. “I called their café. They have a phone there.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I know that now. But you didn’t tell me that.”

  Rosalyn stood, bracing her hands on the table and leaning toward him. “Because you didn’t ask. Because you were convinced I was up to no good. That I was playing you.”

  “Damn it, Rosalyn, I’m trained to look for suspicious patterns. To see bad things before they happen.”

  “And that’s what I was, right? A bad thing.”

  “No, it’s just—”

  She slammed her hand down on the table. “You put handcuffs on me like I was some common criminal that might try to run at any second. You didn’t ask. You didn’t give me a chance to explain.”

  “Rosalyn—”

  “We made love last night. And today you were convinced I was trying to have you killed. I guess that tells me how you really feel about me.”

  He stood then. “No, it wasn’t like that. I had to force myself to try to look at you objectively.”

  He reached out toward her, but she snatched herself back. When Steve touched her, she couldn’t think straight. Her attraction to him overpowered everything else. She didn’t want that now. Maybe never wanted it again.

  She rubbed her eyes. She was tired, not just from today but from everything. The only thing good going for her now was the fact that everyone here believed her. The agents seemed ready and willing to put their resources and brainpower into figuring out who the Watcher was and what Rosalyn could do about it. It was more than she’d had in a long time.

  “You know what? Just take me to the conference room. The faster we can get this situation resolved, the sooner I can get myself out of your life.”

  Because Steve obviously didn’t want her there.

  * * *

  STEVE DIDN’T MAKE a lot of tactical errors. Nor did he make many errors in judgment. His job and the lives of the people on his team, not to mention those of the American public in general, depended on it.

  But he’d done both with Rosalyn.

  They walked to the conference room together in silence. Not the comfortable kind.

  She was mad. He didn’t blame her.

  But she was right. They needed to concentrate on figuring out all they could about the Watcher. Not because Steve wanted Rosalyn out of his life—he’d be damned if he was going to let that happen—but because obviously the Watcher had escalated in violence over the past few days.

  Steve would do whatever was necessary to keep Rosalyn and the baby safe. Even if she didn’t want anything to do with him right now.

  He held the door open for her as they entered the conference room. Jon, Brandon and Andrea were already there. Roman Weber, a member of Omega’s SWAT team, had joined them.

  One entire wall of the conference room was made up of an electronic whiteboard. Brandon and Jon had already started making a timeline on it. Everything they wrote could be saved onto a computer file to be used later.

  “Molly brought Rosalyn’s notebook back over from the lab,” Andrea said as they walked in. “Nothing suspicious about it.”

  Steve nodded, not surprised.

  Brandon turned to them from the whiteboard. “Basically, we have two inconsistencies that need to be addressed before we can go much further. First, why didn’t the Watcher have any contact with you for the six months you were at the Ammonses’ in Ellijay? What was different? Something in your life or something in his?”

  “I don’t know.” Rosalyn shrugged as she sat down at the table.

  “How did you meet them?” Andrea asked.

  “I took a bus from Pensacola as far as the amount of money I had would take me.” She glanced over at Steve, then looked away quickly. “That ended up being Ellijay.

  “The Ammonses own a small café in town. They’ve lived there all their lives. They live right on top of the café, although I know Mr. Ammons also has a fishing cabin somewhere.” Rosalyn smiled. “I got off the bus, went in to eat and felt like I never really left there again until I went to meet my sister in Pensacola.”

  Her smile faded into a flinch at the mention of her sister.

  “Anyway, I asked Mrs. Ammons if I could make some cash washing dishes or whatever. They’re not big fans of the government, so they didn’t mind paying me cash under the table.”

  Jon smiled. “I like them already.”

  She shrugged, shaking her head with a smile. “The Ammonses are odd. Definitely keep to themselves and don’t want people, especially the government, in their business. But they took me in. Let me wash dishes, then started letting me wait tables. When they found out I was sleeping out back under the café’s overhang—”

  “What?” The word was out of Steve’s mouth before he could catch it. But the thought of her homeless, pregnant, sleeping outside.

  “Honestly, it wasn’t so bad. And it was just for a few days.”

  Steve’s fist clenched but he didn’t say anything further.

  “Anyway, they invited me to live with them, and that was that. I pretty much never left their property. I worked, then went upstairs. For the first couple of weeks I would run downstairs every morning to see if there was a note from the Watcher.”

  “And nothing? Ever?” Brandon asked.

  “No. Never. I just began thinking of the house as my force field.” She scoffed at herself. “Stupid, I know.”

  Andrea walked over and touched Rosalyn on the shoulder. “No, not stupid at all. No one would blame you for staying somewhere where you felt safe. Where, for all intents and purposes, you were safe.”

  “Why did you leave?” Jon asked.

  “The baby.” Rosalyn put a hand on her stomach. “Soon it wasn’t just going to be me anymore. The Ammonses are in their seventies. I knew I needed to have a backup plan in case...” She trailed off, then finally picked back up. “In case something happened to me.”

  In case the Watcher killed her. She didn’t say it but everyone in the room knew what she meant.

  “So you contacted your sister,” Andrea prompted when Rosalyn didn’t go on.

  She nodded. “I asked Lindsey to meet me in Pensacola. I was going to go back to the hotel and see if they would give me Steve’s name. Or, if there was some sort of privacy law, see if they would
at least contact him on my behalf.”

  Until that moment Steve hadn’t realized he’d held a hardness inside himself against her about that. He’d silently, subconsciously, assumed she’d never planned to tell him about the baby. But she had. He took a step toward her, catching her eyes with his.

  “I didn’t know who you were,” she continued, looking at him. “And I definitely didn’t know about all this—” she gestured around the room with her arm “—but I knew the baby had a better chance with you than with me.”

  He wanted to move closer. To pick her up and plop her down on his lap. To promise her it was all going to be all right. To apologize for being an idiot earlier today.

  Andrea looked over at him, sympathy in her eyes. She could clearly read his pain, his concern. Steve didn’t care if it was noticeable to everyone.

  “And Steve was there identifying what he thought was your body,” Jon said.

  “With all your sister’s drug troubles, I’m surprised her prints weren’t on file. But yours were,” Steve said. “At least from juvie.”

  Rosalyn rolled her eyes. “That’s when we were sixteen and Lindsey shoplifted. Left me to take the blame.”

  It explained a lot.

  “Okay.” Brandon got them back on track. “And once you were in Pensacola, you were immediately contacted by the Watcher again.”

  Rosalyn’s lips pursed as she nodded.

  “We know your clothes had the transmitters. Maybe they were short-range and the Watcher couldn’t pick them up from that far away,” Jon mused.

  “Possible, but Rosalyn also traveled nearly as far when she was in Dallas and Memphis and he found her there.” Brandon turned back toward the whiteboard.

  It was time to take action. Steve turned to Roman. “I need you to get to Ellijay. Talk to the Ammonses, scope out the situation. See why the Watcher might have left Rosalyn alone while she was there.”

  Roman headed for the door. “You got it, boss. One-horse towns are my favorite.” He winked at everyone as he walked by. “I’ll call as soon as I have info.”