Shielding the Suspect

by C. J. Miller

  “I don’t.”

  He spoke the words with absolute conviction. Her heart swelled at his faith in her. Though she couldn’t provide a strong defense, Brady didn’t doubt her innocence. If only she had the same conviction about herself.

  “We’ll wait to hear what the ME learns. I don’t know what being in water does to any forensic evidence on the body,” Brady said.

  Panic flared. “Again, it might point the finger at me.”

  “Harris didn’t say that. He was getting his information from a friend on the force. The friend isn’t directly involved with the case. He was sharing what he knew and Harris doesn’t want you to get your hopes up about what this could mean.”

  Anxiety heaved inside her. “All that was stopping the police from arresting me for murder was lack of a body. They have a body. They’ll speak to me as a person of interest in the fire at Justin’s boat. They won’t believe me if I tell them someone else started the fire. They’ll put me in jail for his murder. We’re no closer to learning anything about that night. We have accusations that someone wants me dead. How will that hold up in court with no other evidence in my defense?”

  Brady tugged Susan against him, wrapping his strong arms around her. Without him, she might come apart at the seams. “I won’t let that happen. We’re getting answers. Would it help if you saw the body?”

  She leaned away and looked at him. Was he serious? The look on his face said he was. “How would that help?”

  “Might jog your memory about that night.”

  Frustration renewed inside her. “I can’t remember anything. I’ve tried.”

  “We need to tell your side of the story.”

  “My side of the story hasn’t changed. I’ve told you everything I know.”

  Brady pressed his lips together. “If it comes out that you and Justin broke up the night before, that’ll look bad. We need a way to spin that or to find some evidence to prove you had no reason to kill him. What if the police say you went to the boat in a rage? Or that you and Justin had a fight that spun out of control?”

  That was why she hadn’t mentioned their breakup to the police. In retrospect, her omission might have been a mistake. Wouldn’t the police find out and use it against her? Justin might have mentioned the breakup to someone who would come forward. Not telling made her seem guiltier, as if she had something to hide.

  “I didn’t kill Justin.” Doubt and guilt slivered into her words. If she was innocent, why wasn’t anyone finding evidence to support her? Why did she have suspicions about her involvement?

  Brady had faith in her. He and his brothers could be powerful allies, except in this case; with the mayor wanting her arrest and ex-Special Forces trying to kill her, the odds were stacked against her.

  “We’re working on borrowed time now. We have to do something. We need to find the lock,” she said.

  Brady pulled on his shirt. “I saw the hotel fire evacuation plan posted behind the front desk. No room number eighteen is listed. We can exclude that.”

  “What if we’re recognized while we’re looking around the hotel? What if someone is fiddling with their smartphone and sees our picture on a news site? Or remembers us from a news program earlier? If a body was found, that will bring the story back to the headlines and to the forefront of people’s minds.”

  Brady finished dressing and put on his gun holster and gun. “We’ll keep to ourselves. We can keep our heads together like we’re in private conversation.”

  “You sound sure of yourself.”

  “I am sure. This is the only way we can make progress.”

  Brady reached into his pocket and handed her a hotel room key. “If we get separated, here’s a key to the room. Come back here as the meeting point. If we have to run, if you think someone recognizes you, don’t go to the stairs where you can be cornered. Go outside.”

  Fear rose in her chest. “Why would we get separated? What do I do once I’m outside?”

  “Wait for me to find you. This is a contingency plan, that’s all. There’s no reason for us to get separated.”

  Brady took her hand in his. His skin was warm and she felt safe with him. As safe as she could be with thousands of cops, brutal mercenaries and an entire city looking for them.

  * * *

  Brady reached into his pocket and reassured himself the small metal key was inside. He jingled it. He and Susan would locate what that key opened. Without it, they had nothing except a coded, blurry notebook of numbers. The stakes were higher now that a body had washed up in the marina, and when Justin’s father identified him, a warrant would be issued for Susan’s arrest. Tim Ambrose would demand the mayor see it done.

  Susan had to remember the night Justin died. For her sake. Brady couldn’t stand the idea of Susan in jail and unprotected.

  They’d made love and the memory hadn’t been shaken loose. He’d misjudged the key to Susan’s innermost thoughts. She didn’t trust him. No amount of sex would change that. He’d have to prove to her he was trustworthy with her heart.

  They left their room and took the side stairwell to the main floor. “I saw some offices on the first floor. We can try those.”

  They made a right turn out of the stairwell. They stopped at the sales office, and with Susan standing in front of him blocking the view, Brady inserted the key in the doorknob. He twisted it left and right slowly and as quietly as possible. If someone was inside, he didn’t want to alarm them. The lock didn’t open. He shook his head and Susan’s shoulders fell.

  “You didn’t think it was that easy, did you?” he asked.

  Susan brushed her hair behind her ear. “I hoped we’d catch a break.”

  They continued walking. Next to the sales office was another locked door. Brady tried the key. No luck.

  A maintenance room and two closets: nothing.

  Susan rubbed her forehead. “The hotel has hundreds of locked doors. We have to narrow it down.”

  “We’ll find it. Let’s look around the lobby. Maybe it belongs to a cabinet? A decorative bookcase?”

  The lobby was in the front of the hotel. They were within hearing distance of the front desk, but out of sight, when they heard their names.

  “We don’t have anyone by those names listed,” the front desk clerk was saying.

  “A cab driver dropped them off a few blocks from here. They are dangerous fugitives. They could have used an alias or checked into the hotel separately. Can you speak to the shift before yours and get a list of who checked in today?”

  Brady could see a reflection in the windows. Two police officers were speaking to the front desk clerk.

  “I’ll check with the other clerk when she gets back from her break and I can leave a note for the front desk manager to call you. I don’t know how much information I can give out about our guests.”

  “I’m a police officer. You can tell me whatever I need to know,” the officer said.

  The police were closing in, and he and Susan were no closer to finding the truth. Brady’s fear for Susan and his determination to protect her mounted. Brady couldn’t let her down again. Not when she’d shown so much faith in him. He couldn’t become a failure in her eyes.

  “I’ll check with my manager. I don’t want to get into trouble.” The clerk sounded nervous and unsure.

  The officer sighed loudly. “Do you mind if we look around on our own?”

  “No problem. Our award-winning greenhouse is open to the public,” the clerk said.

  The entrance to the greenhouse was through the main hallway where he and Susan were standing. Brady looked for an escape route. They whirled and ran into the hallway from where they’d come. The women’s bathroom was on the right, a single room with a toilet and sink. They darted inside and shut the heavy oak door.

  Leaving the lights off, th
ey waited in the dark. Brady held Susan against him. His body reacted to being hip to hip with her, heat arrowing to his groin. Brady wanted her. Had always wanted her. Would always want her. On some primal level, that couldn’t change.

  Her hands went to his shoulders. “Do you think they’re gone?”

  “Wait a few more seconds,” Brady said. The phone in his pocket rang and Brady rushed to silence it. He answered it in a whisper.

  “Yeah?”

  “Bad time?” Harris asked.

  “Not great,” Brady said. He didn’t see a better time on the horizon.

  “I heard from my contact at the police station. Justin’s father and family went to the morgue to identify the body. The body was badly deformed from being in the water for so long and the ME’s office is getting his dental records. On my request, a friend from CSI took a look at the evidence and report by the lead ME assigned to the case. She found some discrepancies in the general findings.”

  “Such as?” Brady asked.

  “Some of the conclusions written into the initial report were subjective. Like the blood at the scene. She suspects a fight or a stabbing took place, but she wouldn’t have concluded the boat was the homicide scene. It could have been a secondary location after Justin sustained injuries elsewhere. My friend is wondering what else in the report is fact versus opinion. CSI didn’t test the blood from multiple locations. We could find someone else’s DNA at the scene. It’s a long shot, especially because we can’t go back to the boat to collect more evidence, but some samples were taken. The killer’s DNA could have been left at the scene.”

  Blowing holes in the case against Susan, or at least raising questions, was what they needed. “Harris, you are freaking brilliant.”

  “Not brilliant. I’ve made friends in useful places. But if you think that’s brilliant, you’ll love this.”

  “You found evidence that Susan isn’t responsible?” Brady asked.

  Susan’s hand fisted around his shirt.

  “Close. I had my friend retest the wineglasses from the scene for chemicals that aren’t included as a part of routine tests. One of the glasses has residue of a sleeping drug inside. That could explain why Susan doesn’t remember anything. She was drugged.”

  “By who?” Brady asked. And why?

  Harris sighed. “Hard to say. Justin might have drugged her. Maybe someone had gotten onto the boat before they arrived and planned to frame Susan for Justin’s murder. It’s speculation at this point.”

  An alternative theory of the case that Susan could present to her lawyer. The sleeping drug in the wineglass was forensic evidence. The prosecutor could accuse Susan of drugging Justin, but would the police be required to search for more concrete evidence?

  “Are you and Susan making nice?” Harris asked. “That’s a rhetorical question. I know you are. Don’t bother denying it. I hear it in your voice.”

  Brady wouldn’t deny it. He and Susan were getting along better than he’d expected.

  “My friend is looking into what she can do about requesting a second review of the evidence. All of the evidence,” Harris said.

  “You are a master. While working your own undercover op, you’re pulling strings,” Brady said.

  Harris laughed. “Trumans don’t take bull lying down.”

  “Thanks, man, I owe you,” Brady said.

  “No, you don’t. We’re family,” Harris said.

  The phone beeped that its battery life was ending. Brady and Harris disconnected the call.

  Before Brady could relate what Harris had said, Susan spoke. “I could hear him. This is great news. Can he go to someone in charge of the investigation with that information?”

  “I’m sure he will. But it takes time. We want the right information in the right hands at the right time. If he turns over evidence or raises questions to the wrong people, he could be silenced and brushed aside. We know there are others looking for you. Until we know who they are, we need to be extremely careful.” They’d received the first sliver of good news in days, but Susan had more than the police searching for her. Trained killers wanted her dead.

  Voices drifted into the bathroom. “No sign of them. We need a list of guest names. Did you call the ADA and ask about a warrant?”

  The police looking for them weren’t giving up. Their voices faded as they moved away from the bathroom.

  Brady took Susan’s arm. With a body in the morgue, the police closing in and the men tracking them locating them after every escape, he could feel the noose around their necks tightening. He might have to choose the lesser of two evils: turn themselves in to the police instead of risking their lives running. He didn’t want a shootout with the police and he didn’t want the military men hunting them to get lucky. “Susan, if this goes south, I need you to know that I never made love with you to get information from you. I wasn’t trying to manipulate you. I would never play with your trust that way, not when I’ve been trying to win it back.”

  Susan gave him a sideways look. “Why are you—”

  He had to finish his thought. “I don’t want to leave things the way I did before, open and unsettled. If the cops find us...”

  Susan shivered. “I won’t blame you for what goes wrong. You’ve been doing everything you can.”

  Brady rolled his shoulders. “That’s what worries me. Doing everything I can and yet the cops and the men hunting you are somehow faster and still find us.”

  “We’ll find the truth,” Susan said.

  Brady knew how much was at stake and how many things could go wrong. The cops at the hotel could find them before they found out where the key belonged. With the pressure from Lieutenant General Tim Ambrose and his buddy, the mayor, Susan could be arrested and tried without a proper investigation. Without due diligence on the part of investigators, Justin’s killer would go free. The men hunting Susan could find a way to get to her.

  “I don’t like where this is leading. We have a lot working against us. I can’t defeat a team of trained ex-Special Forces soldiers while the cops are hunting us and the mayor is out for blood. I don’t want to let you down. You’d be better off with Reilly. Or maybe taking our chances with the police.” Shame and self-doubt filled him. He couldn’t protect her and he couldn’t give her the life she deserved.

  Susan stepped away from him. “I can’t believe you’re doing this again. Now of all times. You’re pulling your ejector seat way too early.”

  “I’m trying to be reasonable and honest.”

  Susan blew out her breath. “No. No, I don’t accept that as a response. You are the man I need to protect me. You’re the man who makes me feel safest. You’re the man who stepped up to stand by my side when everyone else fled. And now, you’re saying I have it wrong? That somehow, despite how much you’ve done, you’re giving up and walking away?”

  He wasn’t a quitter. “I’m not giving up. I’m giving you the best chance for happiness.” Like he had when he’d walked away before.

  Susan threw her hands in the air. “What do you mean the best chance for happiness? I can’t have a chance for happiness with you in my life?”

  “No, you can’t. Why do you think I walked away before? Why do you think I stayed out of your life? I wanted you to have the happiness you deserve. I couldn’t give you the life you wanted when I was in the military, and I sure can’t give it to you now. Look at me! I’m a mess.” Humiliating words to speak, but they needed to be said.

  Long, tense moments passed.

  “That’s why you broke up with me? Because you didn’t think you could make me happy?” she asked, anger hot in her voice. “You could have explained this before now.”

  Brady blinked at her. “Before when? While you were engaged to Justin? I’d lost you. It didn’t matter how I was feeling. I thought you were happy and I stayed quiet. I didn
’t want to ruin anything for you. Tell you after he died? You were his grieving lover. My feelings for you didn’t rate.”

  Susan shook her head. “You will always rate with me. If you had told me...”

  “Would it have changed anything? You were with someone else. You had moved on with your life. And then, just like now, I’m not capable of being in a relationship with anyone. I don’t even know if I’m capable of being a friend.”

  “If you thought your job made you a bad boyfriend or husband, why didn’t you ask me to wait until you changed jobs? Injury or not, you wouldn’t have been Special Forces forever. Wouldn’t it have been better to be together when we could rather than apart for good?” Susan asked.

  It sounded good in theory. But how could he ask that of someone he loved? “Ask you to wait for what?” Brady asked. “I couldn’t ask you to put your life on hold for me. What if I never came back from a mission? You could have thrown away the best years of your life waiting for me, only to be alone in the end.”

  She scoffed. “In other words, you decided that I shouldn’t wait. You decided that it was better for me if you ended the relationship rather than be honest and let me make a decision. What about the thousands of men and women who have spouses in the military? Is it better for them to walk away? Should people with dangerous jobs be forbidden from being in a relationship?”

  She didn’t give him a chance to answer. “Of course not! That’s ridiculous. But I’m going to make it easier for you this time. You don’t get to decide for me what I want and what makes me happy.” She snatched the key away from him. “I’ll find where this key belongs. You don’t get to dictate what is best for me. This time, I’m walking away first.”

  * * *

  Brady wouldn’t let her search alone. Not with policemen circling the hotel looking for her and ex-military stalking her. Brady followed her past the front desk. He couldn’t argue with her in public and draw attention.

  Brady noticed in his peripheral vision a flash of silver. A guest was handing a key—not a key card—to the front desk clerk. The clerk took the key, asked the man a question, smiled and turned away from the front desk. She opened the faux front of the cabinet behind the front counter to reveal a series of safe deposit boxes.