Kylie stared into her gray-green eyes. Black eyeliner accentuated her clear, attentive eyes, and dark lipstick gave her full lips a pouty look. The teenager would be pretty without all the paint on her face.
“No. Are you?” Kylie answered without hesitating.
The teenager snorted. “You were at the mall yesterday. Then in the parking lot when the cops showed up at Olivia’s car. And here you are now. Mighty coincidental, don’t you think?” There was a challenge in her tone.
Kylie wouldn’t insult the girl’s intelligence. In fact, Kylie commended her for being alert to her surroundings. “I’m not a spy. My name is Kylie.” She held her hand out to shake the teenager’s hand.
The girl quit leaning against the game and shifted her gaze to Kylie’s hand but didn’t take it. “How come you’re suddenly everywhere?” the girl demanded. Her posse remained on the table in the corner but no longer crawled all over one another. Instead they were still, watching curiously as their spokesperson gathered the info she would no doubtedly return to inquiring minds.
Kylie had endured interrogation from a lot worse than this assertive teenager. “I’m working on my thesis at the University of Kansas,” she offered, ready with her cover she’d prepared for when she became interactive with this community.
“Then why are you here? That university is in Lawrence.”
Kylie shrugged. “There’s more action here,” she said. “I’m studying the interaction and subculture known to the world as that of the American teenager.”
The girl stared at Kylie a moment longer before her eyes widened. Understanding apparently kicked in and her surprise made the gray flecks in her green eyes grow. It was a very pretty eye color.
“That is fucking cool as hell,” she said quietly. “So you’re like trailing us around and watching how we act and shit?”
“Something like that.”
“Dude, that is so cool.” The girl turned around and left Kylie, her long brown hair flowing down her narrow back as she hurried back to her group of friends.
Kylie flipped coins in her hand and searched the arcade game for the slot where the money went. The teenagers were talking in the corner, watching her, and once again crawling over one another. Kylie strained to listen while dropping quarters into the machine, and then proceeded to lose miserably in several games of war against battleships in some remote galaxy. Fortunately, the volume on the game was so low she couldn’t hear anything it said. If she cared about winning, that would probably annoy her. She pushed the buttons, barely paying attention to what happened on the screen, and focused on the teenagers’ continuous chatter. The kids never discussed the Internet or meeting anyone they’d never met before. Instead they talked about her and what they would do when they went to college, or if they were going to college.
Kylie listened, learning more about the group of kids. They were normal, healthy children, all of whom appeared to come from decent homes from what she could tell by their conversations. They were living the life she never had the chance to live. And if she did her job right, all of them would continue growing up normally and healthy and not be robbed of their youth like her sister and Kylie were. She knew better than anyone how an online sexual predator destroyed more than just his prey. But she was here, protecting them. None of them would be deprived of life. She would see to it.
Once it was dark, the movie theater, which was about a mile from Kylie’s rental house, turned into a teenage jungle. She really had submerged into a world that didn’t exist anywhere else. And to these young people there was no world other than their own. It was the same from city to city, a subculture of teenagers, preoccupied with their sexual hormones and unaware of the evil that lurked, watching them prance around, wearing next to nothing. Not that children of her own were in her future, but Kylie would never allow her daughter to leave the house dressed the way some of these girls were dressed.
Kylie stood in a bathroom stall, listening while three girls discussed whether they should stay at the movie theater or head over to the McDonald’s parking lot, apparently another popular location for the in-crowd. There wasn’t any mention of seeing a movie.
Heading across the parking lot to where she’d parked her car, Kylie strolled slowly, aware of the long-haired girl who’d approached her earlier. The teenager sat on the curb, under a streetlight, possibly waiting on a ride. She spoke quickly and quietly on a cell phone. Kylie paused, hovering between two parked cars, out of sight but not out of earshot.
“I told you, dude, that’s just stupid.” There was a bossy, commanding edge to the girl’s voice. Maybe she was the leader of her group of friends, the one who called the shots, told everyone else how to dress and act. Kylie had always envied and been a bit mystified by girls like that when she’d been in school. Karen had been a leader, but Kylie hadn’t even been a follower. She’d never figured out how to be part of any of the in-groups. “Everyone knows you don’t go meet some dude off-line you’ve never met before. And no, I don’t sound like my uncle. I’m just smart. Now if you take me with you, I might be cool with it.”
The girl laughed and jumped up from her perch on the curb, hurrying across the parking lot.
“Shit,” Kylie groaned, turning for her own car. All evening she’d listened to nonsense hoping to hear something to help her move this case forward. Finally a bite, and the girl took off sprinting across the lot. “So head home and surf around online. We’ve got the beginning of a lead on the prey; now we look for the predator.” Kylie rolled her eyes, wondering when she had started talking about herself like she was fucking royalty or something.
“That’s her, Uncle Perry,” a familiar voice said behind Kylie.
“Who?”
“That college girl I told you about. The one studying teenagers.”
Kylie slowed, realizing the teenage girl she had just watched run across the parking lot now walked directly behind her. If she didn’t turn around, she would appear rude. And gaining the trust of some of the teenage girls in town was imperative if she was to solve this case.
“Studying teenagers, huh,” the uncle said, sounding gruff.
Kylie glanced around her as she turned, taking in her surroundings. It was a large, dark parking lot with bright streetlights creating enough light to make it easy to see from one end of the lot to the other. There were kids everywhere, some huddled in small groups while others threw a football over parked cars. It was like walking across a large playground instead of a public parking lot. It amazed her that teenagers did the same thing, no matter which city she was in, when they didn’t have a clue what was going on in the world around them and focused only on their friends.
Turning a half circle, she met the amused look of the long-brown-haired girl, her eyeliner applied even thicker than it was that afternoon. There were two other girls with her, one of them tall and lanky, with curly auburn hair, and the other about the same height as the brunette, with hair almost identical. They could be sisters.
“Learn lots of good stuff to write in your paper?” the teenage girl asked.
“Getting some ideas.” Kylie smiled at her and the other girls but then shifted her attention to the man with them.
It was the man who’d shown up at the parking lot yesterday and tried coming over to her. She didn’t get a good look at him at the time, but now, in the darkness with streetlights accentuating shadows, the tall, dark-haired man staring at her, his expression unreadable, was damn near the best-looking guy she’d ever laid eyes on in her life.
“My uncle is a cop,” the teenage girl said smugly, grinning broadly.
Kylie matched the girl’s smile, unwilling to lose what little trust she’d managed so far. Since she already knew he was part of the local law enforcement, she at least maintained her cool with that piece of knowledge.
“How neat.” Sounding calm when absolutely sinful eyes gazed down at her proved a hell of a lot harder to do than it should have. Her heart pattered too fast in her chest, and her palms
grew damp, making her itch to rub them against the sides of her short dress.
Kylie fought not to show any signs of being affected under his incredibly scrutinizing stare. Heat flamed to life inside her, but she held her ground, not doing as much as even shifting her weight from one foot to the next. “I never did get your name,” she said, turning her attention to the girl and meeting those alert gray-green eyes head-on.
“Dani,” she said.
“Let’s go, girls,” their uncle growled, and quickly herded them away from Kylie; then glancing over his shoulder, he pinned her with dark, intense eyes that sent chills over her enflamed body. “I didn’t know college students drove around in rentals.”
“You do now,” she offered, and turned away from him toward her car before she lost her composure. He’d run her tag after seeing her in the mall parking lot. Interesting.
Chapter 3
“Unit Seven, what’s your ten twenty?”
Perry grabbed the two-way radio from the clip where it hung on his dash.
“I’m headed back in,” he said on the radio. “I just passed the Eighteenth Street Expressway.”
“We’ve got a head-on collision at Forty-seventh Street and Fontana. Possible drunk driver. He ran from the scene of the crime.”
“I’ll be ten ninety-seven in minutes. What direction is our suspect headed?” Perry switched lanes and accelerated toward the accident scene.
“Northeast and on foot.”
“I’m heading into that neighborhood now.” Perry put the radio on its hook on the dash and turned right at the next intersection. The small tract homes lining either side of the street were predominantly rentals, some duplexes and others single dwellings. It was a neighborhood mixed with college students and families with small children, affordable housing for those starting out in life.
The radio chirped on his dash: “Suspect is reported heading northeast on Elledge Road.”
Perry pulled his Jeep to a stop on the neighborhood street and stuck his Bluetooth in his ear. He forwarded his private cell to the earpiece and jumped out of his car, heading down the block on foot. His phone rang and he pressed the small button to acknowledge the call.
“Flynn, where are you?” It was Barker, and she sounded out of breath.
“On Elledge. Do you have a visual?”
“He ran in between a couple houses. I’m calling in for more backup. He’s a white male, late teens, blue jeans, and red baggy T-shirt. Dark hair, shoulder length.”
“Ten four.” Perry walked quickly up the street, looking in between each house. “East or west side of the street?”
“West.”
“Roger that. Where are you?”
“I see you. I’m on the corner. He disappeared about four houses up from me. He runs a lot faster than I do.”
Perry snorted. Barker was in pretty good shape. He continued glancing in between houses as he worked his way up the block and spotted a cruiser heading slowly down the next street. Pausing at a double driveway, he thought he saw something move behind overgrown hedges that ran the length of the property line. At the same time, the sound of children laughing grabbed his attention.
“Shit, Barker,” he hissed under his breath. “Kids in the yard. And I think I see our guy.”
“Crap. Not in the same yard?”
“How intoxicated is our man?” Perry asked, glancing at both homes on either side of the double driveway.
“I arrived at the scene and walked up to his car when he bolted. The man in the other car that was struck said the kid never got out of his car. He stayed in his car, too, and dialed nine-one-one.” She wasn’t at the end of the block anymore, but her voice was clear in his ear. “Do you see him?”
“Stand by,” Perry whispered, reaching the end of the hedges and moving behind them. A chain-link fence lined the property line, and the unruly hedge grew along it. There wasn’t much space to crawl behind the bushes, and the hedge grew on both sides of the fence. It offered a natural blockade to prevent neighbors who lived on top of each other from seeing into each other’s private lives. Perry dropped to his knees and squinted past branches and leaves. “I see him,” he whispered. “He’s toward the backyard and we’ve got children at play.” Perry stood and glanced at the front of the house. “The address is Sixty Ten. Get down here and have those kids pulled inside. I’m going after him.”
“Ten four.”
Perry palmed his gun at his waist. He didn’t want to use it. Not with children laughing and playing. Their young voices sounded happy and innocent. He moved silently, coming closer toward where the suspect squatted behind the hedges, and where the children played. Before Perry reached the back of the house, he heard a car pull up on the street. He glanced over his shoulder, noting the squad car before returning his attention to the hedges. He bent over, caught sight of the man’s shoes and legs at the same time that a woman appeared from the back side of the house.
“Oh God,” she screamed, surprised to see Perry and clasping her hands over her mouth.
“Get your kids inside,” Perry ordered, pointing to his badge on his belt.
The woman dropped her attention to his waist and her eyes widened as she froze and turned pale.
“Do it now,” he ordered.
At the same time the man leapt out from behind the bushes, racing toward the children, who immediately started screaming. The woman screamed, too. Backup raced up the driveway behind him. Perry leapt at the man.
He grabbed the man at the waist, but his wiry frame twisted in Perry’s grip.
“Get your kids inside!” Perry yelled at the woman. He didn’t focus on the cops who appeared in the yard and hurried toward the children, or on the woman as she started screaming and crying at the same time, adding to the noise the children were making. The young man slid out of Perry’s grip and shifted his direction, no longer running toward the kids but instead racing toward the back of the yard. “Police!” Perry yelled. “Stop now!”
Perry watched the punk leap at the privacy fence bordering the backyard and then manage to pull himself up and fall over the top to the other side.
“Son of a bitch,” Perry hissed under his breath, following suit and hoisting himself over the fence. Goddamn. He wasn’t as young as he used to be.
The man fell in a crablike position but managed to pull himself to his feet, tripping twice as he bolted toward the house facing the next street.
“You’re making it worse for yourself,” Perry yelled at the man. “Stop, now, or you’ll face more charges.” He wasn’t surprised that the man ignored him.
Perry dropped to the ground on the other side of the fence. He wracked all the muscles in his body as his hands and knees scraped over the uneven, hard-packed ground. The coolness against his palms did little to stop the stinging that zapped up his arms and from his legs to his hips. He would lecture himself later about staying in shape. Right now, he’d be damned if this punk would get away. Nothing pissed Perry off more than terrifying small children when moments before they’d been laughing and yelling at one another without a care in the world.
The man raced toward the driveway between houses while dogs barked furiously inside each house. A car turned and pulled into the driveway. Perry watched the driver’s expression contort with terror. He accelerated instead of hitting the brake and the man couldn’t turn around quickly enough. Perry grabbed his phone as he watched the guy leap backward and fall on his back when the car hit him. The guy driving found his brake and slammed it hard enough to lock his tires. The driver stared in shock out his windshield while white-knuckling his steering wheel. Immediately a squad car pulled up behind the idling car in the driveway.
“Take it easy,” Perry said quietly, placing his hand on the guy’s shoulder when he tried rolling over.
“Fuck you!” the man grumbled, and then moaned when he again tried rolling over.
“Suspect is down,” Perry informed Dispatch, and then stood, walking toward the front of the house to find an
address. “We’re going to need an ambulance.”
Barker walked around the side of the house and grinned smugly as she moved to his side. “You’re pretty impressive for a man close to forty,” she said under her breath, and glanced up at him with an invitation in her eyes.
It was an invite he’d never accept. “You need help getting statements from everyone?” He didn’t bother telling her he was thirty-three, not close to forty. There wasn’t any reason to dwell on personal information with her, or anyone on the force.
She squeezed his biceps and gave him a quick onceover. There was definitely approval on her face. “What? And let you do all the work?” She met his gaze and lowered her voice. “I have no problem jumping in and getting dirty to get the job done, darling.”
Perry nodded. Anything he said would simply encourage her. There were as many cops on the scene now as there were civilians. This time Perry walked around the block back toward his Jeep, nodding to the ambulance driver when he came around the corner. Perry paused at the middle of the block, spotting the mother of the small children, who now stood talking to her neighbor at the end of the hedge dividing their yards. She sounded shaken but okay. Perry picked up pace toward his Jeep.
He paused when he reached for his door handle, frowning and staring over the roof. A green hybrid was parked across the street in a narrow driveway. Perry instantly recognized the tags—those registered to Enterprise. Dani had told him Kylie was a college student at KU, working on a thesis about teenagers as a subculture. He imagined that would make for an interesting paper; his nieces definitely lived in a world of their own.
Perry opened his car door and leaned against it, taking his time studying the hybrid, the narrow driveway, and the small home. Although it wasn’t quite evening, the blinds in the house were all closed. The yard was neat, though, with patches of dirt breaking up thick clumps of grass, typical of the many yards on this street. The house was probably a rental. Most on this street were government housing or rented to private individuals. It was an affordable alternative to living in an apartment and not unusual for college students to be found living here, although not many who attended KU, which was half an hour drive from here.
Strong, Sleek and Sinful Page 4