Danny shrugged. “I always thought I’d be the one to go first, you know?”
“Yeah. In our line of work, odds aren’t exactly great for us to reach retirement age.”
Danny grunted. “You didn’t come here to chew the fat with me. What are your questions?”
Jordan didn’t take offense at the man’s gruffness; he figured that was just part of his personality. He’d seen too much, lived through some bad stuff and watched his wife die. The man had a right to be a little rough around the edges, he supposed. But he couldn’t just let it go. “You think God’s finished with you? That you don’t have purpose anymore?”
Danny stilled. Then took a sip of the drink. “Funny you should say that.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I was just wondering that very thing last night.”
“So you believe in God?”
“More now than I used to. My wife was a believer.” He shook his head. “She didn’t want to leave me, but had no doubts where she was going when she took her last breath.”
“I’m glad you can take comfort in that.”
“I do. Not everyone can say the same for someone they’ve lost.”
Jordan thought about Neil. While his brother had made some really rotten choices toward the end of his life, he’d given his heart to God at a middle school summer church camp. Jordan had no doubt that Neil was in heaven; he just wished he hadn’t gone quite so soon.
He shoved thoughts of Neil away and focused on the man next to him. “But the Lord’s left you here. Guess there might be a reason for that.”
“Might be.”
“And that reason might have something to do with Lucy Randall.” He phrased it as a statement and waited.
A heavy sigh escaped the man and he rubbed a callused hand over his eyes. “It might.”
Jordan took a stab in the dark. “Why don’t you tell me what’s been bothering you for the last fourteen years?”
Danny jerked like he’d been shot.
Bull’s-eye.
Danny stared at him a minute, then finished his drink. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“To my truck, where we can’t be overheard because the conversation we’re getting ready to have never happened. Understand?”
“Gotcha.”
Jordan followed Danny out to the man’s oversized pickup truck. He had a fishing rod hanging on the gun rack on the back window of the king cab. Jordan climbed in the passenger seat and shut the door.
Danny cranked the truck and turned the heat on, but didn’t move to put it in gear. “Ask me your questions.”
“What is it you don’t want to tell me? What are you afraid of?”
Danny barked a harsh laugh. “I’m not afraid of anything, son. Fear isn’t keeping my mouth shut. Haven’t you ever heard of a thing called loyalty?”
Jordan blinked. “Loyalty? To whom?”
*
Katie glanced at her watch and headed for her car. She was running later than she’d expected, especially with Gregory harassing her about needing an escort to wherever she was going.
She felt bad about putting him off, but she needed to talk to Frank, and Frank obviously didn’t want an audience. If she had someone with her, he might clam up and she’d never learn what he wanted to tell her. However, she could let Jordan know what was going on. She shot him a text and waited for it to send.
Glancing around, she wondered if she was being watched, if someone planned on following her. With a shudder, she climbed into her vehicle.
If someone followed her, she and Frank would take care of it. Thirty-eight-year-old Norman Rhames hadn’t had a chance. The medical examiner’s off-the-record deduction had been that in all likelihood Rhames died from the gunshot to the back of his head. The lack of defensive wounds on his hands said he hadn’t put up a fight. Katie wondered if he’d trusted whoever it was that had killed him.
Possibly.
But it wasn’t the same person who’d killed Wesley Wray, because that had happened while the man was locked up.
She checked the area one last time. Gregory waved to her and stood watching with a frown on his face as she pulled from the gravel edge of the highway and merged with the traffic.
Nerves danced along the top of her skin and she kept her eye on the rearview mirror.
*
Jordan sat back as the answer hit him. “Loyalty to your former partner. Frank Miller.”
“Yeah. Frank.”
“What was Frank’s problem?”
Danny ran a hand over the gray stubble on his chin. “His problem was his personal life. More specifically, his wife and family.”
Jordan nodded. “It happens.”
“His wife was going to leave him. Gave him the whole line of grief about how he’s always working and never home, yada yada.”
“I feel for him. He sure didn’t need that on top of the stress of the job.” Jordan shook his head. Not every officer’s wife felt that way, but too many of them did and those in law enforcement had a high rate of divorce.
Danny seemed to relax a fraction at Jordan’s understanding words. “Well, she wasn’t a prize when he married her, but she was a looker, and I guess that’s what attracted him to her.”
Jordan thought about Katie’s beauty. While he appreciated the outward package, it was her heart and inner beauty that drew him like a magnet. “So Frank was a bit distracted from the investigation.”
Danny nodded. “Distracted is a kind word. It was weird, too, because he pushed for the case. It had originally been assigned to two other detectives, but Frank wanted it. The other detectives sure didn’t care. As overloaded as we all were, they gladly passed it on to us.”
“Why was that?”
“He said he needed all the work he could get. Said he couldn’t shut his brain off so he might as well do some good.” Danny rubbed his chin. “And he did. He worked a ton of hours, slept at his desk, solved a lot of cases.”
“But not Lucy Randall’s.”
“No. Not Lucy’s.” He frowned. “I’d never seen Frank so messed up. He finally told me what was going on. His wife had filed for divorce six months prior and then just four months before we got Lucy’s case, his niece drowned at summer camp. Frank loved that little girl like she was his own. His sister and her husband had let him stay with them until he could get set financially, and he and Jenny really bonded during that time.”
Danny took a swig of his drink and sighed. “He and his wife didn’t have any kids, which turned out to be a good thing in the end. So not only was he struggling with the demise of his marriage, but his sister turned into a raving madwoman, wild with grief.”
Jordan swallowed and pinched the bridge of his nose, his heart going out to the man. “That’s awful.”
His phone vibrated, indicating a message. He’d check it in just a minute. He didn’t want to do anything to cause Danny to clam up.
Danny said, “I told him to focus on the case, that if he just put all of his energy into solving Lucy’s kidnapping, he could get his mind off of his troubles for a while.”
“Did it work?”
“Seemed to. For a while.” Danny chewed a toothpick and stared out the window.
“What else?”
A heavy sigh left the man. “We questioned a witness, and she talked about a car being at the scene.”
“A gray sedan?”
Danny lifted a brow. “Yes. I documented it and put it in the report, then in the file. The next day it was gone. When I asked Frank about it, he just shrugged and said he didn’t know what I was talking about. I documented it again and put it back in the file. A week later it was gone again. I demanded an explanation, and Frank dodged it. Said he didn’t know and to quit bugging him about it.”
“What’d you do?”
“I dropped it for the moment. We weren’t getting anywhere on the case, anyway. Didn’t seem like a big deal.”
Jordan pulled out the picture Mrs. McKin
ney had given him, then the ones taken the day of the kidnapping. “Take a look at this.” He handed Danny Mrs. McKinney’s picture. “This was shot a few days before Lucy was taken. The lady who took this picture spent a lot of time outside while the car was parked there. On this particular day, it was her son’s birthday and they’d given him a skateboard. He was out there having a blast while his mom took pictures to put in her scrapbook.” He handed him another picture. “This was taken by the crime scene photographer the day of the kidnapping.”
Jordan tapped the photo. “This is one of the officers’ vehicles. It’s parked in the drive, but tell me that’s not the same car in both pictures. The one on the street and the one in the drive.”
Danny set them side by side and studied them for a full minute. “Yeah, they could be.”
“The woman who took this picture said that the car behind the kid was parked there for hours at a time for two weeks. She even called the cops and they blew her off.”
Danny looked at the pictures again. “It looks familiar.” He swallowed hard. “That’s a cop car.”
“That’s what I thought. I just want to know which cop was driving it.”
His phone buzzed and he checked the caller ID. “I gotta take this. Why don’t you see if you can pull the driver of that car from your memory.”
Danny grimaced and Jordan turned his attention to the caller. “Seth, what do you have for me?”
“You wanted a connection between Mr. Wray and Mr. Rhames and I’ve got one for you.”
Excitement quickened his pulse. “What is it?”
“The only connection I could find is that they have the same arresting officer.”
*
Katie pulled into the parking lot of the warehouse and cut the engine of her rental. Gregory pulled in behind her and she rolled her eyes.
Katie slipped her phone into the back pocket of her jeans and walked up to Gregory. “What are you doing?”
“I was concerned.” He crossed his arms and frowned down at her. “You wouldn’t tell me where you were going. I was concerned.”
“Look—” She had to get rid of him. If Frank showed up, he’d be mad as fire. And she might never learn what he knew about Lucy. “I need you to disappear for a while. I’m meeting a CI and I don’t want you scaring him off.”
“A confidential informant? For which case?”
“Which case do you think?”
The light went on for him. “Ah.”
“Now go, will you?” She glanced at her watch. “He’ll be here any minute.”
“Are you sure? Let me stay as backup.”
“I don’t need backup with this one.” She hesitated. “All right. But get out of sight, will you?”
Relief crossed his features. “Okay.”
He left and Katie leaned against her vehicle. She checked her phone. No response from Jordan. That was weird. She texted him again.
A black sedan pulled into the parking lot. Frank pulled up beside her and climbed from his car.
“I guess this is as private a place as any,” she said.
Frank shook his head. “Move your car out of sight. I’m going to do the same. I don’t need someone saying they saw us meeting.”
Katie sighed and dropped her arms. “Fine.”
Once the vehicles were moved to Frank’s satisfaction, he said, “Let’s go inside, I’m freezing.”
Her phone buzzed and she pulled it from her pocket. Frank looked back. She said, “It’s a text from Jordan wanting to know if I’m all right. We must have crossed texts.”
“So tell him you’re fine. You’re a cop, Katie, and you act like you need a babysitter.”
Katie’s head shot up. “Someone’s tried to kill me, Frank. Not once, but several times. Excuse me for appreciating friends who want to help look out for me.”
Frank shrugged and entered the warehouse. Katie rolled her eyes and followed.
*
Jordan tucked his phone back into his pocket once he finished the call with Seth and checked for any messages from Katie.
Meeting a CI at warehouse on Buckley. Says he has info on Lucy. Will call when I’m done.
Satisfied she was still all right, Jordan processed what he’d just learned. Before he told Danny what Seth had just revealed, he wanted an answer from Danny. He pushed. “Whose car, Danny?”
“I can’t say for sure.”
“But it looks like…” He waited.
Danny slammed a fist on the steering wheel. “Frank’s, all right? It looks like the car Frank and I used to drive.”
Jordan pulled his phone back out and texted Katie, asking her who the CI was. Then he decided to forget the texting and dialed her number. When he got her voice mail, he said, “Frank knows more about Lucy’s kidnapping than he’s letting on. Be careful and let me know you got this message.” He looked at Danny. “I just learned that Frank was one of the many arresting officers of Wesley Wray and Norman Rhames. Both of whom are dead.”
“That’s odd.”
“Very. Everything is coming back to Frank Miller and I want to know why. Call him and tell him you need to meet him.”
“No.”
“Do it or you’ll go down as an accessory.”
“Accessory? Accessory to what?”
“Kidnapping.”
“Kidnapping! He didn’t take that girl. Sloppy police work maybe, but not kidnapping. You’re crazy!”
Jordan leaned in. “I don’t know if he took her or not, but I think he did.” He shrugged. “Even if I’m wrong and he didn’t take her, he covered up something in relation to it and you helped him. Now call him!”
Danny flexed his fingers on the wheel, then reached for the phone he’d tossed in the cup holder. He dialed the number.
“Put it on speaker.”
“It’s his number.”
“Just put it on speaker and do it now.”
Danny did. Frank’s voice came on the line. As a message. “You know what to do.” Beep.
Danny hung up.
Jordan sighed. “Call his office, please.”
Danny dialed the number. Voice mail again.
Jordan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Will you show me where Frank lives?”
“Yeah. You want to follow me?”
“That would be great, if you won’t try to lose me.”
Danny shot him a perturbed look. “I won’t.” But he didn’t move.
“What is it?”
“You really think Frank had something to do with that kidnapping?”
“It looks that way.”
Danny swallowed hard and looked at the streetlight. “I thought he was just stressed out. He wouldn’t have any reason to kidnap a kid. Where would he keep her?”
“Let’s see if he’s home. When we find him, we can ask him.”
Jordan climbed out of the truck and into his vehicle. His mind centered on Katie and what her reaction would be if Jordan was right. He sent her another text asking her to call when she could, then pulled out onto the two-lane road to follow Danny.
*
Katie looked around. The warehouse had been empty for about four months. She remembered when this particular shoe business shut down. The machines still stood as though frozen in time. Or waiting for someone to start them up again.
Crates and boxes stacked to the ceiling had letters and numbers on them that probably meant something to the previous workers.
“Frank? You find anything?” She spun to look behind her, wondering where he’d gone.
A loud crack sounded and sparks flew from the nearest machine. Stunned, yet moving on reflex, Katie dove behind the nearest stack of crates. “Frank! Are you okay?”
Katie yanked her weapon and her phone. Fumbled the phone and watched it skitter under the crate. She dropped to her knees and shoved a hand after the device. Her fingers found it as another bullet pierced the wood about chest high.
“Frank! Frank, are you all right?”
When he didn’t answer,
Katie’s blood ran cold. Had something happened to him? Was he lying hurt? But both shots had been in her direction. Had she been followed to the warehouse? With a smooth move, she slid the phone from under the crate and into her palm. She pressed 911.
The phone rang, then the call dropped.
“Stupid metal buildings,” she muttered.
Her ears strained to hear the slightest noise that would indicate her attacker was near. She needed to move. She needed to find Frank.
“Katie, I’m over here.”
Katie headed in the direction of his voice.
SIXTEEN
Jordan pulled to the curb behind Danny and climbed out of his car. Danny walked up to the door and rapped on it.
Nothing.
“Use your key,” Jordan said. It was a wild guess, but one he was gratified to see paid off. Danny lifted a brow, then without another word, flipped the keys on his chain to the one that fit the door.
He pushed the door open and Jordan stepped inside. Neatness and order greeted him.
“I’m only doing this because if you’re right, then I’ve been aiding a kidnapper all these years.”
Jordan grunted. “You didn’t know.”
“I knew something was up, but I didn’t bother to find out what.”
True, the man had let things slide, but if he’d been aware of the real story, he would have probably done things differently.
And Lucy Randall might have grown up with her family.
Jordan pushed those thoughts aside and started looking for something…anything…that would give him a hint about what Frank had done with Lucy. “You going to help me search?”
“Yeah.” The big man sighed and started down the hall. He disappeared into the first bedroom on the left.
Jordan searched the den, scoped the kitchen, then walked down the hall to the bedroom Frank had set up as an office.
A big executive-type desk sat against one wall with a leather chair pushed to the side, like Frank had just gotten up to get a cup of coffee and would be right back. His laptop screen saver flipped family pictures. Jordan jiggled the mouse.
The screen saver disappeared and a box popped up asking for a password.
Jordan left the computer and went for the drawers, checking his phone. No return text from Katie yet.
“You know if we find anything, it’s not going to be admissible in court.”
Love Inspired Suspense December 2013 Bundle: Christmas Cover-UpForce of NatureYuletide JeopardyWilderness Peril Page 16